Senses and Nonsenses of Place.
Jul. 7th, 2023 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogSome coming, some going, at least one lost and one may be not existing at all. These thoughts accumulate as the dog and I are out on walkies in a morning that is significantly cooler than the past several. It was oppressively hot here for most of this week through yesterday. Monday was reported as being the hottest July 3 of all time, only to have its record last all of one day:P Of course, the climate change deniers just shrug and say, “Big deal, so what if it’s hot in the summertime?“ They are the same ones who misunderstand the difference between weather and climate, and when we got three record-setting snowfalls here between November and Christmas, they replied, “ Boy we could sure use some of that good old global warming NOW, huh, Bunky?” I hope they enjoy their eternities in hell. At least the thermostat is set for them-with no air conditioning.
The "coming and going" part is from a news article that got fed to me yesterday about some local bar and restaurant businesses. I've known them both forever, but I’ve only become a patron of one of them recently. Closer to home in Amherst, word came of the closing of an Eggertsville institution named Ziggy’s Tacos. It has had numerous owners since it opened here in 1977, four years before I got here, none of them actually named Ziggy as far as I can tell. It was a long time hangout for kids, among them Emily and her friends, from the high school down the street. I’ve never actually been in it, but it always was a comfort going by it- giving proof through the night that our tacos were still there. It always had to compete against the more authentic Mexican places near it, as well as that national chain with a chihuahua and our own contribution to fake Tex-Mex fare:
For my whole time living here, Might Taco has had a local loyal customer base that will follow them anywhere, at least within our borders. People have speculated that when we finally get to Mars, we will find Mighty Taco wrappers from the little green men bringing Super Mightys home. Yet the concept has never traveled on Earth. They tried expanding into Rochester while Emily was at RIT, which you would think would be a perfect market. They even tried putting one right down Jefferson Road from the campus. It lasted maybe a year and a half. And now Ziggy joins them in the graveyard of guacamole.
The better news in that article, though, was that a beloved Allentown bar and music venue has found new ownership. I’ve commented a few times this year about Nietzsche‘s, and its long time owner finally decided to give it up after almost 40 years in the business. He has now found a new ownership group, which I believe is buying not just the building but the ongoing business- lock, liquor stock and stage. Because a liquor license is involved, they can’t just take over immediately, but it sounds like he’s found the Angels who will take the stage to a new generation of performers and listeners.
And two moves, one from that article and one from Buffalo Rising: This Little Pig, a restaurant we always heard good about but never made it to actually eat in, is moving from Main and Transit to Clarence Hollow; and Comedysportz, the improv place killed by COVID that used to be in the basement of our building, is back from the Mostly Dead at the town community center a block down Harlem Road:)
----
Then we have the Itinerart Diffuser. Aka the "heat tent," aka the Flav-R-Wave. It's the part on our outdoor grill that lies above the two actual propane burners on the bottom and diffuses the heat from them across the entire grill rectangle. It's metal and is ALWAYS the first part to rust out on these devices. We go with a middling version of an outdoor barbecue, between the "bigger than the industrial grill at Mel's Diner with a built-in flatscreen TV and seating for eight" that fills the Home Depot aisles and the "hibachi the size of a bowling ball" you can get at the Dollar Tree. It's almost impossible to find something in that range (heh), but Valu, one of the local chains not killed by the big boxes, always has them on offer for about a buck fitty. I SAW the part on their floor sample. I HELD the part. I offered to BUY the part on the spot, but alas, no. They did look it up through the installation guide and even tried to order it for me, but it was the one piece of that grill the manufacturer was out of stock on. (See "ALWAYS the first part to rust out," earlier.) This effort did get me the part number, though, but given that this was the same Hardware Store Guy who told me the band on my shirt was named for "10,000 Maniacs at Rich Stadium," I wasn't optimistic.
Buit wait! eReplacements dot com found it! For under 20 bucks (plus shipping close to doubling it), it was mine all mine! Or will be once it finishes its long strange trip here. See, I've been tracking it:
No wonder shipping's so expensive. From its home in Utah, it took a nice normal side through Nebraska, Missouri and as of Wednesday Ohio before, .... Connecticut? That overshot us by over 400 miles! I understand FedEx works on hub-and-spoke, but I always thought the "hub" was Memphis. Anyway, all appears to still be on schedule for its delivery here tomorrow.... when I'll be in Chautauqua County, seeing the onetime lead singer of that band named for a crowd at the football stadium:P
----
At least I know she'll be there. My final "place" may not be a place at all.
I posted last week about my odd visit to a Mostly Dead Mall in our scenic Southtowns. Among the things I saw: a psychic giving readings (must be a fraud, because she didn't yell when I thought that she was one), a crazy cat lady emporium with rescues beyond what the SPCA can handle, a Bath Fitter and the actual client from my Arbitration From Hell renting a storefront here.
Or was it? For one of the owners of that actual client was in yesterday, signing papers on another matter. We haven't gotten our decision from the five days of (not) fun and (almost) fistfights, though I did learn yesterday that our opponent apparently "forgot" to send in their half of the arbitrator's bill for the event. Before he left, I asked him about how this storefront in the dead mall was working out for them.
WHAT storefront you talkin' bout?, he asked in complete confusion.
I named the mall, described the logo (including a buffalo- totally original, right?) and what I remembered of the sign in the window. Sure sounded like them to him, but HE'd never herd of it. (I'm leaving that typo, Siri.) So we have, as Harry Hoo used to say on Get Smart, three possibilities:
* It really IS their storefront, but their organizational chart does not involve telling one of the owners everything they're doing;
* It really is A storefront with their name, logo and ad copy on it, and either the mall landlord is using it to make the place look less dead (they do rent a storefront in a strip plaza closer to here) or someone is pretending to be them or trading on their rep; or
* It has absolutely nothing to do with them and some other completely Buffalo Something business went Mandela Effect on me in the three seconds I was looking at it.
I consider all three as having legitimate shots at being the truth.
If I have time today- busy mid-morning, with two client appointments, then my first-ever visit to a Salon Spa to get shorn by my former Supercuts stylist- I will head back to the scene of the confusion. I haven't been back to the gym since finishing my 15-with-15 streak on June 30th, and there's a 3:30 class there with a new-to-me guy. So, like the climate change records, I can keep my consecutive coach streak going, only in a good way:)
The "coming and going" part is from a news article that got fed to me yesterday about some local bar and restaurant businesses. I've known them both forever, but I’ve only become a patron of one of them recently. Closer to home in Amherst, word came of the closing of an Eggertsville institution named Ziggy’s Tacos. It has had numerous owners since it opened here in 1977, four years before I got here, none of them actually named Ziggy as far as I can tell. It was a long time hangout for kids, among them Emily and her friends, from the high school down the street. I’ve never actually been in it, but it always was a comfort going by it- giving proof through the night that our tacos were still there. It always had to compete against the more authentic Mexican places near it, as well as that national chain with a chihuahua and our own contribution to fake Tex-Mex fare:
For my whole time living here, Might Taco has had a local loyal customer base that will follow them anywhere, at least within our borders. People have speculated that when we finally get to Mars, we will find Mighty Taco wrappers from the little green men bringing Super Mightys home. Yet the concept has never traveled on Earth. They tried expanding into Rochester while Emily was at RIT, which you would think would be a perfect market. They even tried putting one right down Jefferson Road from the campus. It lasted maybe a year and a half. And now Ziggy joins them in the graveyard of guacamole.
The better news in that article, though, was that a beloved Allentown bar and music venue has found new ownership. I’ve commented a few times this year about Nietzsche‘s, and its long time owner finally decided to give it up after almost 40 years in the business. He has now found a new ownership group, which I believe is buying not just the building but the ongoing business- lock, liquor stock and stage. Because a liquor license is involved, they can’t just take over immediately, but it sounds like he’s found the Angels who will take the stage to a new generation of performers and listeners.
And two moves, one from that article and one from Buffalo Rising: This Little Pig, a restaurant we always heard good about but never made it to actually eat in, is moving from Main and Transit to Clarence Hollow; and Comedysportz, the improv place killed by COVID that used to be in the basement of our building, is back from the Mostly Dead at the town community center a block down Harlem Road:)
----
Then we have the Itinerart Diffuser. Aka the "heat tent," aka the Flav-R-Wave. It's the part on our outdoor grill that lies above the two actual propane burners on the bottom and diffuses the heat from them across the entire grill rectangle. It's metal and is ALWAYS the first part to rust out on these devices. We go with a middling version of an outdoor barbecue, between the "bigger than the industrial grill at Mel's Diner with a built-in flatscreen TV and seating for eight" that fills the Home Depot aisles and the "hibachi the size of a bowling ball" you can get at the Dollar Tree. It's almost impossible to find something in that range (heh), but Valu, one of the local chains not killed by the big boxes, always has them on offer for about a buck fitty. I SAW the part on their floor sample. I HELD the part. I offered to BUY the part on the spot, but alas, no. They did look it up through the installation guide and even tried to order it for me, but it was the one piece of that grill the manufacturer was out of stock on. (See "ALWAYS the first part to rust out," earlier.) This effort did get me the part number, though, but given that this was the same Hardware Store Guy who told me the band on my shirt was named for "10,000 Maniacs at Rich Stadium," I wasn't optimistic.
Buit wait! eReplacements dot com found it! For under 20 bucks (plus shipping close to doubling it), it was mine all mine! Or will be once it finishes its long strange trip here. See, I've been tracking it:
No wonder shipping's so expensive. From its home in Utah, it took a nice normal side through Nebraska, Missouri and as of Wednesday Ohio before, .... Connecticut? That overshot us by over 400 miles! I understand FedEx works on hub-and-spoke, but I always thought the "hub" was Memphis. Anyway, all appears to still be on schedule for its delivery here tomorrow.... when I'll be in Chautauqua County, seeing the onetime lead singer of that band named for a crowd at the football stadium:P
----
At least I know she'll be there. My final "place" may not be a place at all.
I posted last week about my odd visit to a Mostly Dead Mall in our scenic Southtowns. Among the things I saw: a psychic giving readings (must be a fraud, because she didn't yell when I thought that she was one), a crazy cat lady emporium with rescues beyond what the SPCA can handle, a Bath Fitter and the actual client from my Arbitration From Hell renting a storefront here.
Or was it? For one of the owners of that actual client was in yesterday, signing papers on another matter. We haven't gotten our decision from the five days of (not) fun and (almost) fistfights, though I did learn yesterday that our opponent apparently "forgot" to send in their half of the arbitrator's bill for the event. Before he left, I asked him about how this storefront in the dead mall was working out for them.
WHAT storefront you talkin' bout?, he asked in complete confusion.
I named the mall, described the logo (including a buffalo- totally original, right?) and what I remembered of the sign in the window. Sure sounded like them to him, but HE'd never herd of it. (I'm leaving that typo, Siri.) So we have, as Harry Hoo used to say on Get Smart, three possibilities:
* It really IS their storefront, but their organizational chart does not involve telling one of the owners everything they're doing;
* It really is A storefront with their name, logo and ad copy on it, and either the mall landlord is using it to make the place look less dead (they do rent a storefront in a strip plaza closer to here) or someone is pretending to be them or trading on their rep; or
* It has absolutely nothing to do with them and some other completely Buffalo Something business went Mandela Effect on me in the three seconds I was looking at it.
I consider all three as having legitimate shots at being the truth.
If I have time today- busy mid-morning, with two client appointments, then my first-ever visit to a Salon Spa to get shorn by my former Supercuts stylist- I will head back to the scene of the confusion. I haven't been back to the gym since finishing my 15-with-15 streak on June 30th, and there's a 3:30 class there with a new-to-me guy. So, like the climate change records, I can keep my consecutive coach streak going, only in a good way:)