Published: April 02, 2008 11:36 pm      

DZIKIY: Some springtime ABCs

“A” is for April Fools Day. The April Fools edition of the Tonawanda News recently hit the newsstands, and let me tell you, I had been waiting a long time to write the story about the City of Tonawanda taking over Tonawanda Island.

A completely ludicrous premise that I sincerely hope nobody believed, the story about City of Tonawanda “troops” taking over North Tonawanda’s island by nightfall lent itself to some satirical opportunities.

I wanted to write the story last year, but alas, there was no April Fools edition of the Tonawanda News in 2007. I’m glad it’s back. All of us here in the newsroom hope the readers enjoyed it.

“B” is times three, at least in this column.

The first “B” is for brackets, which I wrote about last week. While lamenting another lost NCAA tournament pool, I mentioned that I usually used the “go with my gut” technique, but it had never netted me a winner in the past. This year, I switched it up. I thought harder about my bracket. It didn’t work either.

Another week has revealed that the “go with my gut” technique was the way to go. If I stuck with that strategy, I would have three teams correctly in the Final Four. Next year, I’ll fly through the bracket again, filling it with my initial thoughts.

That lesson reminds me of another “B,” “Blink,” which is a book I read for the Tonawanda News Book Club months ago. That book extolled the virtues of quick thinking. Only months later, I ignored such virtues.

The final “B” is for baseball. Aren’t you glad it’s back? Even if the weather’s still a bit dreary, there isn’t a surer sign that spring is back and summer is on the way.

I’m a Pittsburgh Pirate fan, so my excitement about baseball tends to decrease drastically as the season progresses. By the time NFL training camp begins, baseball is usually an afterthought. But Opening Day is always irresistible.

And now we’ve reached “C,” for a cat, in a tree. Niagara Living honcho Michele DeLuca recently talked to a North Tonawanda resident who tried desperately to get a kitten out of a tree near her home. Read Sunday’s edition of Niagara Living for the full story. (How’s that for a plug, Michele?)

Anyway, the whole ordeal reminded me of the summer of 2006. It was a simpler time back then. And Sound Off callers couldn’t stop talking about what to do with a cat that wouldn’t come out of a tree.

A subsequent story written by yours truly discovered the Erie and Niagara County SPCAs reacted differently to the cat-in-a-tree dilemma.

It was also sad to learn the romantic notion of firefighters saving cats in trees was a distant memory. Liability issues and whatnot.

Yes, romantic notions of all sorts keep fading away. Gasoline doesn’t cost a dollar a gallon anymore, boys and girls don’t “go steady” these days and you can forget about picking up a bag of penny candy at the local five-and-dime.

But at least we’ve still got our ABC’s.

Phil Dzikiy is a staff reporter for the Tonawanda News. His column appears every Thursday. Contact him at 693-1000, ext. 114 or by e-mail at dzikiyp@gnnewspaper.com.