I have spoken before of my undying respect for the city of buffalo and its inhabitants. last night's event confirmed everything I love most about that happy little place.


geoffrey and I are home alone again. the m.u. is in the sault for the weekend and the p.u. is in phoenix until tomorrow. last night, g-blob went out to play midnight hockey, as he does most nights, and I told him to be back at a reasonable hour. he put up a spirited resistance until I threatened to call the cops if he did not pull into the driveway at 2:00am.


so when he came in at 12:30, I was a little puzzled. he came down to the basement and showed me his arm. there was a little round cut with what looked like a purple golf ball lodged under his skin. "I got shot," he said.


he and his friends were playing in the parking lot of the movie theater closest to us when they were hit by a bunch of punks in a drive-by shooting. this makes twice in two weeks - though last time they got our car with paintballs instead of shooting my baby brother with bb guns. but this time, said geoffrey, they weren't worried. a group of "ghetto kids" had come out to join them. after the shooting, one of them went to his car and said, "don't worry, guys. if they come back around, I'll hunt 'em down." and he pulled out a shotgun.


I wish I could say no one goes around shooting my brother and gets away with it, but that's not how things work. oh, how I love this city. paintballs, bb guns, shotguns, what next?