Day: March 31, 2021

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I know some people are super excited about getting a vaccine passport… 🎫

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I know some people are super excited about getting a vaccine passport… 🎫

Myself not so much do. While I’ll be getting my second COVID shot in like two weeks and I’ll probably hang on to my vaccination record in the glove box of my truck, I highly doubt I’ll carry it around or get the app that proves I was vaccinated.

I don’t forsee attending any indoor rallies or large events anytime soon and the kind of back road travel I do and wilderness camping means I’ll never have my passport checked.

I do think criticism and concern over the privacy and fairness of the program is valid and folks should offer constructive criticism and not be forced to use it if they don’t like it. And with the virus still flowing around, it is still safer to avoid such events that would otherwise require such a permit.

The People’s Palais – 98 Acres in Albany

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The People’s Palais – 98 Acres in Albany

The 1964 photos of 100-102 Jefferson Street in downtown Albany reveal a building whose better days are well behind it and whose days ahead are seriously limited. Indeed, the building next door has already been torn down to make way for the coming South Mall project, later renamed the Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza.

But anyone who thought “Rocky” Rockefeller’s bulldozers could forever doom the Palais Royale grill didn’t know Victorocco “Rocky” Nigro.

Yes, the photos seem to capture the sad end of an era. The living quarters are decidedly modest, the furnishings sparse and tired. The grill bears the words LIQUORS, BAR, and HOT DOGS. Glimpses inside reveal an establishment lost to time, its wooden booths empty, its jukebox silent, its huge fan stilled. On the porch, a small man gazes up the street, toward the future.

Never been to the current Palais Royale, although I've been by it many times. I'm sure some point after Covid-19 I'll get there.