Around Town

Doesn't an actual historical artifact differ from simple memorabilia?

Otherwise, noteworthy museums would be filled with miscellaneous items that have no real archaeological or historical significance.

Since countless undergrad and graduate students from Stanford visited the Nut House on occasions, would the mechanical gorilla be considered suitable for historical exhibit at the Stanford Museum along with a carved-up bench from the Oasis?

It will be interesting what the future Palo Alto History Museum 'curators' deem of historical noteworthiness.

Speaking of well-known Palo Alto museums, whatever happened to the Barbie Museum in downtown Palo Alto?

As a youngster, I so enjoyed playing with my modest Barbie collection and a developing interest in sewing unique and seemingly outrageous clothing for my various Barbies (including a lesbian-themed Skipper and gay Ken) eventually led my career as a fashion designer.

I was deeply hurt and disturbed to learn that the Palo Alto Barbie museum is now gone as it was to become a mecca of sorts for me.

Hopefully this mechanical ape can be saved and displayed as homage to the unique character of Palo Alto.

Barbie Museum sold to Mattel 20 years ago:
Web Link

@ Antonio's Nut House has sadly closed its doors for good (unless a partner comes through or someone commits to reopening and purchasing the business, according to the owners), but at least one familiar face from the longtime dive bar will hopefully find a new, permanent home in Palo Alto.

I do not think Antonio's Nut House will ever reopen.

Most of the well-known Palo Alto bars are long gone including The Winery, Talbot's, The Island, Henry's, 42nd Street, Emerson Street Bar and Grill et al.

At one time you could stagger down University Avenue or California Avenue totally inibriated and go bar-hopping at will.

No more. Those were the good old days.

The peanuts weren't always dispersed by the gorilla. At one time they were handed out in small baskets by the bartender upon request because the owner got mad at homeless people eating his free peanuts and not buying drinks. I once saw the owner confiscate a handful of peanuts from a homeless person and 86 him.

The police used to come in as well to catch DUI suspects. An officer would sit at one of the little round tables and nurse the same beer for over two hours. He would then get on his cell phone to contact another officer stationed outside to make an arrest if he suspected a drunk patron. You could always tell because the officer inside had a gun on an ankle strap.

They were not fooling savvy Nut House customers, only the amateur drinkers.

Palo Alto is no longer a college drinking town, just another mundane bourgeois place to live.

I moved away from Palo Alto in 2016 to Tempe, AZ and I must honestly say that I wish I'd moved here to Tempe about 2010. Tempe is a true college town ... vibrant with many cafes and pubs. I do NOT live in Downtown North but I had to say I lived in Palo Alto to get an account here. For such an expensive town, Palo Alto is an absolutely crashing bore. Why would someone want to live in a place with $5000/month apartments and nothing to do? In just a few years it's lost Pluto's, Peet's on University, Cafe Epi, Cheesecake Factory, Prolific Oven, Rudy's Pub, Antonio's Nuthouse, etc.. It's a soulless town. You'd never sense that it's a college town.

If there is not enough money to establish a Palo Alto history Museum, why not take whatever money has been collected to date and use it towards the reopening of Antonios nuthouse? That is a treasure to the community (and I would bet more people would enjoy it vs a museum anyway). Could add artifacts to the back of the Nut House. I am sure the teachers that will be living in the affordable housing project would welcome Antonio’s as well. So sad to permanently lose a great dive bar!

"...why not take whatever money has been collected to date and use it towards the reopening of Antonios nuthouse? "


Seriously? Like many former Palo Alto businesses, the Nut House will be long forgotten in 25 years or so. No one will care.

And reopening a commercial business (i.e. a dive bar) with community funds is ludicrous. Who is going to tend bar, the mayor?

It is time to move on.

"For such an expensive town, Palo Alto is an absolutely crashing bore. "

Ah, but we have city council members who would have us believe it's the offices that make PA so wonderfully vibrant as they push to make things even more boring by pricing out the few resident-serving stores and restaurants we have left.

Boys collecting and playing with Barbie dolls is a peculiar pastime given other options and opportunities.

On the other hand, my youngest son (around age 6) used to carry around a Mattel 'Chatty Cathy' doll that his older sister had disposed of earlier having outgrown her doll-playing years.

Our German Shepherd chewed the 'Chatty Cathy' up one day and our young son was very distraught at the time.

My husband intervened and bought him some plastic model airplanes to build and this became our son's new pastime.

Very grateful that he did not ask for a Barbie instead.