Tuxedoes

"All men look good in tuxedos," a woman acquaintance said to me when she found I was going to a black tie affair. ( I was badly out of shape then with a protruding pot belly....took me ages to get rid of that),

She was right, though, I looked great in a tux.

Pedestrian overpasses

There are not that many of these pedestrian overpasses around.....New York Life has on over near Madison Square and Hunter College has one on the upper East Side and as I remember there is one up at Columbia University.

 

Always wonder if they inspect them and how safe they are.

Silence!

Guess this parody of "Silence of the Lambs" did not go over very well. Reminds me of old saw, " Satire is what closes on Saturday Night."

This is not always true. Monty Python show did very well as have some others, particularly off Bway shows like some in the Village.

What is Fuse?

For all its bright lights and scrolling advertising, I am still not quite sure what this Fuse place is.

Let us check the internet:

This seems to be the right listing ( also restaurant called Fuse...assume this is Fuse Networks):

Our company does something very uncommon and very useful for businesses today: we fuse the vertical elements of the technology industry into single integrated solutions delivered through a single source. We engineer the connectivity and host everything in a private cloud environment including phones, SaaS, PCs, servers, faxes, printers, routers switches. Then we maintain and support all aspects of the solution as a single help desk.

Our clients pay one bill instead of hundreds. The total cost is comparable — and usually less — than a traditional legacy environment. But most importantly, the user experience is far superior with better equipment and greater functionality, security, productivity and scalability.

— Russ Johnson, President

Nice Plaza

After all the dreary ones I see, this open space in the heart of the Garment District seems pretty cheerful and making people happy at lunchtime. That is what these places are supposed to do, of course.

Fancy Newer Apartments

This place looks fairly typical of newer apartment buildings that have fancy names and small apartments in architecturally undistinguished buildings. Rents are very high of course....or this may be a coop or a condo, there is no way of knowing without googling it which I don't feel like doing.

Most improved drivers

Used to be, these Paratrans buses for infirm or disabled people easily one the prize for being the worst driving vehicles around....sort of ironic!

Now it seems that instead of just one company having the franchise, there are several...and for some reason I do not understand, their standards of driving have gone way up.

Anytime something like this happens in NYC, it is an occasion for great relief if not rejoicing.

Helium shortage

In the future, you will see fewer and fewer helium filled balloons like this. (There was even a question of whether Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloons would be OK...they are, it seems).

Reason is-- as I heard on BBC--is that there is only ONE source of helium in the world, and that is down in Texas or Arkansas or somewhere. It just flows out of the ground. Some day the supply will be gone...

Windows still taped up from Hurricane

City told New Yorkers not to bother taping up windows in preparation for Hurricane Irene...reminds me of 1985, when  a lot of windows were taped up and the tape did not come off for months and months.

Well, I guess we should all be glad hurricane was not as bad as forecast ( bad enough in New Jersey and on Long Island though....long term power outages and flooding).

Oh, these psychics!

Near where I live, I looked up and guess what? Another psychic place had appeared out of nowhere. Unless it was there all along and I just never noticed it.

Psychics are advertising very aggressively in Midtown....have sign people and others handing out leaflets.

Of course, I wonder why all this psychic action. Is it something young people go for in particular, like the Vampire movies? Escapism of a kind I imagine.

Gap Fall Fashion

Gap's Fall fashions seem very, very traditional. Only touch of present day I see in this is shirt worn outside pants.

Olives

Local mini greenmarket and rummage sale had all kinds of items....including many pickled products and also this variety of olives.

Curious about olive varieties. Internet says:

Olive Varieties

Here are some of the more popular olive varieties:

• manzanilla:  Spanish green olive, available unpitted and/or stuffed, lightly lye-cured then packed in salt and lactic acid brine

• picholine:  French green olive, salt-brine cured, with subtle, lightly salty flavor, sometimes packed with citric acid as a preservative in the U.S.

• kalamata:  Greek black olive, harvested fully ripe, deep purple, almond-shaped, brine-cured, rich and fruity flavor

• niçoise:  French black olive, harvested fully ripe, small in size, rich, nutty, mellow flavor, high pit-to-meat ratio, often packed with herbs and stems intact

• liguria:  Italian black olive, salt-brine cured, with a vibrant flavor, sometimes packed with stems

• ponentine:  Italian black olive, salt-brine cured then packed in vinegar, mild in flavor

• gaeta:  Italian black olive, dry-salt cured, then rubbed with oil, wrinkled in appearance, mild flavor, often packed with rosemary and other herbs

• lugano:  Italian black olive, usually very salty, sometimes packed with olive leaves, popular at tastings

• sevillano:  Californian, salt-brine cured and preserved with lactic acid, very crisp

Aftermath of United Nations Week

UN meeting week is over but cops and barriers are still around entrances to Waldorf Astoria and Interncontinental Hotels-- two very popular places with delegates. Security was really tight for UN scene this last week....horrible traffic problems on East Side, worse than ever.

Expensive ties

Expensive ties on Madison Avenue.  I am trying to remember last time I wore a tie. Long time ago.  As I remember vaguely, ancestry of Western ties seems to go way back to stringy things worn in either Greece or Albania...

 

 

 

 

Chrysler Plaque

This plaque in the sidewalk is actually a couple of blocks away from the Chrysler Building ( sometimes referred to as "Walter Chrysler's biggest erection.")

For some reason, there are a lot of plaques in this section of Midtown, including the Library Walk with all its quotes about reading from famous authors....

Why this plaque is where it is remains a mystery. Let me see if I can google something about it

Well, it is all part of 101 Park Avenue development. This briefly from the internet:

was built in 1979-1982 by H.J. Kalikow & Co. as an office tower in the Grand Central Terminal neighbourhood.

The main entrance to the building is located at the diagonal part facing the gray granite-clad plaza with a fountain. Furthermore, the Park Avenue sidewalk between 40th and 41st Streets features 20 bronze relief plaques measuring 55 x 91 cm, depicting notable buildings in the vicinity.

UPS Store

As I write this, Wall Street is waiting to see the earnings reports for Federal Express, which like UPS has been such stiff competition for the Postal Service.

Reason is, they want to see volume of shipping as an indicator of the economy.

People on Wall Street are like old Romans looking over every  detail of bird entrails for prophecies of the future.

Red Flowers

I don't know what these red flowers on 2nd Avenue are...someone who is more botanically informed than I am may know. Just like the look of them. I suppose they are fall flowers because we are well into September now...

Trees are still all green. Change of colors will come next month...wonder, with all this climate change phenomenon, what kind of October we will have.

From the internet:

October Weather:

• Average High: 65°F (18°C)
• Average Low: 50°F (10°C)
• October is a beautiful month to visit New York City.

What to Wear:

• a sweater or medium weight jacket (for keeping warm in the evenings)
• closed toe shoes, comfortable for walking and water-resistant, if possible

October Perks:

• weather is perfect for enjoying walking tours
• colorful fall foliage in Central Park peaks
• days are warm and evenings are cool
• Halloween offers a great deal of activities for visitors
• Columbus Day Parade

October Cons:

• hotel prices and airfares rise as NYC enters its peak travel time

Good to Know:

• Columbus Day, celebrated the 2nd Monday in October creates a three-day weekend which is popular with visitors

October Highlights/Events:

• Columbus Day Parade
• Halloween
• Fall Foliage in New York City

Madison Square Garden Refurbishing

Madison Square Garden moved away from Madison Square a long time ago now....why they kept the name, I can't imagine, except that it was well known.

Internet says:

 
The first major step in the Garden's renovation is the transformation of the lower bowl better known as the "suit seats", somewhere I have never been able to sit for due to their high price and the constant late arrival of the people who are actually supposed to sit there. All of the seats have been stripped, the rink has been torn up and the locker rooms and personnel area below the arena has also been cleared. The entire renovation is expected to be complete for the 2013-2014 season
MSG lists that the following will be ready for the 2011-12 season:

• Lower Bowl
• Madison Concourse (6th Floor)
• Event Level Suites
• Delta Sky360 Club
• Locker Rooms

MTA self congratulation

More MTA false self advertising.

Fares are going up, employees are cut, rats are increasing wildly, and trains are more overcrowded than ever!

42ns Street West of Times Square

There was a time...it seems so long ago now... the block of 42nd Street West of Times Square was undeniably the sleaziest place in the City. (outside of parts of the East Village). I once had a bad dream of being trapped there and surrounded by muggers!

Today of course it is all redeveloped but still with an agreeable air of the honky tonk or whatever...
Most popular place that I could see was Madame Tussauds, where throngs waited to get in.

As to redevelopment of the are, from the internet (article in NY Times a year ago):

Richard Perry/The New York Times

A look at 42nd Street at night. The redevelopment of Times Square, which started three decades ago, will be done with the opening of 11 Times Square next month. More Photos »

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

Published: December 3, 2010

Next month, 11 Times Square, a new, glassy 40-story office tower at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, will formally open with its first tenant. Compared with the metamorphosis that has occurred around it, there is nothing extraordinary about the building except for this: Its completion officially marks the end of the long and tortuous redevelopment of Times Square, an effort that began 30 years ago.

Multimedia

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The Rebirth of 42nd Street

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The Transformation of 42nd Street

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Cleaning Up 'The Deuce'

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The plan, to radically make over 13 acres, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, primarily fronting 42nd Street, outlived three mayors, four governors, two real estate booms and two recessions. It faced widespread derision in the beginning from jaded New Yorkers who were wise to grand plans. It faces occasional derision today from New Yorkers who speak of the old Times Square with newfound fondness.
It embodied both the hubris of urban master planning and its possibilities, and showed the value of ripping up blueprints and starting over in midstream. And it has been a touchstone experience for a city that is now building, or trying to build, several multibillion-dollar projects, including ground zero, the Atlantic Yards, Willets Point and the Hudson Yards.

Wendell Willkie

Who remembers Wendell Willkie and his ideas of "One World" now? Know my mother voted for him...

From Wikipedia:

Wendell Lewis Willkie (pronounced /ˈwɪlki/; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was a corporate lawyer in the United States and was the dark horse Republican Party nominee for the 1940 presidential election. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and anti-business. Willkie, an internationalist,^[1] needed the votes of the large isolationist element so he at the end waffled on the bitterly debated issue of America's role in World War II, losing support from both sides. His opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 85% of the electoral vote.
Afterward, Roosevelt found Willkie to be compatible politically with his plans and brought him aboard as an informal ambassador-at-large. Willkie criss-crossed the globe on the former army bomber The Gulliver, bringing home a vision of "One World" freed from imperialism and colonialism. "One World" was Willkie's travelogue of his travels and meetings of the then-Allies heads of state, as well as ordinary citizens and soldiers in regions such as Russia and Iran.^[2] His liberalism lost him supporters in the GOP and he dropped out of the 1944 race, then died of a heart attack. He never held political office.

Trophies

Trophies are so much a part of American Life that we take them for granted.

Let us see what internet has to say:

History

In ancient Greece, the winners of the Olympic games initially received no trophies except laurel wreaths. Later the winner also received an amphora with sacred olive oil. In local games, the winners received different trophies, such as a tripod vase, a bronze shield or a silver cup.
In ancient Rome, money usually was given to winners instead of trophies.
Chalices were given to winners of sporting events at least as early as the very late 1600s in the New World. For example the Kyp Cup (made by silversmith Jesse Kyp), a small two-handled sterling cup in the Henry Ford Museum, was given to the winner of a horse race between two towns in New England in about 1699. Chalices, particularly, are associated with sporting events, and were traditionally made in silver. Winners of horse races, and later boating and early automobile races, were the typical recipients of these trophies. The Davis Cup, Stanley Cup, and numerous World Cups are all now famous cup-shaped trophies given to sports winners.^[8]
Today, trophies are much less expensive, and thus much more pervasive, thanks to mass produced plastic trophies.

[edit] Types

The Premier League Trophy is an example of a loving-cup trophy.

Trophies can take the shape of two-handled cups, bowls, or mugs (all usually engraved); statues of people, animals, and architecture while displaying words, numbers or images. While trophies traditionally have been made with metal figures, wood columns, and wood bases, in recent years they have been made with plastic figures and marble bases. This is to retain the weight traditionally associated with a quality award and make them more affordable to use as recognition items. Recently trophies have also been made using a resin and molds.
The Academy Awards Oscar is a trophy with a stylized human; the Hugo Award for science fiction is a space ship; and the Wimbledon awards for its singles champions are a large loving cup for men and a large silver plate for women.
A loving-cup trophy is a common variety of trophy;^{[citation needed]} it is a cup shape, usually on a pedestal, with two or more handles, and is often made from silver or silver plate.
Hunting trophies are reminders of successes from hunting animals, such as an animal's head mounted to be hung on a wall.
Resin trophies come in a variety of sports or even in generic forms. These resin awards are often used for participation awards and can be custom made to include an event logo. These can be custom molded to create a unique trophy for businesses, youth sports organizations, and non profits alike.

 

King Kongs climb Chrysler, Empire State Buildings

King Kong curios are always popular souvenirs I will bet. More about the original movie from the internet:

King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong and opened in New York City on March 2, 1933 to good reviews. Kong is distinguished for its stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and its musical score by Max Steiner. The film has been released to video, DVD, and Blu-ray, and has been computer colorized.^[1] In 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Post No Bill

At one time, this might have been correct English...like " Post Ye No Bill!"

A lot of this misuse has to do with number of foreign born residents of NYC. Internet says--wait, I posted something very similar not so long ago! Oh well, here it is again:

The demographics of New York City are evidence of a large and ethnically diverse metropolis. It is the largest city in the United States with a population defined by a long history of international immigration. New York City is home to more than 8 million people, accounting for about 40% of the population of New York State and a similar percentage of the New York metropolitan area, home to about 20 million. Over the last decade the city has been growing faster than the region. The New York region continues to be the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States.^[1]
Throughout its history New York City has been a major point of entry for immigrants; the term "melting pot" was coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side. In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city, while in 2000 36% of its population was foreign born.^[2][3] English remains the most widely spoken language and New York is one of the largest cities in the English-speaking world, although there are areas of Queens and Brooklyn in which up to 20% of people speak English only a little or not at all. Neighborhoods such as Flushing, Sunset Park and Corona are the least English-speaking communities.

New York's Five Boroughs at a Glance
Jurisdiction		Population	Land Area
Borough of	County of	1 April 2010 Census	square miles	square km
Manhattan	New York	1,585,873	23	59
The Bronx	Bronx	1,385,108	42	109
Brooklyn	Kings	2,504,700	71	183
Queens	Queens	2,230,722	109	283
Staten Island	Richmond	468,730	58	151
City of New York		8,175,133	303	786
State of New York		19,378,102	47,214	122,284
Source: United States Census Bureau [4][5][6]

I was looking for more information on specific groups in NYC, let me see what else I can find.

In 2000, the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Guyana, and Mexico were the largest sources of immigration to New York City. Except for Mexico, these countries have had a substantial presence in New York since the 1970s. Marked levels of naturalization among these groups are likely to create a larger base of citizen-sponsors that may further increase immigrant flows from these sources. At the same time, other nations are gaining a foothold in New York City, successfully navigating the maze of classes embedded in the law. Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Ghana are just three of many nations whose citizens have obtained legal permanent residency by virtue of the diversity visa program. These "seed" immigrants are likely to bring in their kin, resulting in further flows from these countries. Employment has been the hallmark of immigration from the Philippines, India, and China. Finally, it was their status as refugees that permitted the large influx from the former Soviet Union, placing Russia and the Ukraine among the top foreign-born groups.

Main Post Office

Plans have been afoot for ages to transform The Main New York Post Office Building into a train station....

Internet says:

Moynihan Station

This section is outdated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (April 2011)

Hope for a grander railroad station lies one block west. Across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station sits the James Farley Post Office. Under pressure from veteran U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, plans were publicized in 1999 to move entrances and concourses of Penn Station under this building, which fills an entire city block. When completed, the station inside the building would be named Moynihan Station, in honor of the late Senator.^[30]
Initial design proposals were laid out by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. In a protracted series of events typical of many large, complicated projects, plans to redevelop Penn Station have stretched further and further into the future. In July 2005, announcements were made that Childs' plan had been scrapped and a new one was unveiled. This second plan was similar to but much more modest than the original. It is the result of a collaboration between the architectural firms of James Carpenter and Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK). Later in 2005, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill reacquired the project and released a third design, which is a compromise. As of June 2006, the design resembles the interior of BCE Place and does not require the demolition of part of the facade of the Farley Building.
Amtrak was to be the major tenant of the new building, leaving the old station for use by the NYC commuter rail passengers. Signs of construction appeared in November 2005, with plywood barriers installed on the sidewalks and orange nets covering main facade on 8th Avenue.^[31]
Amtrak, however, subsequently decided not to move from its present location, leaving New Jersey Transit as the Moynihan Station's anchor tenant. NJ Transit has been negotiating a 99-year lease on the Farley Post Office.^[32][33] In the meantime, Cablevision, owner of Madison Square Garden, considered relocation of the Garden to the west flank of the Farley Building. Such a project would lead to Vornado Realty Trust building an office complex on the current Garden site.^[34]
Redevelopment of Penn Station thus continues to languish as various design concepts are debated and altered. A revised version proposed in 2007 would reportedly add 1,000,000 ft² (90,000 m²) of retail space to the new Moynihan train station and office complex, prompting the New York Times to complain that this latest plan "could easily shortchange the public's interests in favor of the private developers…The last thing New York needs is another dreadful Pennsylvania Station that only serves developers and Madison Square Garden."^[29]
New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has called for greater integration of the project with the larger Midtown renovation plan proposed by developers and Cablevision.^[35][36]
A FAQ for New Jersey Transit's Trans-Hudson Express tunnel suggests that Pennsylvania Station, Moynihan Station, and a proposed rail station under 34th street will be considered to be separate entities.^[37] The proximity and connection of those entities would make the Moynihan and 34th St. Stations de facto expansions of Penn Station. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's daughter, Maura Moynihan, has stated that she considers the Farley Building and current Madison Square Garden to be potential sites for two Moynihan Stations: a Moynihan-East and a Moynihan-West.^[38]
On April 3, 2008, Madison Square Garden executives announced plans to renovate and modernize the current arena in time for the Knicks and Rangers 2011–12 seasons. This announcement came a week after they declared that they have abandoned plans to move the Garden to the Farley Post Office site. Hank J. Ratner, the vice chairman of Madison Square Garden said, “We're all for the development of Moynihan Station at the Farley building, as the project was originally conceived. We're not going to be moving."^[39]
On February 16, 2010, $83.4 million from the federal government's TIGER program was awarded to the Moynihan Station project, which together with $169 million from other sources allows the first phase of construction to be fully funded. New construction plans include two new entrances from West of Eighth Avenue through the Farley Building, doubled length and width of the West End Concourse, thirteen new "vertical access points" (escalators, elevators and stairs) to the platforms, doubled width of the 33rd Street Connector between Penn and the West End Concourse, and other critical infrastructure improvements including platform ventilation and catenary work.^[40] On July 30, 2010, the New York state government approved the plans; as a result, construction was expected to begin in October 2010, with completion of the first phase, including expansion of the west concourse, new entrances and improved ventilation scheduled for 2016.^[41][42] On October 18, 2010, the ceremonial groundbreaking of the first phase of the project occurred, with numerous government officials in attendance.^[42]

Potbellies

"Potbelly" is meant to refer to a type of stove, not effect this place will have on customers...

Years ago there was a very popular little restaurant in the Village called "David's Potbelly." They later changed their ads ( given the desire of so many gay men to be forever young and slim) to "David's Potbelly Stove", emphasizing the stove in the ad.

Union protest....giant rat

Unions use this inflatable rat at sites where something is going on that they don't like....in this case, it seemed to be protesting dangerous working conditions.

Smithsonian exhibit at Morgan Museum

Let me see if I can find something about this on the internet:

HERE is a partial list of the kinds of lists included in “Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations,” an exhibition beginning Friday at the Morgan Library & Museum: lists of bills to pay, things undone, failings in oneself and others; lists of people to call, stuff to buy, errands to be accomplished. There are also lots of lists of artworks, real and imaginary. That’s because all the material in the exhibition comes from the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution — mostly, as the curator of the exhibition, Liza Kirwin, remarked the other day, from drawers and folders marked “Miscellaneous.”

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Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Pages from the artist Janice Lowry's sketchbook journal, 2003.

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Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Picasso's list of suggested painters for the 1913 Armory Show.

Ms. Kirwin got the idea for the exhibition, which is an expansion of a book she published in 2010, from a document that is one of the archive’s most important possessions: a handwritten list by Picasso suggesting painters for inclusion in the 1913 Armory Show. He recommended Gris, Duchamp (whose name he misspelled) and Delaunay, among others, but, curiously, left off Georges Braque, with whom he was then collaborating and sharing a studio. Braque’s name was added later and in a different hand.

Meditation

Meditation does not seem to be as popular as it used to be...but it may be making a comeback. Know some yoga classes incorporate it.

When I lived on 96th Street, we had a meditation group that met regularly. People brought in music, incense, etc. It was a lot of fun.

Let me see if internet has some historical information--well here is something interesting:

5 Holistic Lifestyle and Nutrition Tips to Ease Into Fall By Valerie Neng Choosing a Holistic Lifestyle Coach

Qigong Meditation and Food Healing: Ancient Medicine for Modern Times by Jeffrey Primack

On November 24, 2010, in Healing Arts, Health, Holistic Lifestyle, Life, Wellness, by John Melanson

0

Qigong is a 5000 year old “energy strengthening art” that combines powerful breath techniques and slow body movement. Oprah Winfrey’s Dr. Oz recently praised Qigong in 2007 when he said, “If you want to live to be 100, do Qigong!” It was also rated as one of the top natural healing exercises for reversing cancer. There are literally thousands of forms of Qigong, and well-known practices like Tai Chi, Acupuncture and Feng Shui were born from Qigong’s concepts. Qi (or Chi) means “energy” or “life force”, and Gong means “skill”, making Qigong the practice of working with one’s life force.
Qigong is practiced with increasing popularity, with an estimated 200 million practitioners worldwide, and its health benefits have been studied for many years. Among its powerful health-promoting effects are: improved blood circulation and microcirculation in the forehead, stimulated appetite, sexual function and digestion, accelerated metabolism, increased mental acuity and focus, and increased energy. Many published studies are reporting the healing power of Qigong in diseases like arthritis, cancer, diabetes and heart disease, to name a few.

Papaya Juice

There was a time ( long gone) when Papaya juice was considered a "miracle health drink"...just like many other items that have come along....what was the latest one, acai berries? ( touted on Oprah and by Dr. Oz who later withdrew their endorsements).

Just curious what internet has to say about papayas--well, one website has a lot, here is most of it:

Don’t Overlook the Abundant Healing Nutrients in the Mighty Papaya
Human beings have been enjoying the mildly sweet flesh of papaya fruit since the late 1500s. The papaya is a tropical fruit produced by the Carica tree, which many believe originated in Mexico and Central America. Today, several varieties of papaya are grown throughout the world. It is consider the main fruits of Asia as people understand the papaya benefits to their health.
Papaya is to spot in the produce section of your local grocery because it has a distinct shape and it is a fairly large fruit when compared to mangos, kiwi, and other tropical fruits. A typical Papaya can range in length from 7 to 20 inches, is oblong in shape, and usually weighs about five and one-half pounds.
Skin – Papaya Benefits
The skin of the papaya is thin and not edible, and since papaya comes in several varieties, skin color can vary from dark greenish-orange to greenish-yellow, red-yellow, or yellow-green. The flesh is soft and typically pale orange or yellow, but some have a reddish tint. The texture of the fleshy inside is somewhat like a musk or cantaloupe melon, only slightly softer. The center is filled with little edible black seeds.
While papaya fruit is visually impressive because of its size alone, what is more impressive is its nutrient content and the many health benefits it offers. Papaya provides dietary fiber, plus vitamins and minerals. It is high in carotenes, antioxidants, flavonoids, and low in sodium. It’s also great for weight control because it is very low in calories; only about 39 calories in a 3.5 ounce serving.
Health Benefits of Papaya
Papaya is usually eaten raw, minus its skin and seeds, but the seeds are edible and have a spicy, sharp taste. In some parts of the world, they grind the seeds and use as a black pepper substitute. Papaya seeds are a source of saponins, which have antimicrobial properties, so ingesting them can prevent and eliminate intestinal worms. Unripe papaya can be consumed cooked or raw, and is often used in salads or added to stews and curry dishes.
Papaya Enzyme Benefits
Papaya also contains pectin, so some use it to make jelly. The enzyme, papain, contained in papaya, is known for its ability to break down tough protein fibers, so it’s often added to meat tenderizers. Papain is also extracted to make digestive supplements, which are quite pleasant to chew to soothe digestion, and you can find it as an ingredient in some chewing gum brandsas well. Papain has anti-nausea properties and it is presently being studied to treat the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation like swallowing difficulties and oral lesions.

Whitney

This "Whitney" has to be one of the most highly promoted TV shows ever...let me see if I can find something more on the internet:

Whitney is an American sitcom that is set to premiere on NBC on September 22, 2011, where it will air at the 9:30 pm (E/P)/8:30 pm (C) Thursday night timeslot.^[1] The show will star Whitney Cummings (based on her real-life experience and her comedy routines), who will also serve as the executive producer, creator and writer with Scott Stuber, Quan Phung and Betsy Thomas for Universal Media Studios.^[2]

Synopsis

The series follows the titular character, an opinionated woman and her very-supportive live-in boyfriend. Even though the two have decided that they will not commit to marriage, she does question how committed they are in their 5-year relationship and tries to go as far to prove a point; she begins to fear what she sees as "relationship boredom" and worries what will happen next that could possibly end her relationship. Because of what she sees and hears around her involving other relationships, she decides to use unconventional methods to keep the romantic flames glowing with the help of her close friends.
Production notes This will be one of two sitcoms that Cummings will serve as co-creator and producer, as her Warner Bros. Television project for CBS, 2 Broke Girls was picked up at the same time as Whitney.^[3]

 International broadcasts

The series has been picked up in Canada by CTV, where it will air on the same night as the NBC telecasts, but will be scheduled in different timeslots by region.^[4]

 Cast

• Whitney Cummings as Whitney
• Chris D'Elia as Alex Green
• Jane Kaczmarek as Patti Morris, Whitney's mother.
• Maulik Pancholy as Neal
• Rhea Seehorn as Roxanne
• Zoe Lister-Jones as Lily
• Daniel G. O'Brien as Mark

 

Street Promotion

I am sorry to say I do not know more about what this street performance represented....there was a man nearby distributing flyers but I did not take one (wish I had now of course).

Could be for a theatrical troupe or simply a promotion for some store...if you have seen them some place and know, let ME know...thanks.

Palm Trees in Manhattan

Wonder what will happen to these palm trees in front of the Hotel Metro when winter comes.

Hope they take them inside...Remember a nutty motel in Chicago back in the 1950's that actually had palm trees planted outside it when it was new. They died in the Fall, of course...what a waste.

About New York trees( from the internet, again):

Just in time for Arbor Day, Parks announces green news–New York City is already 100,000 street trees greener than it was ten years ago, and the City will plant a million more trees under Mayor Bloomberg’s recently announced PlaNYC.
The Parks Department announces the results of the second citywide count of trees that grow on New York City streets and are managed by Parks. The 2005-2006 Street Tree Census found 592,130 street trees–a 19% increase over the 1995-1996 census. Thanks to 1,100 volunteers and a sophisticated computer software program, New Yorkers now have a way to quantify the enormous benefits of New York’s street trees–from pollution reduction to savings on air conditioning bills. Street trees provide almost $122 million in benefits annually to City residents and are one of the best investments around.
Over the past two summers, volunteers fanned out across the City to record information (such as size, species, location, and condition) for every street tree in New York City, logging a total of more than 30,000 volunteer hours. The United States Forest Service analyzed the data using a computer modeling program based on tree growth curves, climate data, and regional patterns of energy use, pollution levels, and building construction to quantify the dollar value of annual environmental and aesthetic benefits of each of the trees surveyed.

Strange Sandals

Store in garment district has these sandals with turned up toes that I associate with the "Arabian Nights"--

A  little about the "Arabian Nights" from the internet:

One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic: كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة‎ Kitāb 'alf layla wa-layla) is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.^[1]
The work as we have it was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators and scholars across the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Turkish, Egyptian and Mesopotamian folklore and literature. In particular, many tales were originally folk stories from the Caliphate era, while others, especially the frame story, are most probably drawn from the Pahlavi Persian work Hazār Afsān (Persian: هزار افسان, lit. A Thousand Tales) which in turn relied partly on Indian elements.^[2]
What is common throughout all the editions of the Nights is the initial frame story of the ruler Shahryār (from Persian: شهريار, meaning "king" or "sovereign") and his wife Scheherazade (from Persian: شهرزاد, possibly meaning "of noble lineage"^[3]) and the framing device incorporated throughout the tales themselves. The stories proceed from this original tale; some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more.
Some of the stories of The Nights, particularly "Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor", while almost certainly genuine Middle-Eastern folk tales, were not part of The Nights in Arabic versions, but were interpolated into the collection by Antoine Galland and other European translators.^[4]
It is also notable that the innovative and rich poetry and poetic speeches, chants, songs, lamentations, hymns, beseeching, praising, pleading, riddles and annotations provided by Scheherazade or her story characters are unique to the Arabic version of the book. Some are as short as one line, while others go for tens of lines.

Betty Boop- Max Fleischer heroine

The weird, sort of gritty Max Fleischer cartoons were sort of an antidote to Disney cuteness. Amazing the flapper Betty Boop is still around....I don't see any Donald Duck T-shirts or Bugs Bunny ones for that matter ( I would like to have a Bugs Bunny one).

From the internet:

Early life

Born to a Jewish family in Kraków, Poland, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian province of Galicia, Max Fleischer was the second oldest of six children of an Austrian immigrant tailor, William Fleischer.^[2] His family emigrated to the USA in 1887 and settled in New York City, where he attended public school; he spent his formative years in Brownsville and Brooklyn. He attended Evening High School, received commercial art training at Cooper Union, and also attended The Mechanics and Tradesman's School. While still in his teens, he worked for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle as an errand boy, and eventually became a cartoonist. It was during this period he met newspaper cartoonist and early animator, John Randolph Bray. He married his childhood sweetheart, Ethel (Essie) Gold on December 25, 1905. Shortly afterward he accepted an illustrator's job for a catalog company in Boston. He returned to New York as Art Editor for Popular Science magazine around 1912; he also wrote books, including one called Noah's Shoes.

The Rotoscope

Fleischer devised a concept to simplify the process of animating movement by tracing frames of live action film. His patent for the Rotoscope was granted in 1915, although Max and his brother Dave Fleischer made their first cartoon using the system in 1914. Extensive use of this technique was made in Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell series for the first five years of the series, which started in 1919 and starred Koko the Clown and Fitz the dog.

 Fleischer Studios

Fleischer produced his Inkwell films for the Bray Studios until 1921, when he and brother Dave established Fleischer Studios (initially named "Out of the Inkwell Films") to produce animated cartoons and short subjects; Max was credited as the producer at the beginning of every cartoon as well. Koko and Fitz remained the stars of the Out of the Inkwell series, which was renamed Inkwell Imps in 1927. The Fleischer brothers also partnered with Lee DeForest, Edwin Miles Fadiman, and Hugo Riesenfeld to form Red Seal Pictures Corporation, which owned 36 theaters on the East Coast, extending as far west as Cleveland, Ohio.
Fleischer invented the "follow the bouncing ball" technique for his Song Car-Tunes series of animated singalong shorts beginning in May 1924. After a few films with unsynchronized sound (music and sound effects only), Fleischer added synchronized sound to this series, with My Old Kentucky Home (released April 13, 1926) with a dog-like character saying "Follow the ball, and join in, everybody." The sound entries in the Song Car-Tunes series — roughly 19 out of 36 short films — used the Phonofilm sound-on-film process developed by Lee DeForest. The Song Car-Tunes series would last until early 1927, just a few months before the actual start of the sound era. This was before Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928), which is often mistakenly cited as the first cartoon to synchronize sound with animation. However, by late 1926, both the DeForest Phonofilm Corp. and Red Seal Pictures had filed for bankruptcy, and the Song Car-Tunes series came to an end.
In 1923, Fleischer made two 20-minute educational features explaining Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity (The Einstein Theory of Relativity) and Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Both features used a combination of animated special effects and live action. Fleischer also produced Finding His Voice (1929) illustrating how sound films worked.
Into the early sound era, Fleischer produced many technically advanced and sophisticated animated films. Several of his cartoons had soundtracks featuring live or rotoscoped images of the leading jazz performers of the time, most notably Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Don Redman. Fleischer's use of black performers was bold at a time when depictions of blacks were often denigrating and stereotypical.