On September 4, Batavia City School Superintendent Margaret Puzio wrote a letter to City Manager Jason Molino. It begins:

Some weeks ago, you and I were part of a larger discussion regarding expanding usable playing fields and recreation areas for Batavia residents. At that time we talked about a long term plan that might include the development of our North Street property into an official recreation area. This would be a great benefit to the school district, the city, and the town. An added advantage would be to secure funds for this development through grant funding.

Included with the letter is a proposal for a "needs assessment"—a study to see if there is a real need for a recreation expansion—that would total $11,000. The school district offers to put up $5,500 to be matched by the city and town, which would pitch in $2,750 each. It seems implied that the recreation areas would be for use by everyone, not merely school students.

This letter is included in the City Council agenda for the meeting Tuesday. There is no indication that Council has already addressed this topic, and, in fact, earlier today, City Council President Charlie Mallow said he had asked Molino to add the item to the agenda so that Council can discuss it. They have not yet had that opportunity, he said.

In the letter, Puzio writes that "we will need to act quickly" in order to qualify for the grant funding that is available. "Please let me know," she writes, "the earliest date that you would be able to consult City Council to determine their willingness to proceed with a collaborative effort for our recreation needs."

Unfortunately, the schools and city offices are closed today. We left messages with Puzio, Molino and Town Supervisor Greg Post to find out more about that meeting in August and whether or not the city and town will consider pitching in. We would also like to find out more specifics about the expansion, should the city and town get on board.

The complete letter and proposal can be downloaded as part of the meeting agenda here.

For those of us who know, all of the commercials on television that tout the greatness of this or that fast-food patty have got it all wrong. No Wendy's or Burger King or MacDonald's slab can hold a candle to a real, fresh ground beef burger made from scratch.

When we first began to sample the culinary bounty of Batavia back in May, I was sure that I had found the best hamburger to be found at Jackson Street Grill. It was thick, grilled and seasoned almost the way my Italian grandfather would do it: as if it were a meatball.

Then, last week, I stopped by the Alabama Hotel for lunch and ordered their half-pound burger. It, too, was thick, grilled and seasoned to perfection. Plus it came with fresh-cut french fries. Now I don't know who has got the best. Nor have I tasted all that's out there.

So I turn to you, trusted readers, to help settle this age old debate once and for all: Who's got the best burger in Genesee County? Feel free to send us your photos as proof. Because a good-tasting burger is often a good-looking one, too.

It's all about the economy today in the Daily News. Hardworking reporter Joanne Beck logged no less than three front page stories today, all with a local look at how the current economic crisis is hitting home for folks in Batavia.

In one article, Beck chats with some downtown business owners about how they're faring "despite the recent stock market collapse." Chris Ariyaratnam, owner of the Main Street beauty salon Mane Attraction, told Beck that shoppers aren't "going to cut back."

"They're starting their Christmas shopping now," [said Ariyaratnam]. "I think they'll spend the same, but I think it will take longer. I think it's going to be OK."

Beck found much of the same mood among other downtown retailers and restaurateurs. Maybe they're not stocking as much, but their expectations of a good season are high.

In another article, "consumers" are given their turn to be optimistic despite the ongoing financial crises. Sherrity DiSanto told Beck:

"Short-term, I'm worried. But long-term, I think it will be picking itself back up. With gas prices going down and some sales, people's desire to shop will come back."

The optimism keeps on rolling in Beck's third article on the economy, in which she gets the advice of Dave Chua, a financial adviser with the Legend Group, "a retirement planning and investment company." Chua urges people to "remain still with where you are" and know that "it won't last forever." In particular, people looking for some extra cash shouldn't just dip into their retirement account. They should "explore other options."

Meanwhile, a wire story picked up from the Associated Press reads: "Debt clock out of digits." Apparently, it couldn't fit the "1" to indicate the nearly $10.2 trillion in national debt. Good news, though. We'll get a new clock in 2009 that "will be able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a "1" followed by 15 zeros."

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Recognitions keep on coming for Batavia's Graham Corp. The vacuum and heat transfer manufacturer has climbed 100 spots on the Forbes list of the 200 Best Small Companies and cracked the top ten, landing at No. 10 and boasting a 41 percent return on equity for the past 12 months. Forbes had this to say of the company:

Graham Corp., in Batavia, N.Y., makes pumps, condensers, vacuum and heat transfer equipment for heavy industry, especially oil refineries. Revenue increased 31% last year and the backlog 40%. The domestic, Canadian and Middle East markets are booming. The 72-year-old company has branched into Suzhou, China.

Graham got a nod from Business Week earlier this year, making the list of the fastest growing small companies.

We've got a call into Graham to get some comment from the company on the recognition. We'll be sure to pass that along as it comes to us.

Dawn M. Davis, 46, of Medina, was charged with driving while intoxicated and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance Sunday afternoon in the K-mart parking lot in Batavia, Genesee County sheriff's deputies said. Davis allegedly backed into a parked car in the lot. When deputies arrived they found that she had several pills in her pocket and she was under the influence. She was also ticketed with backing unsafely.

Christine E. Garland, 36, of 8069 Kelsey Rd., Batavia, was charged with driving while intoxicated early Sunday morning in Oakfield, deputies said. She was stopped by deputies on South Pearl Street. Garland was also ticketed with moving from the lane unsafely and insufficient tail lamps.

Not much news to report from WBTA this morning. Batavia's City Council will not meet tonight, since it is Columbus Day. They plan to convene instead Tuesday at 7:00pm at City Hall. This will be, I believe, the city's first business-only meeting. A conference meeting will be scheduled for later in the month. Only one resolution is on the agenda for Tuesday: acceptance of a $150,000 grant to replace city sidewalks.

I have a question. Perhaps this is mentioned somewhere on this site already. If so I apologize. How did TheBatavian develop? It's a great idea...just curious.

Please join the Genesee County Democratic Committee for an open house meet and greet this Thursday, October 16th from 5 - 7 PM at the Democratic headquarters.   The office is located at 10 City Centre (across from Sunny's). We are pleased to welcome all of our 2008 candidates -- with the exception of  the top of our ticket, Senator Barack Obama.

Alice Kryzan -26th Congressional candidate

Joe Mesi - 61st Senate candidate

Phil Jones -147th Assembly District candidate (representing the southern parts of Genesee County)

Judge John Michalek -Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice candidate

Judge Tracey Bannister -State Supreme Court Justice candidate

Judge Larry Stabell -Darien Town Justice candidate

Councilman Tom Stella -LeRoy Town Council candidate

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come by and meet the Democratic  candidates.    Refreshments will be served.

Obama/Biden lawn signs are now available beginning Monday at our office in the City Centre.  There is a great demand for signs and we will distribute first to our volunteers and folks that have come by and signed up ahead of time and then to the public on a first come first serve basis.

Greetings everyone! I'm new to running for a political position, but I am currently running for Genesee County Coroner. Thank you to many people who convinced me that I would be a great coroner and talked me into running this year!  I have a lot of background that would certainly follow along with this position and help me be most efficient at this job. My qualifications include:

Assistant to the Wyoming County Coroner for Tissue Recoveries for many years

Monroe County Medical Examiners Office Internship

BA in Biological Science from SUNY Brockport

Completed various forensic seminars and conferences

I hope that you will consider voting for me on the Conservative line in November.

Thank you!

Nicole Brady

 The Notre Dame football team is ready for playoff action.

The Fighting Irish wrapped up their regular season with a 48-14 win over visiting Elba/Byron-Bergen Saturday afternoon, and were nearly perfect in doing so.

The victory clinches a home playoff game in the first round of the Class D playoffs next Saturday, where ND will either be a No. 3 or No. 4 seed.

While Saturday's results were ugly, both on the field and off of it, Notre Dame's players are ready to go. They compiled 369 rushing yards compared to Elba/Byron-Bergen's 129.

Kevin Schildwaster racked up 129 yards and two scores on just eight carries and Mike Pratt added 92 yards on 14 carries.

Greg Barr finished with 12 carries for 58 yards with a TD and Gianni Zambito had four carries for 24 yards and two scores.

The Fighting Irish didn't pass the ball in the second half because of the blowout, but Nick Bochicchio had a solid effort, going 6-of-8 for 102 yards and a touchdown. Kevin Francis had that TD and caught four passes for 69 yards.

The Lancers actually opened the game with a touchdown on a great play. Elba/B-B made the surprising switch at starting QB from Eric Kowalik - who had been the starter for the past month - to Cody Torpey, who started at the beginning of the season.

Torpey had a nice game as signal-caller and kicked off the game's scoring with a 44-yard TD strike to 6-foot-6 receiver David Garnish, who made a finger-tip catch. 

The Lancers could be looking in the senior's direction more as the regular season wraps up.

Notre Dame got a 29-yard kickoff return from Zambito for solid starting field position on its opening drive.

The 1:30 drive which started at  midfield ended up leading to a 7-7 tie midway through the opening frame when Bochicchio pitched a ball up for Francis, who jumped over a defender to haul it in before jolting a few more yards to the end zone.

After Pratt recovered an Elba/B-B fumble, Notre Dame was back in business at the Lancer 7-yard line.

Schildwaster took it in from 7-yards out for the go-ahead less than a minute after the Irish had last scored. The faked extra point led to a two-point conversion pass from Schildwaster to Greg Barr.

Schildwaster later broke off a 48-yarder to set up a Beau Richter 1-yard TD run that gave ND a 22-7 lead after the opening frame.

After an Elba/Byron-Bergen punt, Bochicchio hooked up with Francis on a 29-yard pass to set up another Schildwaster TD run, this time for 10 yards.

The Lancers failed to move the ball again and failed to convert on a fourth-and-6 at their own 44.

Bochicchio hooked up with Rick Lair on a 27-yard pass inside the 5-yard line.

Zambito scored on a 3-yard touchdown run, and this is when the game got ugly. There was a personal foul called for a late hit after Zambito - who attended Elba before transferring to ND this year - scored.

Another penalty was issued as players were nearly ejected and some of the Elba/B-B fans started getting on the officials.

It was an ugly first half for the Lancers, who had six penalties for 84 yards.

The score was 34-7 at the half.

The Fighting Irish received the second half kickoff and marched 67 yards over nearly 10 minutes, with Barr scoring on a 1-yard run. 

The score remained 41-7 through three periods of play, but an unnecessary roughness call against the Lancers on a punt play pushed them deep into their own territory with another punt on the way.

The kick made it out to the Elba/B-B 40, and Pratt took it back to the 32.

Zambito scored a few plays later on a 10-yard scamper to finish up Notre Dame's scoring.

The Lancers tacked on a late touchdown with Zach Green ripping off a 67 yard touchdown run with seven minutes left in the contest.

 Elba/Byron-Bergen falls to 1-5 and is most likely eliminated from the Section 5 Class C playoffs, and will be in Pool Play.

Notre Dame is now 4-2 and will kick off the Class D playoffs on Saturday at home.

A couple of people have asked how to make friends ...

Well, I could recommend a good book, but on The Batavian, there are two easy ways.

First, go to the People link up top and scan all of the people who have registered and look for people you would like to be friends with, click on their names, go to their profile pages and you'll find a link that says "Add to Friends." Click that link and then click "Yes" on the next page.  You can go through that same process for as many people as you like.

The second method is to click on the "My Friends" link in the left-side navigation.  When you go to that page, you'll see a series of links across the top of your friends list that allows you to manage your friends (haven't we all been tempted to do that sometimes!).  There is one link called "Invite Friends."  You go use the form on that page to invite people you know, people you have an e-mail address for, to sign up for The Batavian and become your friend.

Also, a word about guestbooks: We've added the guestbook function so you have a more direct way to communicate with other members of the site. Guestbooks are not private messages, but they do allow for more direct communication (rather than, say, through a comment on a post).  I've already noticed one member has left a couple of messages like, "Hey, didn't I go to high school with you?"

I'm already having fun with the new "Friends" feature. I see other people are, too.  If you haven't tried it yet, please check it out.

Many of you noticed a week or so ago, we added a box on the left side of the site called "Our Towns" and we list links to the towns of Genesee County so you can view news for just those towns.

The links are proving very popular.

If you live in one of those towns and want to add any kind of news about your town to the site, here's how you do it.

1. You must be a registered users and logged into your account
2. When logged in, on the left side you will see a link called "Create Content." Click it.
3. Then click "Blog Entry."
4. Fill in the title field -- try to use a sentence to describe what you're going to post about.
5. In the tags field type the name of your town, such as "Bergen" or "Oakfield."
6. Write your post.

Note:  Step #5 is the key to getting your post to show up on the proper town page.

If we think your post is interesting beyond just your town, we'll add it to The Batavian's home page (front page).

If your post is about some church dinner, government meeting, fund-raising drive, birth or wedding, you can also have it show up on the "Announcements" page by tagging it (using that Tag field) as "announcements."  If the post is also about local sports, tag your post "sports."

What is news? Anything you find interesting and want to share with other people.

 When Tim Smith and Brad Riner embraced just moments after the Oakfield-Alabama football team had shocked visiting Pembroke in the final seconds to wrap up the Genesee Region League title, saying it was an emotional moment would be an understatement. 

The two tearful O-A stars literally left it all on the field and scored the final points in an amazing 25-24 victory in front of an estimated 2,500 fans.

Smith's story is well known.

He literally walked off the field in the middle of a game last season and quit on his team. But his teammates welcomed him back - and it was Smith that plunged into the end zone with 29 seconds left on the clock to put the Hornets down by one point.

The coaching staff initially wanted to kick the extra point and go into overtime, especially with Smith getting banged up on the touchdown run. But the O-A players made the call to go for two, and coach John Dowd let his players decide if they were going to win the Genesee Region League championship outright on a two-point conversion.

After burning a timeout because of some confusion, the Hornets lined up and gave the ball to Riner, who took a sweep to the left side of the line and dove into the end zone to give O-A the lead.

Riner wrapped up the league title (it is the first time the Hornets have won the title outright since Dowd has been coach) with an interception two plays later.

This was a typical Oakfield-Alabama/Pembroke game, a classic battle between the top two programs in the GR.

There was no smack talk on the field, no cheap shots ... nothing but a hard fought battle between two great teams.

Pembroke looked as if it was going to dominate early on as David Kleckler returned the opening kickoff 70 yards to set up an Andrew Wright 1-yard touchdown run less than a minute into the contest.

Neither team moved the ball after that in the first quarter and it was 7-0 after 12 minutes.

Wright put an end to the battle of the punters with a 41-yard run midway through the second quarter. Matthew Phelps nailed an impressive 39-yard field goal to put the Dragons up 10-0.

O-A started near midfield and quarterback A.J. Kehlenbeck rumbled for 17 yards to set up a Riner 6-yard TD run with about a minute left in the half, making the score 10-7 at the break.

After the second half started with defensive stops, Riner broke off a 16-yarder and Smith eventually scored from 3-yards out to give the Hornets a 14-10 advantage.

The Dragons seemed to have lost it at this point.

Three consecutive conservative rushing calls set up a fourth-and-8 at the Pembroke 30-yard line.

But Kleckler scrambled around for a little bit and launched a pass into the end zone, which was hauled in by Jacob Reeves. It is just the second reception he's had all season long.

Pembroke carried the 17-14 lead into the fourth.

Oakfield-Alabama's power rushing attack led to a 7-plus minute drive that allowed the score to be tied up when Jon Fisher kicked a 24-yard field goal.

On the ensuing drive, Kleckler scrambled for 32 yards and Mike Dibble rumbled for 14 yards, but two penalties in three plays put Pembroke in a tough situation.

The Dragons had a third-and-17 at the Oakfield 23-yard line.

Kleckler dropped back to pass and felt the pressure from O-A's defensive lineman, but he scrambled around for a couple of seconds and found tight end Ken Babcock at about the 5-yard line. Babcock took a few steps into the end zone and the Dragons led 24-17 with 2:42 left in the game.

Smith had a long kick return to midfield and O-A's longest run on the final drive was a 12-yard scamper by Riner.

The win means Oakfield-Alabama is now 6-0 and is league champions. Pembroke falls to 5-1.

With Le Roy's victory over Caledonia-Mumford tonight, O-A is still the No. 2 seed in Class C and Pembroke is at No. 3. 

The Dragons play Attica next week.

Here is a picture of my son and my Tesla Coil mind you it's very safe as long as you respect it's power and more of this can be found on my YouTube channle here

A picture one of many I took of that October storm we had awhile back

I took a time lapsed photo of the planet Jupiter well trying to anyways and when I took this photo is was pitch black out

The fire that happened on liberty street awhile back

Alice Kryzan can't do a thing about the attack ads the DCCC is running against Chris Lee, her her spokesperson Anne Wadsworth told me this evening.

Kryzan, she said, is not happy with the ads. They don't represent her, but campaign law prevents her from speaking with the arm of the DCCC financing and producing the ads.

Wadsworth said the DCCC probably did polling that suggested the line of attack that would work in the 26th District. She called them hard hitting and agreed the ads are negative.

Yesterday, I did a blog post about the candidate debate broadcast on WXXI and I didn't buy Kryzan's assertion that she hasn't run negative ads against Lee. I do agree that I am not aware of any attack ads funded by Kryazan.

I told Wadsworth that when I worked for a Democratic assemblyman in California, the state Democratic party didn't do anything with out the advice and conscent of the nominee, even while the candidate often disclaimed responsibility for some of the attacks launched in his name.  Wadsworth noted that campaign laws, particularly federal campaign laws, have changed a good deal in the past few years.  Kryzan is prohibited from even the slightest communication with the DCCC committee responsible for the ads.

OK, so let's assume the DCCC is savvy enough to find this blog post about its candidate. Here's my message: Grow up! Stop foisting on voters the negative attack ads and get in step with a candidate who clearly wants to promote a campaign based on issues and ideas.  Kryzan is the nominee primarily because she refused to associate herself with spiteful messages. Don't be idiots.

When I was involved in California politics, both as a reporter and a legislative aide, one of my great pleasures was to get to meet and know Lucy Killea. She is a political legend in California.  Alice in some ways reminds me of Lucy, and one of the hallmarks of Killea's entire political career was that she never once attacked an opponent.  She always ran on issues and ideas. To me, there are few things more admirable than a candidate who disclaims attack ads and runs on issues and ideas.

Now, don't get the idea I'm endorsing Kryzan.  I'm just saying, this is an admirable characteristic, one Chris Lee would do well to emulate for the remainder of the campaign, if not the rest of his political career (should he be fortunate enough to have one).

During our conversation, Wadsworth mentioned that Kryzan will be in Batavia tomorrow, walking precincts and she will make a campaign appearance for lunch at Larry's Steakhouse, the new restaurant on Main Street.  (FWIW: I had lunch there today and liked it).

Anne also mentioned something about Kryzan's site I hadn't paid much attention to before -- her photo journal from her campaign.  She invited use to use photos from the journal any time we like, which is where the photo for this post is taken from.  This is a nice use of the web by a campaign. Now, if we can just get Alice to blog.

So we've talked about the good eats at the Alabama Hotel, the fine meats at Alabama Holley Farms, the camels and the general sentiment in town that there ain't much to see, which I'm going to go ahead and ascribe to the maxim: you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Alabama is gorgeous. Maybe that's why folks say they've got not much to see. They don't want the rest of us cretins to go stomping through the splendor of it all.

At the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, they've got nearly 11,000 acres of pristine lands. Dorothy Gerhart told me they see about 264 species of birds pass through each year, most of which stay for at least a little while. Then there are the bald eagles that build their nests—some the size of a Buick—on site and only leave the refuge when everything freezes and are usually back by the end of January. Dorothy is the visitor services manager at the refuge.

Folks come to the refuge just to walk the trails, some come during hunting season for the waterfowl and game, some come in the middle of the winter for the ice fishing on the marshes. It truly is a bit of old country upstate.

Dorothy and I got to talking about all of the caterpillars in the road. I must have seen about a dozen of them down the half mile stretch to get to the visitor's center off Route 77. (Throughout the day, in fact, I'm sure I saw at least 30 of the suckers inching their way across the gravel.)

Dorothy told me that all of these woolybears, as they're called, are a sign that we may be setting in for an especially severe winter. I read much the same in the Farmer's Almanac. All of the extra berries on the trees, too, are such a sign, said Dorothy, that shows nature's own effort to take care of her own in the coming of a cold winter.

As for the other sights and sounds of Alabama, here's another video and some photos that should cover the rest of my trip. Enjoy.

Here's an especially regal-looking home on Lewiston Road:

Here are some sights from around town:

South Alabama is parked on a fine stretch of Route 63 bordered on either side by green flat land, trees, homes and ditches that stretch out in every other direction. There's a quaint old town hall not much more than a stone's throw from Route 77, which, north, takes you to the marsh and woodlands of the wildlife refuge—more on that later—and, south, into the rolling hills of Indian Falls—and I know that because I got lost down there for a little while after I missed a turn. No matter. It was a nice drive.

Anyhow, back to Alabama. My first stop was the town hall, which I later found out used to be an old schoolhouse. It was closed. Another fellow who had stopped by and found that out told me so. He also said, when I asked what there was to see in Alabama, that I should check out the meat market where folks come from all around to pick up a hock or a flank and the Alabama Hotel, which is no longer a hotel, only a restaurant that serves a good fish fry on Friday evenings, he's been told, and both places are on the same corner, acorss the street from each other, where Route 63 and Route 77 meet up for the second time at the flashing red light. Other than that, he said, there's not much else to see.

Most other folks that I saw said much the same.

Driving down Lewiston Road, after a stop at the wildlife refuge—more on that later—and after I stuffed myself full of a half-pound of seasoned ground beef and fresh-cut fries at the Alabama Hotel—oh so good—I nearly drove off the road and into a tree after I thought I saw... was pretty darned sure I saw: a camel. A dromedary, if I wasn't mistaken, just hanging out in a little dirt hole in the ground (literally) chewing cud.

You'll have to excuse me. Camels are a rare sight for me. I was giddy like a kid at the zoo for the first time when I saw it. Have you seen this camel before? Does anyone know his (or her) story? No one seemed to be around to tell me about it.

So, after the camel experience, I kept on down Lewiston Road until I spotted a sign for maple syrup. Now, for those who don't know, there's a rare delicacy known to a certain circle of bootlegger syrup makers and their fans as 'Grade B' maple syrup. This is the dark stuff, often black as molasses, that tastes like liquid maple sugar candy and makes your eyelids twitch. Unfortunately, it is kind of illegal, so you won't find it very often, unless you know where to look or happen upon a clever purveyor of the stuff who knows the tricks of the trade, so to speak.

This fellow didn't have that stuff, which is probably safer for him and me anyway, but he had crates full of quart jars of the fancy maple syrup for only $12 a jar. Just look for the sign on Lewiston Road if you're interested. Don't be intimidated by the sign on the door that reads: "Open Door and Yell." It means what it says, and it got me inside. Too bad that syruper Ken Howard wasn't up for a video interview today. At least he was kind enough to invite me to a tap run in the spring.

Tune in later this afternoon for part two of my adventures in Alabama.

Byron diary farmer Robin Keller, 39, has been elected the new president of the Genesee County Farm Bureau, according to the Daily News. Tom Rivers reports that Keller replaces Dale Stein, a Le Roy dairy farmer, who did not seek re-election after his four years in the position. Keller and her husband moved to the area a little less than a decade ago, looking to expand their dairy business.

"Genesee County was the ideal location for growing a farm business," she told Rivers.

Genesee County Legislature Chair Mary Pat Hancock told the Daily News that

the New York State Association of Counties is not going to sit back and allow the state to impose budget cuts without NYSAC having some say in how those adjustments are made and implemented.

County Manager Jay Gsell said that the current fiscal crisis on Wall Street could be an "opportunity for reform in Albany" by getting the state to cut back its "expenditures, jobs, services" and "unfunded state mandates"—what Paul Mrozek describes as "the albatross on the back of county governments."

Mothertime Marketplace will roll into St. Joseph's School this Saturday and Sunday. The consignment sale event that often includes everything from bedroom sets to books, will run from 10:00am to 5:00pm Saturday and from 10:00am to 3:00pm Sunday. Admission is $2 per day or $3 for both days. Some coupons are available at selected locations around the city. Visit Mothertime Marketplace online for more information. St. Joseph's School is located at the corner of Summit and East Main streets downtown.

We encourage you to pick up a copy of the Daily News at your local newsstand. Or, better yet, subscribe at BataviaNews.com.

Well folks, the way I see it, if the birds get to migrate, so should The Batavian. Don't get me wrong, I love our office in the Masonic Temple with its frosted glass windows and door, the antique radiator adorned in arabesque—that feel of the old shamus, Philip Marlowe, who keeps a cork-topped fifth of rye in the desk drawer and just sits and waits for the next dame to peek demurely through the crack of the door. Yeah, our office is nice.

Nevertheless, it's time for a change of scenery. Genesee County is a big beautiful place. Let's get out and see what she's got to show us. Since each town and village name speaks its own hidden secrets to me, its own individual promise of undiscovered treasure, there's only one way to do this: start at the top... of the alphabet, that is.

So on this, our first day of migration, I shall travel to Alabama. Don't know what I'll find there. Don't know what to expect. All I need is a place to sit, a place to eat and some folks to talk to about life and about whatever else folks talk about in Alabama.

Do you have any ideas where I should go? What are the must see sites of Alabama? Who's got the best BLT in town? Well... that's enough talk. Time to hit the road. Alabama, here I come.

"Social Networking" is a wonky term for the ability of people on a web site to connect with each other by, among other things, tagging each other as "friends."

We now have this "friends" feature on The Batavian.

Now you can go to a person's profile page and see all of their blog posts and comments, sign their individual guestbook and, if you want, invite that person to be your friend.

You can then go to your own profile page and look at your friend's activity.

This is a brand new feature on the site, so your feed back is welcome.

Over the next few days, I'll invite all registered users to be my friend -- this will make me, I suppose, a bit like Tom on MySpace, but we want to be sure everybody gets introduced to this new feature.