what about the plastic animals?

Jagdschloss Granitz

Hey, I haven't forgotten Germany.  I just needed to take a break for a few days.  We went to Jagdschloss (Hunting Lodge) Granitz.  The lodge is fairly new as castles go.  It was built between 1836 and 1846.  The most impressive feature is the 38-meter high central tower and the spiral staircase that climbs up the inside of it.  There are also many hunting trophies (i.e. stuffed animals).  Jagdschloss Granitz sits on top of a hill, so the view is impressive.  Probably more impressive when there's more than half a mile of visibility. 

To get to the castle you have to take a trolley for a couple of miles.  When we got off the trolley the first thing we saw was a guy cooking the wurst soup and selling beer.  The wurst was tempting but we had just eaten lunch.

The Battle is On!

It's the battle of high-priced, hybrid baked goods!  In a visit to the Doughnut Plant this morning I saw that they were now baking something they call a butterfly roll.  I haven't been there in months so this may not be news, but it was news to me.  Anyway, the butterfly roll is a buttery rolled yeast dough that's been sliced to look like a butterfly.  The roll was weirdly like a cross between a croissant and a pretzel, with a little cinnamon roll style thrown in.

Finding the butterfly roll inspired me to stop at the City Bakery for their pretzel croissant so I could conduct a taste test.  The City Bakery has three signature items:  hot chocolate, tarts, and the pretzel croissant.  The pretzel croissant is pretty much exactly what it's name implies -a cross between a soft pretzel and a croissant.  It's one of the city's great baked goods.

How do they compare?

Taste:  both are good, but the pretzel croissant is outstanding.
Price:  butterfly roll - $2;  pretzel croissant - $3.  Much more dough for your dough at the Doughnut Plant.
Customer service:  the guy at the Doughnut Plant is unfailingly pleasant.  At the City Bakery service is inconsistent.  This morning I had to listen to three people behind the counter discuss bathroom inventory issues in dramatically exaggerated tones before they took my order.
Atmosphere:  Doughnut Plant is mostly take-out and is usually uncrowded.  From late-morning on City Bakery can be  a real zoo.
Drinks:  Blueberry-lemonade at Doughnut Plant is awesome.  City Bakery didn't have their much-hyped lemonade, which, frankly, I don't care for anyway.
Website: both are horrible in their own special way.  Doughnut Plant's hasn't been updated in years and is mostly text.  City Bakery's has lots of pointless Flash animation but precious little information (this is especially true for the pretzel croissant link above).
Travel:  Doughnut Plant is a long way from Harlem.  City Bakery isn't close to Harlem, but it seems much closer since I don't have to switch trains and the walk is less than two blocks.

Pipes

Pipes.

The Ungilded General

General Sherman and his horse look like they've seen better days.

East Side Bridges

Upper East Side Residential Transom

Looking toward Triboro Bridge from above FDR Drive

Pedestrian Bridge to Ward's Island

Triboro Bridge

I'm not in a writing mood so here are a few bridges seen on my Sunday morning bike ride.  Next to where I was standing while taking the last photo was a dumping ground for cracked marble and granite counter tops.

If that's not enough entertainment take a gander at We Feel Fine to see how other people are feeling.

Ed's Auto Body and Fender

June 14th

July 25th

Ed's Auto Body and Fender on West 117th gets new windows.  It's been years since Ed's was in business, and now it's being converted into apartments.

Waves in the Sky

Last night, while I was trying to figure out why my internet connection died (thanks Time-Warner), I noticed a bright white cloud to the south.  Usually nighttime clouds are a jaundiced yellow, not bright white.  It was also a standing cloud.  Instead of moving with the wind it was staying put, forming on the right side and dying on the left.  Bright white standing clouds aren't that common so I took a few long-exposure pictures.  To add to the unusualness, I got lucky and captured a semi-rare cloud formation known as a Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud. 

You can see the waves on the right in the bottom photo (which is a blow up of the middle picture).  Usually these clouds form downwind of a mountain range.  Last night they would have been forming between the denser dry air near the ground and warm, humid air above.  Interesting!

Pottery on a Gate

The wall plant pods that Tien has in his apartment reminded me of the the gate covered in pottery in Grötzingen, the town in Germany where my aunt lives.

Purple and Blue

Every once in a while I'll spy an array of purple glass disks in the sidewalk.  The glass lets light get into underground spaces, but why would they be purple?  Could it be that cheaper glass, made purple with its high manganese content was sufficient?  Some glass turns purple after prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light (or short exposure, much to the dismay of certain pattern glass collectors).  Might that have happened in this case?  Or could the purple have been intentional? 

In 1876 Augustus Pleasanton published The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Sky, one of the stranger books ever written (California redwoods are tall because of electricity!  Heat destroys gravitation!).   The book touted the health benefits of blue light, and set off a mini-craze of people installing blue windows in their homes.  This is absurd, of course, and the effect was shown to be bunk in 1877.  The glass here at 7th and the Bowery looks pretty worn.  Could it be from the 1876 fad?

Present day so-called "color therapists" others still tout Pleasanton's findings as significant.  Some don't bother mentioning that his ideas were thoroughly discredited.  More fascinating, others mention Pleasanton's ideas as a great leap forward in the history of color therapy, then mention that those ideas, and then continue on as if the idea alone was more important than its absolute dismissal. 

It all makes me wonder about the health effects of Blue:

Fire Hydrants

LaGuardia Place

Houston St.

104th and Broadway

1.  That was not my banana peel.

2.  I looked all over for a hole that the fallen fire hydrant could have belonged to but couldn't find one.  I wonder where it came from and how it got there.

3.  I took the third picture while walking north on Broadway.  A half-hour later I was walking south on the same block when the woman on the bike enjoying the Ben and Jerry's milkshake in the photo above passed me.  She had finished her drink and was talking on her cell phone.  How do I remember this?  She had quite a memorable strut to her walk.

4.  (no photo) Earlier on the same day I was in the McNally-Robinson bookstore downtown.  It is a small store.  My cell phone rang.  In answering it I accidentally pushed the speaker button.  At first I didn't realize the phone was on speaker.  I just thought the volume was turned way up on the regular phone.  As I hastily retreated from the store I was madly trying to turn down the volume and talk to the caller, who, unbeknownst to either of us, was talking to the entire store.  It wasn't until I got outside that I figured out that the speakerphone was on.