The Buzz: Monarchs, Mansions, and Lantern-Lit Nights

From Ramses I to Richard III, we bask in the glow of royalty

“Zoomagination” casts a regal glow on the Buffalo Zoo. How do we get these effects in our own humble back yard? Photographs by the Author.

The Return of the King

Remember when, in 2012, they found Richard III’s bones under that parking lot in Leicester? They were digging for an outhouse and suddenly there was the king’s body, twisted spine and all. Richard III! Then came the royal rumpus: The Catholic and Anglican churches feuded over who would preside over the burial. The Catholics won, as we recall, arguing that Richard died before Henry VIII broke from Rome and founded the Church of England. And the whole affair launched a fresh round of Plantagenet gossip, and debates about whether Richard was a villain, a victim — or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now His Medieval Majesty is back on stage at Shakespeare in Delaware Park, plotting and monologuing under the trees. His biggest challenge? How do you top a 21st-century drama that starts with a parking lot and ends with a holy turf war?

Thrones, Bones, and Tourist Zones

We’re no strangers to dead kings around here. Ramses I, the legendary Egyptian pharaoh, loitered for many years in the Niagara Falls Museum in Niagara Falls, Ont. (the stentorian building that is now Bird Kingdom). Funny but true: Canadians in the 1860s bought a stash of Egyptian mummies from a dealer. In the 1990s, an archaeologist from Atlanta took one look at a certain mummy and said, “That’s not just anybody.” Tests confirmed it — Ramses I of Egypt had been hanging out near Clifton Hill for 140 years, sharing space with a humpback whale skeleton and what the Niagara Falls Review has described as “a morbid assortment of stuffed animals.” The pharaoh finally flew home in 2003, after what might be the most surreal retirement tour in world history. Richard III got a parking lot. Ramses got Niagara Falls. Who’s the real king here?

Living Like Kings

“What’s the hassle, I’ll buy the castle, we can live like kings…” Howard, the guy we married, sings that song at the Hyatt, where he plays happy hour on Fridays from 5 to 9 p.m. He live-streams the show, and apparently the world is listening. Because John Kopczynski, our expat friend in California, alerted us to a Wall Street Journal story headlined “Buffalo Can Be Hard To Love. For These Former residents, It Was Harder To Stay Away.” The story was about wealthy expats returning and buying multimillion-dollar historic mansions here. We welcome them, sure, but it’s easier to love a town if you are living in a lavish mansion, just saying. Kopcynzki, as always, gets the joke: “I love how the returnees are running to the old mansions! I’ll pack up and return should the Barton House start accepting boarders.”

The Buzz

Maybe we can’t buy that castle. Still, Buzz’s hopes spring eternal when it comes to sprucing up our own digs. At the Buffalo Zoo’s Zoomagination — the annual lantern festival celebrating Chinese culture — we marveled at those glowing decorations in the trees. We can’t wait to go shopping on Amazon for something similar. And for once, we don’t even have to worry if it says “Made in China.”