In the Christmas song “Walking in a Winter Wonderland”, I always wondered why the lovers perspired, as they dreamed by the fire. That sure must be some hot fire?

The seasons have turned again and if you’re among the fortunate folks take romantic walks in Buffalo’s winter wonderland, perhaps, you’re even luckier to perspire by the fire, or at least in the glow of a hollow plastic log with mylar tassels flickering past a light bulb.

Whether your fireplace is wood, gas or a plastic log, the ReSource has a nice collection of fireplace surrounds and mantels awaiting new homes with lovers to perspire in front of them.  Since space is limited here I will highlight a few exceptional pieces. The most impressive is a white oak mantel/surround decorated with Victorian spindles, dentil moldings, and two large, round, beveled mirrors. The oak is currently hidden under a coat of white paint but can easily be stripped again revealing the beautiful white oak.
Impressive for their sizes and details are a set of more colonial styled surrounds ranging from 8’ to 10’ in length. These are intricately assembled from white pine but like the white oak mantel they are slathered in various layers of paint and will probably require some refinishing. Not to be overlooked are the non-wood surrounds – personal favorites of mine. There are several complete or near complete sets of fireplace surrounds and mantels made of brownstone or shale. Most fascinating is the fact that they appear to have been chemically treated to make them look like marble, tiles or more expensive stones. It shows the up and coming attitude Buffalo once had when people made already pretty stones into even prettier ones. Lastly the ReSource has several cast iron surrounds and fronts (for coal stoves) which are particularly beautiful and are pretty decorations even if not used for a fireplace. Again, it is a testament to early 20th century Buffalo that even the coal stove was considered something to make pretty.

Enjoy a cozy toast for the new year.

Commander Frank Borman of Apollo 8, wished this sentiment to the world on Christmas Eve 1968. He and Pilot William Anders were the first people to ever see the whole planet earth at once.

Earth was a small blue sphere, utterly insignificant against an infinite sea of blackness. Commander Borman related feeling homesick and nostalgic, yet fearful at how small and fragile earth is.

Ironically I find the most appropriate Christmas sentiment was made by the late, great author and scientist, and committed atheist, Carl Sagan. One of mankind’s greatest achievements of intellect, Voyager I, was leaving the solar system 4 billion miles away and Sagan suggested that they turn its cameras back and take a picture of earth. Unintentionally earth showed up as a small blue dot illuminated by a light ray. Reflecting on this photograph Sagan wrote in his book the Pale Blue Dot:

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

In the radio address on Christmas eve 1968 the world was in turmoil, commnader Borman struggled to express just how insignificant it all was, and how we are all earthlings above all. He simply said:

Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth

Ditto!

This Saturday is the last chance to browse for your home or gifts for friends before we take a long coffee break.  The store and office will be closed Dec 21st until Jan 2nd.
(You might still catch us around because, as you know, we’re workaholics.)

Need to bribe Santa? snag some volunteer hours?  We’re trying to work in the ReHab House.  Send us a message at volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org if you’re available.  Leave a message for the store at 716-882-2800 or the office at 716-885-4131.

I recently heard a radio vignette by the talented NPR science correspondence Robert Krulwich concerning the work of a Dr Nalini Nadkarni of The Evergreen State College in Washington. Dr. Nadkarni calculated, using data from NASA satellites, that there were approximately 61 trees for every person on planet Earth. She concluded that this was a good number.

But let me quote her husband’s reply:

…when Nadkarni sat down with her husband, Jack, a microbiologist at Evergreen State, to tell him the good news [61 trees per person], he was less impressed with the ratio of trees to people. “He looked at me in his quiet, slow sort of way and said, ‘Well, you know, I don’t know. We use that much in a couple of seasons of our wood stove, and the amount of paper that comes off the printer and the lumber that made our home — so maybe it’s not so many.”

According to the article, Dr. Nadkarni is now trying to determine how many trees each of us consume and how the tree to person ratio changing. This is complicated question with no simple answers.

I am not a environmental scientist (yet), but what is clear is that we use a lot of wood for lumber, paper, and other products. It is well-documented that the vastness, age, and diversity of forests are decreasing. Populations are also increasing and using more wood, so my guess is that this number is decreasing.

But this matter?

In Jared Diamond’s book: Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed deforestation is a key ingredient of the catastrophic collapses of great civilizations such as the Maya, the Easter Islanders, and the Greenland Vikings. Deforestation is generally not considered the overt reason for the collapse of civilizations, but it is considered a significant factor with subtle downstream effects. The largest effect is that it lead to a loss of agricultural productivity through soil erosion, leading to starvation, social instability, war, and genocide.

Surely we are more advanced and this couldn’t happen to us? These were just primitive societies? Right?

Wrong!
Read the rest of this entry »

This is our version of a holiday party–music & singing, friends, feasting & shenanigans!
Bring your favorite comfort food or bottle of fermentation for sharing.
ReWRAP a less than thoughtful gift and put it under our tree for some other lucky sucker to cherish for all eternity (or at least until next year’s party)!

Impress us with your ability to belch Jingle Bells or just plop on the couch, being merry & cozy.

We’ll be at Casa de Pickles, 464 Auburn Ave from 7pm until we get booted.
Click on the photo for photos from last year’s festivities.