Archive: Around Town

We had a busy time a few weeks ago protesting shale drilling with friends in Albany. It was an extremely wet day with hard rain and a wind that blew several umbrellas inside out, but the importance of the cause led many busloads of people to the Capitol to lobby on both sides.

I went to the city in the late morning to connect with the Ithaca anti-frack group, but drove by the pro drillers just to see what they were up to. The police had assigned two separate parks and the pro drill folks were at the east park with their "Drill Here, Drill Now" chants and signs,(I'd love to see how much oil they'd get in downtown Albany though excessive gas is common) while the much larger anti-drill groups rallied behind the legislative office building (see photos) and eventually moved inside under "The Egg" for an informal rally.

It was good to see Oren Lyons of the Onondaga Nation, Environmentalist Walter Hang, and Barbara Lifton on the stage together with several other noted scientists and legislators in opposition to this environmentally destructive form of oil extraction. A broad range of people spoke in contrast to the much smaller rally which was made up of people from the oil and gas companies and Marcelus shale landowners who think they will get rich by selling their mineral rights.

It was cold and most people were soaked, so I picked up my friend Poco (in photo with sign) and met Tigan on her way to deliver papers from her internship and we headed to 40 North Pearle St.and the Ten Eyck Café in the lobby just up the stairs from the security desk, for hot soup and a sandwich with Jim. The café is not at all fancy, just your basic state office worker lunch place, but the food is fresh and the staff is friendly. You can also get breakfast at lunch time if you're so inclined. I had a large, made to order, chicken salad; it comes with several choices of side dish as well, while our friends warmed up on one of the several home made soups (chicken barley was one of them) and we enjoyed hot coffee. Reasonable price, fast service and conveniently out of the way so it is not over run by tourists.


It must have been the week for casual dining for us. After telling Tigan what a great place our usual stop on the way home was and getting her mouth set for sweet potato fries we pulled into the parking lot in Cobelskill only to find that it had closed over the holidays!! We ended up at the nearby "Colonial Diner" on Route 7. I had been there about 12 years ago and like Manos in Ithaca, it is a "Greek diner" with a similar style and menu. Unlike Manos, it has been updated and is very clean and neat. Jim had their pork chop dinner while Tigan and Mary had the chicken parmesian.

The dishes were on special that night which meant they included dessert. Our chef presented us with Greek custard, a heavy custard, honey and phylo dough creation that was over Jim's sweet limit by several factors of 10, but excellent. The price was reasonable and the food was not greasy. The waitress was friendly and very efficient, while the coffe pot was bottomless and we were on our way home in record time. At one point, Mary had a list of this type of diner across the Eastern half of the country from Maine to Ohio and south to D.C.; this one was worth going back to so it may become one of the regular stops as we're out and about in upstate NY.

By the way, Valentine's weekend is also Mardi gras on the Wine Trail, Ithaca Winter Recess for teachers events and Chinese New Year. We plan to be out for many of these events and hope to see all of you out and about as well.    

----
v6i5