Something happend and my digital reflection got distorted by more than a 01001 basis. I am going to have to reconfigure before the dance.

So, I was searching for links to stuff on elmwood and I ran into this guy's photography site.

He has some really good images from the Elmwood Art Festival, Arizona, Toronto, Pitzburg, Old Fort Niagara, etc. Check out one of the pics below. I invited him to start a jounral on our site. Hopefully, he will respond and we can see more of his talented work in the months to come.

For once, I am posting something especially elmwood related. I am eating at Panos and I have to say they have really come a long way since the 90s, when Sara used to work here.

It used to be a semi greasy-spoon sort of like the Towne restaurant but more selection. Now they have a fancy rug, a wood finished surface on the walls, nicer lighting, and best of all a totally new menu. The old stuff is still there but now you can eat things like scallops and rack of lamb. They also have fried calamari both tasty Greek style and Buffalo style for about $6. Its actually a big portion.

The buffalo style Calamari is weird. It really seemed like a good idea but not once it was in my stomach. Terry, the freakin cheapskate won't let me get my calamaris. Whatever, debt ration crap.

This leads me to think its time for a serious job change. Being a professor is fun and all but there is seriously no money there. This is my game plan for 2004 (new job * leave buffalo + less cancer risk) + increased calamari = happy paul.


Here is a link to a map of the location -


Check this out, they actualy sprinkle spices around the edge of the plate.



This guy named Bill Rapaport, who has a restaurant review site gave them a bad review which ended with: I was also surprised to find out that they don't make Texas hots any more--Panos used to have his own "secret recipe", and the stuff was quite amazing. They don't even serve hot dogs. Overrated--Overpriced--Underachieving food--Service was slow."

I have to say I personally am glad they put the hot dog business behind them, and I expect they will make a lot more money now. Bill, you need to put the hot dogs down and spent the time updating your site out of the early 1990s look. Get with the time.

So do you ever go swimming at Zoar valley. We have for years, playing in the mud at the banks and camping in the forest. Eat food cooked on the wood, etc. Well it just happens to be down stream from a nuclear Waste dump that makes the cancer sources in Tonawanda look like nothing.

Here is a site with lots of information

My favorite are the lagoons. . .


Several lagoons are still used to hold liquids with a short half-life. When the fluids meet government regulated safety standards they are released into nearby streams. Streams that I swam in a lot.

Did you play in any of these places around Woodward and Military in Kenmore. I did - very often, I used to dig in the dirt and hide around this building. I turns out that it was radioactive after all. I really played here. No kidding, ten years long.

We knew that we were not supposed to go there. But as a young kid, we thought it was because it was private property and not because it made us sick. Its not like I lived in the neighborhood and happend to be second-hand exposed. I actually played on these piles of toxic death.

Does any one else rememeber them? Believe it or not I have an actual photo of me playing here in the mid eighties. I will post it as soon as I scan it.

The photo of the guy in a space suite is at Linde/Praxair. I actually worked there n the mid 90s when they were digging this shit up and saw these people in space suits while sitting at a picnic tabel during my lunch break.

I talked to my father who assured me that it's ok. And that short term exposure is not so bad, even though I lived there for 18 years and played there for all my formative years, not to mention working there.

Here are some pictures so you know where I am talking about below and here are links to more.

F.A.C.T.S. is a non-governmental, non-profit, public interest organization located in the Western New York area. F.A.C.T.S. was recognized by the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) as a "community coalition" stakeholder during the required public review process to select a "final" cleanup plan for several Tonawanda, NY properties that were recklessly contaminated with thousands of tons and millions of gallons of Manhattan Project radioactive wastes produced by a dirty wartime uranium refinery that operated in the Tonawanda area in the 1940s.