what about the plastic animals?

Dental Specialties

Seen in Philadelphia.  Nothing like stains and rust to show off instruments of quality.

Bikes on The 9

Ooh, the abandoned bikes gallery was featured on The 9 yesterday.  How exciting!  The gallery had stood undisturbed for months until I added this swell photo of a Huffy with upchuck a couple of days ago.

Bowery Number Mystery

Another mystery.  I saw these numbers on the west side of Bowery between Great Jones and 8th Street.  The numbers increase from south to north and all were just to the right of the edge between buildings.  The TP 39.567 was next to near 32.  I'd guess they were somehow used in a survey of the street, but what do I know?

What I know is that The Crawling Eye, originally released in the UK as The Trollenberg Terror, is a pretty entertaining movie.  The story is predictable (I won't give away details but it involves aliens, radioactivity and a climactic battle in which the good guys use their ingenuity to win) and the special effects laughable (Location shooting in the Alps?  No.  Actors standing in front of murals of the Alps?  Yes.).  Despite that, the movie's pacing, slowly building up suspense and increasing the sense of claustrophobia, are expertly done.  Plus it stars Forrest Tucker as a take-charge American (working for the UN!) and an awfully cute Janet Munro in one of her first films.

Peter Vallone, Jr. Hates this Vegetable

A reliable source tells me purple cauliflower tastes milder than regular cauliflower.  I'm still not convinced I should try it.  I wonder where the unusual name comes from?

Going Up Faster

October 25th

November 9th

Since it was mentioned in yesterday's paper I thought I should give an update on the Kalahari construction.   The building is going up much faster since my last report.   Construction sped up greatly once the first two floors were built.  The residential units are in two sections.  There are a lot more construction workers now and the building is faster than a story a week.  Another story has been added since the bottom photo was taken on Thursday.  I also noticed that members of the carpenter's local were across the street, protesting the use of non-union labor on the building.

More Leaves

A few more leaves.  I suspect after this rain we won't have many leaves to look at until next Spring.

The surgery went well and I am quickly recuperating.  Stitches come out Thursday.  My right nostril may have a permanent flare to it!

Since Movie Place is soon to close I finally subscribed to NetFlix.  Herewith are reviews of movies seen over the weekend.

Grizzly Man - Excellent.  What's up with that coroner?
Manhattan - Meh.  Hard to believe this once was one of my favorites.  Too much pop psychobabble and the major characters are totally unlikeable.
An American in Paris - Good Dancing.  Otherwise not much of a story or movie.  Instead watch Singin' in the Rain for a Gene Kelly fix and Funny Face for a Gershwin fix.

Leaves

Two grape and one sycamore leaf from the woods.  Is it possible to successfully graft domesticated grape varieties onto wild grape vines?  Would that take a lot of nurturing, or would they eventually grow on their own?  These are questions I sometimes have.

I've got to have a few pesky basal cells removed from my nose Thursday.  In honor of that great occasion I'm taking a few days off from blogging.  However, if the double feature of "Invaders from Mars" and "The Crawling Eye" fails to entertain, or I otherwise get bored sitting around the apartment, a whole lot of pictures may start appearing here and on Flickr as I try to work through the backlog of photos.

Blue Snow

In a walk around town yesterday I found myself enjoying a turkey sandwich at Tiny's Giant sandwich shop on the Lower East Side.  I overheard someone at the next table ask "Is that snow?".  Sure enough, little white flakes were falling from the sky.  Since it was nearly sixty degrees outside, snow was unlikely.

After finishing my lunch I headed down Norfolk Street, where the unlikely snow was forming drifts.  The snow turned out to be pulverized styrofoam.  The drifts were slowly blowing northward up the street.  I headed south to find the source.  The styrofoam bits in the first picture are in front of the Switch Building.  There wasn't any construction activity at the Switch, but there was plenty of action at it's neighbor to the south:

Blue, everyone's favorite new construction on the Lower East Side!  I didn't see any styrofoam flying out of Blue.  Tellingly, however, there were no styrofoam drifts on the Delancy side of the building.

Election Day

I must have one of the quieter polling places in the city.  The line was two people deep when I arrived.  The whole process took about five minutes.  Election day is a university holiday.  Time to go back to sleep!

'Shrooms on a Log

Seen on a rotting log during an afternoon walk at work last week.

Remembered:  Tomatoes for the bagel brunch.  Too bad I noticed them tonight.

Near Tragedy:  Fire burns down part of Gatorland.

Vote:  Tuesday.  Before primary I got more than one mailing reminding me of my voting location.  I've received none for the general election.  Hope I'm not disenfranchised.

Delicious: Pumpkin pie milk shake!