I like Central Park early in the morning. The light is special, the space is quiet but for the dogs off their leashes. I like that best, gives the place a country feel. Well, I was biking over there on a Sunday morning around seven when I saw this end result of a “funny thing to do… Read more »
This past weekend the wife and I attended a co-ed baby shower for my friend and spiritual advisor Rabbi Jay Levitz and his wife Sarah. We were in Oceanside, Long Island, New York, a short drive outside the city for us, as we live in Eastern Queens. As we talked with Jay, the conversation turned… Read more »
“Get that out of your mouth.” The nun demanded. “Wha?” said the kid. “The candy.” With lots of lisping,”It’ssss not candy, it’ssss a cough drop.” The nun with pointing directions only made the boy take out a hanky and drop the drop into the snot rag. “No candy in class!” “It’sssss not candy!” The nun… Read more »
This past weekend I drove the family to the Bronx Zoo to do a 5K. I say ‘do’ a 5K because the plan was for me to run the 5K and then join my wife and our baby girls to walk the 5K together, but fate (meaning oversleeping, traffic and general lateness) conspired against us…. Read more »
Finally, the calendar insists it is springtime in New York. Street blossoms just got in on the red eye. Walking through Central Park and the Upper Eastside I spied these scenes. Thomas Pryor’s blog: Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts
Got into a sparkling new cab this morning. The seats, dashboard and windows shined. Riding my finger along the metal detail on the passenger door, I thought, the only time my brother Rory and I were ever this clean was for one lone hour at a photography studio on Third Avenue in spring 1960. I repel wool…. Read more »
Tonight, I’m going to my grammar school, St. Stephen of Hungary’s first ever all students/faculty reunion. I graduated in 1968 and soaring memories involving all my senses have welled up. Next Friday, I’m headed to Joe’s Pub to see the Loser’s Lounge Carly Simon/Linda Ronstadt tribute. The Losers Lounge is my favorite recurring NYC music… Read more »
March 19th is the Feast of St. Joseph ~ an East Side wide holiday in 1962 in Manhattan. The St. Joseph parish on 87th Street began as an orphanage on York Avenue (then known as Avenue A) and 89th Street in the 1800s. The cornerstone of the present church was blessed in 1894. My mother and… Read more »
I bet I can name every barber I’ve had back to five years old. I only remember nicknames for the first two on York Avenue because I didn’t know their real names. “Herman the German” and “Mickey Mouse” with his wife with Tourette’s syndrome. In a house dress with her wild gray hair, she sat next to you… Read more »
Let’s get some definitions out of the way first: Gentrification is integration that you don’t like. Integration is gentrification that benefits you. Filmmaker Spike Lee made news when he complained about the gentrification of Brooklyn recently, decrying the efforts of white interlopers to “bogart” black cultural enclaves like his native Fort Greene. But Lee suffers… Read more »
