Trucking Buffalo

by Bruce Jackson

Trucks, trucks, trucks. The Peace Bridge expansion project is all about trucks. Truck traffic on the Peace Bridge is up as a result of NAFTA and it is expected to increase in decades to come. Passenger car traffic, on the other hand, is down, and is expected to decline even more when the new border personal identification requirements go into effect. The border is ever less friendly to people, more friendly to raw materials and manufactured goods.

by Rob Brezsny

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In China’s Zhejiang province, many of the cities specialize in making a single product. For example, Datang township manufactures one-third of all the world’s socks. Wenzhou creates 70 percent of the cigarette lighters on the planet, and Songxia has cornered the market on umbrellas, churning out 350 million per year. I’m not necessarily saying that you should copy their approach, Libra. But if you have recently had inklings about cultivating a certain specialty you’d love to pursue with more intensity, the coming weeks will be an ideal time to set that process in motion.

by Chuck Shepherd

■ In the northern Albanian countryside, about 40 women still practice an ancient tradition as “sworn virgins,” who are young females who renounce sex forever in exchange for being treated as men, according to an August Washington Post interview of Elvira Dones, an Albanian native who recently completed a documentary on the subject. The oath is usually taken in front of a town’s elders, and the likeliest candidates come from homes in need of a male head of household (because of death or abandonment). Even in such a male-dominated society, according to Dones, men seem to accept the “sworn virgins” as equals.

Block Club

by Peter Koch

Kathleen and Anthony Mecca have lived in their comfortable, three-family home on Columbus Parkway for 34 years, watching the neighborhood experience the ups and downs of change while working to keep its fabric strong.

In Exile: Maung Thara

by Ken Ilgunas

Tucked away in a humble retirement complex on the West Side of Buffalo is 77-year-old Burmese refugee and prominent author Maung Thara. A prolific writer, Thara has published more than 60 novels and 300 short stories since the 1950s, including Standing in the Road, Sobbing, which won the Burmese national book award in 1970. In 1988 his books were banned for content deemed controversial by the Orwellian regime that remains in power today.

The Invisible Stuff

by Aaron Lowinger

A chainsaw’s God’s way of evening out the playing field between you and everything, even the invisible stuff.

A Visual Feast: Duo

by Marla Crouse

Duo is designed for those seeking a night out, but you have to be ready for it. Women, wear your fun, sexy dress that hangs in the closet most nights, and guys, grab something sharp and you’ll fit right in. Duo is all about the details, so don’t forget your adornments: You’ll want to sparkle.

Hell and Damnation for Fun, Profit

by Thomas Dooney

This year Alleyway’s calendar features Buffalo Hell House, a Halloween extravaganza that promises gore as well as pointed humor. Todd Warfield, Alleyway’s designer in residence and the director of this project, and his Halloween tricksters will haunt a loft space one block north of the Theatre District, on the second floor above Rick’s Cycle Shop and DC Theatricks. It is a specially selected destination with a project of distinctive origins.

Some Men

by Anthony Chase

For me, it’s as if Tennessee Williams handed us a play and said, ‘Go do it,’” says actor Jimmy Janowski, who is currently starring in Terrence McNally’s Some Men for BUA. “If you name the top living American playwrights, Terrence McNally is right up there.”

Power(ful) Play

by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

Fans attending Sabres games this homestand have been treated to an offensive clinic, as the team has piled on the shots on net and have created scoring chances, including on the power play.

I just found out that I’m pregnant, with a boy. I don’t believe in circumcision, but my husband does, and so do our families. If I refuse to circumcise him, will he end up psychologically scarred for life? Do my wishes trump my husband’s here, or do we have to decide 50-50? —Occam’s Razor