what about the plastic animals?

The Kalahari Gets Chickenpox

Repairs seem to have stalled on the Kalahari.  You might recall that part of the west wall accidentally fell off in May.  A demolition crew arrived and the entire outer layers of the west walls were stripped.  The layers were replaced on the 116th St. building (gray wall on the left), but the 115th St. building has been in a partially repaired state for a few weeks now. 

The north-facing portion of the 115th St. building has recently gotten all spotty.  That's odd because that exterior was seemingly completed many months ago.  I wonder what is going on?

All-Star Blimp

Yankee Stadium is almost exactly two miles away from my apartment.  Over the weekend the Goodyear Blimp started making daily appearances in anticipation of tonight's All-Star game.  Walking home this evening I spotted no less than five airplanes towing advertising banners.  There was also one hot air balloon.  What I did not see was the blimp.

The All-Star game will be getting all the attention this evening, and rightfully so, but it may not be the biggest event going on in town.  The Philharmonic is giving a free concert in Central Park this evening.   Those concerts usually draw at least 50,000 people.

I wanted to go but forgot about it until I went for a bike ride in the park.  It was easy to distinguish the concertgoers from the regular park users.  Classical music fans, remember your Safety City lessons and look both ways before crossing the park drives!  I'm not one of the intense spandex-clad cyclists who ride to experience pain as a way to face their inner demons and who would rather scream at pedestrians than slow down ruin their precious workout, and yet I nearly ran into several people as they obliviously stepped into traffic.  For the record I do want to commend the parks department guy who advised me to watch out for the pedestrians well after I had come to a complete stop.

Behning and Sons

Here's a mystery.  Somebody left part of an upright piano, the heavy part, next to a garbage can in Morningside Park over the weekend.  Who thinks "How should we get rid of our old piano?  I know, let's take it apart and bring it to a park!"

The piano was made by Behning and Sons.  A cursory search doesn't turn up much information about the company.  Henry Behning started the business in 1856 and it became Behning and Sons in 1880.  After Henry's death the name changed to the Behning Piano Co.  I can't find a date.  In 1926 the company was sold to Kohler.  That would make this piano about a hundred years old, plus or minus a couple of decades.

Zip codes were introduced in 1963, so Hans Deutsch tuned this piano at least forty-five years ago.  Mr. Deutsch lived in a handsome four-story townhouse at 38 W. 74th Street, just off Central Park.

Towers

George Washington Bridge on a Sunday morning

Chrysler Building at dusk

Two things in New York that I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at.  Some days I get mighty tired riding the bus over the bridge but that is a different story.

Manhattanhenge

Manhattan's east-west streets are thirty degrees off true east-west. That means the dates on which the sun sets directly parallel to the streets fall about three weeks either side of the summer solstice. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, has coined the term Manhattanhenge for the two dates.

True Manhattanhenge, when half the sun's disk is above the horizon and parallel to the streets, is actually tonight. I took these photos last night on the bridge over 42nd St. in Tudor City, when the whole disk of the sun was sitting on top of the horizon. It draws quite a crowd.  One person it didn't draw was a teenager talking into her cellphone "There's a bunch of people on the bridge taking pictures of the sunset or something.  It's weird."

The best place to see the sunset is on the east side of Manhattan where you can see all the way across the island.  The bridge may be crowded but it is a safe place to stand in the middle of the street. 

Hilltop Park

Greg is right! Yesterday's pictures were taken 99 years and about 80 feet apart.  The photo I took was up the third base line from near home plate in the little courtyard park on the grounds of the Columbia University Med School/New York Presbyterian Hospital.  The medical complex replaced Hilltop Park, which was the home of the New York Highlanders, now Yankees, from 1903-1912. 

In addition to being the site of the famous picture of Ty Cobb stealing third base, Hilltop Park was also the location of perhaps the greatest sustained pitching performance in baseball history.

On Friday September 4th 1908 Humboldt, Kansas native Walter Johnson, then 20 years old, gave up only five hits to the Yankees in a 3-0 victory by the Washington Senators.  The next day Johnson blanked the Highlanders again, this time giving up only three hits.  Baseball in New York wasn't legal on Sundays back then, so it took until Monday for Johnson to throw his third shut-out.  This time he allowed only two hits in a 4-0 victory.  Four days, 27 innings, ten hits, and three shutout victories.  That's beyond impressive.

Quiz

Ty Cobb sliding into third base, photo by Charles M. Conlon

Today's quiz question:  What do these two pictures have in common?

Radish Rainbow

There was a rainbow of radishes at the farmer's market this weekend.  I guess people eat them.

The Bravery

Independence Day seemed like an appropriate time to be brave.  So, I took off on my bike and rode through Times Square.  The traffic wasn't too bad but it is an intense ride.  I guess I'll never be a bike messenger.  In case you didn't notice there's a giant Eddie Murphy head in Times Square to promote his new movie.

Three Boats at Sunset

Reading the paper and people watching in Riverside Park was a good way to end the holiday weekend.