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Saturday, December 29, 2012
Classic Zippo Lighters in Offbeat store
Actually, these classic Zippo lighters would make great "collectibles" and well worth the $25-$35 this funky store on Second Avenue in Midtown wants for them. (They also have old cute ashtrays with ceramic figurines on them).
Get them while they last, I suspect....I noticed when I took this picture that all the ashtrays were now gone except for one...
Poorer street, old tailor place
Midtown kids and their nanny
My sister once told me she felt guilty when she first got a nanny for her kids so she could keep working at her landscape architect job....I told her look, everyone who can afford a nanny in NYC has one, and I doubt it is much different up there in Massachusetts....
She and her husband continued to live their incredibly busy social life as well...as it happened, she told me morosely some years later that her younger son DID however say to her one day, "when I grow up I am going to be rich enough(as if his parents were not well off!) so that my wife never has to work and we need a nanny."
Induced enormous guilt trip in my sister of course...but not enough for her to dismiss any of the nannies that came and went...
Sunny day in late December
Today was a sunny, very pleasant day for late December...great for walking around, of which I did plenty.
Snow comes in tomorrow and then the deep freeze on Sunday...New Year's Eve will be cold for all the people who want to go up to Times Square ( I have NEVER wanted to do that! I even find watching it on TV something of a drag)....
Been to some great Holiday parties but never to a really good New Year's Eve one. Even back when I was young and it was safe to come home extremely late on the subway or walk home if it that were feasible...(shows you how old I am!!)
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas to All
Glad I saw it while it was still there..Street Art
Wonder what happened. That's one of the things about NYC street art, it is rarely permanent unless it is painted on a wall or something....this was some kind of cut-out thing.
Winter Coats and Christmas Sales
I really love the parka I got from Eddie Bauer some years back at half price this time of year...unfortunately, the items I have ordered recently I have had to send back....they went bankrupt but are still operating...however, their stuff does not seem to be as good as it used to be. Several other people have told me they have experienced the same thing, not just with Bauer but also with Land's End etc.
Looks like they are moving production of clothes to cheaper and cheaper factories in China and elsewhere to increase the profit margin...
Monday, December 24, 2012
People at Work....Welder
This was taken not too long ago at the Epiphany School down below Kips Bay...
In the future I will try to get more work photos posted here.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Flood of Santas, reindeer and Santa's helpers
Midtown was flooded a while back by an incredible crowd of Santas, Santa's helpers and reindeer...it is part of some international charity event...most of them who were traveling in groups usually in Midtown were also heading for any available bar...
These two young ladies were willing to let me take their picture ( most people say no if you ask them in NYC, especially the natives)--they seem to be enjoying themselves OK.
Museum of Sex
Never looked all that interesting to me from the outside, googled it up and--wow--does it get mixed reviews. A lot of people say "skip it," very definitely, others liked it a lot...
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60763-i5-k5091221-Museum_of_Sex_questions-New_York_City_New_York.html
That trip advisor link is a good one to find out a lot about the Museum of Sex--
I checked out the Museum's website and found the senior admission was $17.50. Am not sure if I want to risk it or not...(you cannot take photos indoors anyway).
Shortest Day of the Year
That Mayan prophecy thing is the kind of nutty concept that gets under the skin of people in these turbulent, uncertain times-- one study for the BBC found that 10% of the people worldwide were actually made nervous about it.
Well, it certainly reminded me of "Bleak December" and Shakespeare's " Bare ruined choirs" today-- although for me it mostly meant a visit to the doctor and getting antibiotics and other prescriptions...
This photo was taken a few days ago actually but I felt it was unusually appropriate for today...
Thursday, December 20, 2012
KittyKind at Petco- North End of Union Square
He just came on Facebook and found that someone I knew had added him as a friend and so I contacted him.
Now retired, Harmon volunteers for the KittyKind cat rescue project. This is at 17th Street and Broadway, the Northern end of Union Square.
KittyKind is a cat rescue service which finds new homes for lots of kitties
that have become stray or are given up for adoption for various reasons
( all the cats offered are basically healthy and have their shots, etc.).
If you are in New York, drop by on a weekday afternoon and you will
probably find Harmon at Petco-- and maybe you can adopt a kitty!
More about KittyKind at
http://www.kittykind.org/ci/index.php/pages/index/home
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Kips Bay's eclectic achitecture
Of course, in the Northern part of Kips Bay, many people and places insist on using the name "Murray Hill," which I think they believe is more upscale. It certainly use to be, but with the endless gentrification that has affected just about all of Manhattan, Kips Bay is about as expensive as anywhere now....except, of course, the toniest parts of the Upper East Side and a few other areas ( like Tribeca).
Going Out of Business
This one, on Fifth Avenue in the mid-upper-30's, seems to have brought all sorts of odd stuff from out of storage to put out with the rest of its merchandise....
Jazz at Kitano
Jazz at Kitano on East 38th Street on the edge of Murray Hill is a perfect example. It attracts international jazz fans to what is described as a "Pan Asian atmosphere."
You can read more about it at this link:
http://www.kitano.com/Jazz-Schedule
Sunday, December 2, 2012
More storm surges on the way?
They had closed the gates to the Esplanade...the morning high tide gave no indication how bad the evening surge would be...just that the situation was getting hairy.
Last night, the local ABC affiliate here showed a half hour special on "Extreme Weather NYC" which predicted what were once odd occasional tornadoes and other meteorological events around this area would become more common and also get worse...
Due of course, to global warming and climate change. As the polar ice cap melts in the summer now (more and more...eventually it will melt away to nothing during the summer) and the Atlantic continues to rise in temperature, the difference between air temperatures in the far North and down towards the Equator will become less pronounced.
This will influence the flow of weather from West to East across the country...making it loop around in all sorts of ways, and even double back on itself as it did in the case of Sandy ( which should have headed out to sea instead of turning inland and slamming the South New Jersey Coast--and, of course, bringing all the flooding to the NJ-NY area).
Now that the weather in the Pacific Ocean is more or less "neutral" (neither much of an El Nino or a La Nina effect), storms in the North Atlantic will arise on their own out of nowhere and with less warning.
So, we could be in for more storm surges this winter...and who knows how bad they might be.
Nobody wants to consider worst case scenarios at the moment, but one grumpy old weather guy on the ABC show said that " Sandy was not "The Big One" when it comes to storm surges...we will have much worse ones in the future."
So, people like NYC Mayor Bloomberg and NY Governor Cuomo are talking now about what can be done to deal with the extreme weather of the future. They seem to be confused a little here, not knowing whether to rebuild some sections like the Rockaways ( which might not be worth it, given what the future is like)...and they talk of rebuilding the boardwalk at Long Beach on the South Shore of Long Island with concrete rather than wood. (Local residents are indignant about this and insist it be rebuilt with wood. They seem to think that living there is a workable proposition for the future, which one wonders about now. I mean, they ARE going to be wiped out again sooner or later and maybe sooner).
Some of the plans for helping to seal off the subway tunnels from water with inflatable plugs seem a little science fiction-ish, (and will take years to really work out if they decide to do it).
Just for this winter: what if there is another big storm surge and more flooding and another big power outage? The big problem will be all the boilers in buildings that will not be functioning and tons of people in the area suddenly finding themselves in the middle of the winter without heat...( or power, for that matter). How can the government handle this? Nobody even wants to consider this happening right now....and it may never happen, at least not THIS winter.
The future is just sure to have a lot more extreme weather and we had all better get used to the idea, that's all.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Holiday Nails
Elmo and others work Herald Square for tips....
They have banned people like this from Times Square for--among other reasons-- complaints from veterans who are food vendors there.
One of few breaks veterans get in NYC is top priority for being food vendors in Times Square. One vendor referred to this as "one of the few crumbs they throw to us." Sad.
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