The Buzz: A Beautiful Buffalo Garage Sale Score

Plus, decluttering, slavering, misspelling, and the great Pumpkin

A vintage Eyewitness News board game, for $2! Photos by Ryan Lysarz.

He got the scoop

It was the ultimate second-hand score — a 1980 board game based on Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Our alert friend Ryan Lysarz picked it up over the weekend for $2 at a South Buffalo garage sale on Whitfield Avenue. Complete with pictures of Irv Weinstein, Susan Banks, Tom Jolls, Don Postles, and Rick Azar, “Eyewitness News Game” challenges players to become a junior reporter for WKBW. Your mission: “Be the first back to the station with all the facts and get your story on the air.” Want another reason to be jealous? Ryan also spotted a vintage Buffalo Monopoly game, also for $2. Score!

Declutter this

Ryan’s acquisition of these historic Buffalo games defies WBEN host Tom Bauerle, who did a show this week on decluttering. Buzz tuned out. Everything we have ever gotten rid of, we have regretted. Old Vanity Fair magazines. Wouldn’t it be fun to reread those stories about Donald Trump from back in the day? You can’t find them online. A blue glass angel — we miss it at Christmas. A plain white set of heavy plates. We liked them! Cookbooks, deaccessioned because a friend lectured us. The list never ends. These minimalists who tell us to declutter — we are going to declutter these people from our life. Maximalism is the way to go.

The cat came back

Our friend Danielle Martin from the St. Louis Choir was understandably grief-stricken when her adorable aged black cat, Smudge, went to his reward. (That is an expression we got from our cousin Howard — pets go to their rewards.) However. A month or so later, a one-year-old orange cat named Pumpkin arrived on the scene. At first Pumpkin hid under the bed, demanding meals be delivered. But gradually he emerged, showing signs that felt … familiar. Danielle posted a picture of Pumpkin perched on the side of her bathtub with the caption: “Oh God it’s Smudge reincarnated.” A friend replied: “While Smudge is being all like … ‘girl you thought I left.’”

Mouthwatering

Food writer Andrew Galarneau, whom Buzz sat beside for years at The Buffalo News, is taking the stage in Springville at 6 p.m. Sept. 18. Did we say food writer? Make that food pornographer. That’s how Andrew defines himself these days: “More importantly in this visuals-first media age, food is sexy, which makes me a food pornographer.” He adds: “I’ve honed my skills producing paragraphs and images ruthlessly crafted to stimulate your salivary glands, make you feel something. To think ‘I want it just like that.’” Hungry for more? Who wouldn’t be? Catch the food pornographer free at Art’s Cafe, 5 E. Main Street, for “An Evening With Andrew Galarneau.”

The Buzz

Andrew’s ploy gets us thinking: Can Ryan claim the title of garage sale pornographer? That Eyewitness News game — we want it! … Georgetown Animal Clinic chalkboard roll call: “Welcome New Patients: Mabel Mae, Pumpkin, Flower.” Admit it — you kind of want to meet them all. … Competition stays fierce for Misspelling of the Week, but this week’s front-runner comes from Facebook Marketplace, where someone is offering a Dinning Set.