ONONDAGA NATION — In the hands of craftsman Alf Jacques, wood bends and changes in ways it won’t for other men. From logs of pale, white hickory, he conjures beauty, grace. He splits, steams and shapes the timber until something exquisite emerges–something that gleams. Jacques, 63, is a famed maker of wooden lacrosse sticks. He [...]
Read more...BUFFALO, N.Y. — Curious shoppers may notice a peculiar new offering at certain Wegmans seafood counters this summer: fillets of the cownose ray, a square-snouted species of stingray. Tender and surprisingly beefy, cuts of the rose-hued meat can be strung onto kabobs bejewelled with pineapple chunks, or cooked Creole-style, swimming in tomato sauce and a [...]
Read more...
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The crowd—dancing, cheering, laughing—was exuberant. But it was more than joy that the 200 or so revelers shared as they convened at Holy Cross Church on Maryland Street last Saturday—July 9—to celebrate the birth of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation. Memories held these people together. Many were from South Sudan, and [...]
Read more...
AMHERST, N.Y. — The winemaking rituals are an heirloom from the Old Country, an artifact of the world Luigi Aloisio left behind when he sailed for America in 1939. Every step is labor-intensive, from the washing and tightening of heavy, oak barrels to the stemming of grapes. The recipe is simple [...]
Read more...
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The pigeon shit is everywhere. It’s in the belly of the church, beneath the cracked cathedral ceiling, carpeting the floor of the nave where wooden pews once stood. It’s in the choir loft. On a narrow flight of steps ascending skyward to the bell tower, the droppings have accumulated in a lining [...]
Read more...
BUFFALO, N.Y. — St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1908, is one of 14 churches the eight-county Catholic Diocese of Buffalo closed in the 1990s. Like business, factories and other landmarks across the city, the house of worship fell victim to the region’s declining population.
Read more...