Welcome to a work in progress that, like the original intent behind the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose California, will I am sure keep changing. (For those curious and/or uninformed about this particular odd metaphoric reference, here is the url for that spooky mansion, now turned tourist trap.)
The kind and usually wise publishers of the Watershed Post foolishly gave me the go ahead to develop this new feature with very few fixed guidelines. So until they realize their rare error in judgement in this matter, I invite all of you reading this to send me tidbits of information relating to virtually anything about or taking place in the Town of Shandaken, and I will try to get it into virtual print here in this special section of this very cool online newspaper. You can email me at tomrinaldo@watershedpost.com with your suggestions and notices. Dispatches from Shandaken will be filed at least three times weekly. Here is number one.
What’s wrong with this picture found online at Wikipedia?
“One of the Park's distinctive yellow and brown highway markers, showing the hamlet of Pine Hill.” (Photo by AW, via Wikipedia.)
Someone needs to upgrade Wikipedia. Have you all noticed the new signs going up around Shandaken the last couple of months? In compliance with federal regulations they are being changed to a slightly less distinctive white and brown, but with a special added splash called “branding." It is the result of an inter-agency planning initiative that New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner McDonald explained in June press release: "The New York State Department of Transportation is pleased to have been able to lead the effort to develop this agreement, which brought together the need to maintain consistency and compliance in our highway signage with the desire to create a unique, branded image for the Catskill Park."
In case you missed the details in a blur while driving past one, here is that new and unique branded image for the Catskill Park that is being affixed to those new signs going up around Shandaken:
Totally unrelated to the above, I am now going to break my own previously unknown to me rule for these previously unknown dispatches. I am going to provide publicity to a specific dinner special that takes place in one of our Town’s many fine eateries. It is known quite simply as “Taco Night” to most of us those who frequently avail themselves of it. Taco Night is far less a meal than it is a community get together – which is why I make note of it here.
Every Tuesday starting at 5:00pm, the Sportsman’s Alamo Cantina on Main Street in Phoenicia offers $1 tacos; fish, bean, beef or chicken, all at, yep, one buck each. Hard or soft shell, your pick. But the real kicker is the frozen margarita special; you can have one for $3. Actually you can have more than one at $3 each, but be forewarned: These are not wimpy margaritas. Experts in the field have staggered getting up half way through the first home.
If good food and strong drink at cheap prices was all that there is to tell of Taco Night, I wouldn’t write about it here. But if you are among the minority of residents of our fair town who have not already discovered it, be prepared to see a lot of people you know, when you finally do drop by. It’s become one big extended weekly neighborhood party. Old friendships get renewed and new ones keep forming. Grab any seat you find empty (it can get really crowded) and join in, if you are of a mind to.
