Notes from around town

 If you're into cannabis, you might be wondering why 420 Bliss, at Brunswick Plaza, has changed its name recently.

Well, it turns out that the owners of 420 Bliss have joined the Just a Little Higher chain of cannabis dispensaries, the rest of which are all in NYC. While there is still an ad on a rolling billboard at Hoosick & 8th Streets, with the 420 Bliss name, the logo was removed from the building within the last month or so. Still, it's one of at least three dispensaries in the city, with one on River Street, near the Green Island Bridge, and a new one opened recently on Congress Street.

Plus, a new dispensary, Bloom Brothers, is set to open later this year in Menands in the former Walgreens on Broadway. Cannabis has become big business in a very short period of time.

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Rite Aid has closed all of its stores after filing for chapter 11, and that includes the two remaining locations in town, one on the corner of Hoosick Street & Burdett Avenue, the other at Hudson Valley Plaza. A 3rd, across from Hannaford on 126th Street, was converted to a Walgreens a few years back.

Word I'm reading is that Walgreens & CVS could be going, too, as consumers would rather kill two birds with one stone, and pick up their prescripions at the in-store pharmacies at Walmart, Target, Hannaford, or Price Chopper.

I remember when Rite Aid was in downtown, having taken over the space previously occupied by WT Grant's department store at Broadway & 3rd Streets back in the day. Some of my classmates worked there after school and some weekends to raise money for college. Today, that space is filled with the Tech Valley Center of Gravity, and that ain't going anywhere.

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I had a shopkeeper tell me once that some of the homeless panhandlers prefer to be out on the streets, unwilling to get jobs or rent apartments, to avoid responsibility.

Seems as though Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello wants to do something about this quality of life issue.

Like the rest of us, Madame Mayor is tired of seeing the same people roaming downtown and other parts of the city, begging for change, claiming to want to buy coffee or a meal, but chances are, these folks would rather waste the money----and their brains----on alcohol. Seems there's a new law on the books, or soon will be, that, in the eyes of commenters on reddit, may actually make things worse.

A point of emphasis is that citizens are being told it's okay to say no to these panhandlers, especially the overly aggressive idiots who are more desperate than others. There are morons who will stand near the Collar City Bridge or in the driveway at Walmart, putting their lives at risk, holding signs that claim they're homeless, but how much do you want to wager they're not, and they're running a scam. There's been one fellow who's been chased off the property at Stewart's on Congress Street, and at I Love Pizza on 4th Street, multiple times for loitering, but he keeps coming back, largely because he's unwilling to better his station in life.

Some people won't learn. Their loss.

What Might've Been: International Championship Wrestling (1975)

 Eddie Einhorn, at the time the owner of the Chicago White Sox, had a dream of being a wrestling promoter, too.

In 1975, Einhorn, who already was involved with the Hughes Television Network's syndication network, launched the International Wrestling Association (IWA). Unfortunately, the promotion suffered from the fact that they couldn't clear enough markets or get primo time slots that were already committed to either the National Wrestling Alliance in the south, or the then-World Wide Wrestling Federation in the northeast.

In New York, for example, channel 9 carried the matches after harness racing from either Yonkers or Roosevelt Raceway, which meant the matches began around midnight, later if a Mets game airing that night ran late.

Einhorn's roster included names familiar to most fans, including Ernie Ladd, Ivan Koloff, Dino Bravo, Mil Mascaras, Gino Brito, and Lars Anderson, who was working under a different name at the time.

This sampler was shown on ESPN Classic 25 years after its initial broadcast, headlined by Ernie Ladd and an angle involving Cowboy Bob Ellis, which woke up some memories for this writer.

Koloff won his only world title with the 3WF four years earlier. Ladd later went to the WWF as a color commentator. Brito & Bravo turned up in the 3WF a year or so after this show originally aired. "Big" Jim Wilson was involved in a famous scandal that landed him on the talk show circuit (i.e. Donohue) years later, his career cut short. Frenchy Martin & Joe Mirco also landed in McMahon country in the 80's, with Martin landing a manager's job, dressed as a French painter. Ref Tommy Young officiated a bazillion matches in the NWA during the 70's & 80's.

You needed Sominex to sit through some of this.

Rating: B.

This week in GOP stupidity

 Thursday was Juneteenth, a Federal holiday. As usual, president Trump made a fool of himself, whining on Truthless Social, as apparently, in his tiny mind, too many people had the day off.

Well, let me stop you there, Fraud Fauntleroy. Some public sector jobs, like where I work, for example, didn't get the day off, and with the banks closed for the holiday, payday came Wednesday instead of Thursday. A nice surprise, sure, one that will come every five years or so. While Trump, who promised to make Juneteenth a holiday during his 2020 campaign, hasn't completely turned his back on it, I wouldn't put it past his head troll, Stephen Miller, to put the bug in his ear to abolish the holiday.

And that ain't happening.

Earlier this week, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was found liable for defamation involving a now-former employee of Dominion Voting Systems in relation to the 2020 election. Unfortunately, as CNN reports, Lindell is as defiant as he is paranoid & stupid.

To continue with the defamation is asking for more trouble, but Lindell doesn't care. He genuinely believes, it seems, that the 2020 election was stolen (it wasn't), but every time he claims to have evidence to prove it, he never shows it, revealing his plan to be nothing more than a grift to get people to buy his products.

Someone explain to Lindell that his 15 minutes ended a while ago.

Back to Trump. Twice in as many weeks, appeals courts have shot down Trump's attempts to appeal judgments against him in defamation cases brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll. And if that isn't bad enough, Homeland Insecurity leader Kristi No-Brains lied in public to try to explain why California Senator Alex Padilla was manhandled & arrested last week. In NYC, a candidate for Mayor was similarly abused, but later released from police custody, just because he asked for IDs & warrants from the ICE black ops unit that showed up in a courtroom. And Trump doesn't want protesters wearing masks, but is OK with ICE black ops agents being masked? Double standard much, Donnie Diapers?

Worse, Orange Narcissus now wants to send the National Guard to Chicago, and the Second City ain't having it. Back in LA, the World Champion Dodgers tossed ICE black ops off the parking lot at Dodger Stadium, a month after Donnie Diapers hosted the champs at the White House. If they don't get the message now, they never will. Just sayin'.

Of Recent Vintage: Monk (2002)

 Monk was not your average, ordinary crime drama.

Adrian Monk (Tony Shaloub, ex-Wings) was a respected police detective until his wife's death sent him into some serious trauma, triggering obsessive-compulsive disorder, and revealing several phobias. Determined to solve his wife's death, Monk becomes a private eye, which drives the series.

Over the course of seven years (2002-9), Monk won several Emmy & Golden Globe awards.

Full episodes, of course, are not available on YouTube, so we have a simple little sampler.

My folks were fans of the show. They were into quirky, oddball dramas like this.

Rating: A-.

The last lesson: Series finale of Room 222 (1974)

 ABC pulled the plug on Room 222 about halfway through season 5 due to the usual issues (i.e. declining ratings), and this next item never aired until it was included in the DVD set.

A baseball player (Michael Warren, 7 years before Hill Street Blues) catches the attention of not only pro & college scouts, but also a reporter. Donny Most also appears, just days before the premiere of Happy Days.

Executive producer William P. D'Angelo left Fox after the series ended, and started his own production company. His first series, Run, Joe, Run, bowed on NBC 8 months later.

No rating. Just a public service.

Mayor Mantello wants to move CIty Hall out of the Hedley Building early, but the next site may have to wait anyway

 And, here, I thought, local GOPers outside of the North Country were immune to the brainwashing that comes with a tank of stale orange kool-aid. I guess I was wrong.

In recent days, we're learning that Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello decided she doesn't want City Hall on the 5th floor of the Hedley Building on River Street, and wants out by 2027. The problem is, she missed a deadline to file for early termination of her lease with building owners First Columbia, who intend to hold her and the city to the lease, which expires in 2029.

For all the good that Mrs. Mantello has done since taking office nearly 18 months ago (i.e. reopening Knickerbacker Ice Arena), it's offset by a bout of brain farts, a common symptom of today's GOP.

So, then, where does Madame Mayor want to move City Hall to? Try this.

Photo courtesy Spectrum News 1.

Yeah, venerable old Proctor's Theatre, which has been closed since the late 70's, and is in dire need of repairs. RPI currently owns the building, from what I understand, but they also have other vacant buildings in better condition that the city could use.

The city's argument is that they have a parking garage in the alley behind Proctor's that would solve all the issues with parking for city workers and visiting residents or dignitaries. There was a beauty salon just to the south of the theatre that closed a few months back, relocating likely out of town. The county chamber of commerce has a building a couple of doors from there, and that's who Madame Mayor needs to consult before doing something that would be a total embarrassment to the city.

And you wonder why people disparagingly refer to people in town as Troylets instead of Trojans.

I've heard of putting the cart before the horse, but this is beyond ridiculous. 

Then again, considering that Grace Baptist Church is planning to leave town for Pittstown, maybe that would be a more fitting spot for City Hall. Don't you think?

Musical Interlude: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (1999)

 David Spade may have bombed at the box office with 1999's "Lost & Found", but he also had one of the best parts of the movie.

Dylan (Spade), a budding restaurant owner, has fallen for a French cellist (Sophie Marceau), and is looking to impress her. Unfortunately, she's also spoken for, and her intended has arrived in town. When the fiance ruins Dylan's lip-sync performance of Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show", Dylan finds some inspiration to continue on his own.......

A most unusual "duet", sure, but remember, David was part of that star studded Saturday Night Live roster in the early 90's with Adam Sandler, Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, et al. Didja really think he couldn't sing?