The anonymous Memorial Auditorium peace activist has been identified. Last week’s column carried an item about a peace sign spray-painted on the east wall of the Aud, near the roof, that was revealed as part of its demolition.

George Gould, the now-retired Aud director, speculated that the painter must have been a Grateful Dead fan.

Off Main reader Bill Murphy spotted the item and informed us that the peace sign, with “pax” written underneath, was painted by his old friend and co-worker Ray Rousseau.

Rousseau, now 64, freely admitted to the decades-old graffiti. Rousseau and Murphy were members of Ironworkers Local 6 hired in 1970 to install exterior metal siding on the Aud after its roof was raised to add the orange seats.

Rousseau was a “fun-loving hippie type” and Vietnam veteran who had soured on the war after coming home.

What’s it like for Rousseau to see his anti-war handiwork cited in Off Main?

“Anytime I can get in the paper and it’s not an obit or the police blotter, I’m happy,” he said.

Rousseau, who worked for General Motors for many years, is now retired and living in Elma.

He still wears an earring and a ponytail, and he’s still a Grateful Dead fan.

No Todd Collins jersey?

To mark the 100th anniversary of the city’s founding, Lackawanna officials this month opened a time capsule stuffed with items that captured a moment in the Steel City’s history.

Instead of getting to see memorabilia from 50 or 100 years ago, Lackawannans got a trip down memory lane to 1997.

Now, only our oldest readers will remember what the world was like way back then.

It was a time when people watched something called cable TV, typed on electronic devices called computers and got around by driving motorized vehicles called automobiles.

Seriously, why put aside a time capsule for just 12 years? Current Lackawanna Mayor Norman L. Polanski Jr. said restaurateur Ilio DiPaolo came up with the idea in 1997.

“It must have been spur of the moment. Someone said, ‘Hey, let’s have a time capsule for the centennial,’ ” Polanski said.

The contents include: a sweat shirt from a local bar signed by its patrons with one four-letter word; a Little Loop helmet and football; a letter from the mayor at the time that ends with “P.S. Be happy;” and some booze left by a local couple. “They claimed their bottle of wine,” Polanski told us.

The capsule will be on display at Veterans Stadium—in 1997 it was called Ron Jaworski Stadium—through Sunday for the centennial festival.

Stand and deliver votes

The Web is chock full of contests to pick the best in a wide and weird range of categories.

Our very own Niagara Falls is a contender in an ongoing vote to pick the Greatest Place to Stand in the United States.

Niagara Falls currently is No. 29 in voting for the contest, on

www.stoodthere.com

, which runs through Dec. 1. For our purposes, standing in our seats at HSBC Arena watching the Sabres celebrate winning the Stanley Cup would be hard to top.

But, in general, Off Main is fairly lazy and we would prefer to participate in a contest to determine the best places in this country to sit or lie down.

What do you think? Send your thoughts on your favorite spots to stand up, lounge around or strike a yoga pose to

offmain@buffnews.com

.

Set phasers to amuse

Off Main Street friend and Assembly member Sam Hoyt was holding his annual clam bake fundraiser Friday night.

We care because there’s usually a couple of good lines in the Top 10 list in the invitation, which had a Star Trek theme this year. The best of the bunch:

“This year’s new menu item: Rotisserie Pigeon.”

“County Executive Collins will be on hand to ensure Six Sigma practices in the pouring of the beer.”

And “The first 50 guests get a patch of wheat grass, a seed packet and a baby chick to start their own urban farm.”