what about the plastic animals?

Westminster Hall

I should go back and take this picture from the median, so the bottom of the building doesn't get cut off.  Oh well.

Westminster Hall is down the street from where I live.  It is a bit of a mystery because I never see any activity there, yet the building is well-kept.  At one time it was a meeting hall and synagogue.  Eighty years ago one of the Lincoln's birthday celebrations in the city was held here.  In October 1932 Reverend Rollin Dodd of All Souls Protestant Episcopal Church used Westminster Hall in services "for about sixty Negroes and seventeen white worshippers" as a protest to the racial segregation in the All Souls Church. 

The most entertaining event I could find in old newspapers was the 21 July 1922 gambling raid of the Hall and a nearby building.  The New York Times reports that nearby residents "have looked with suspicion and curiosity" as cabs "unloaded men, many of them gaudily clad and wearing jewelry" on recen afternoons.  The police arrived that afternoon to find "a great uproar inside".  There were flying chairs and men rolling on the floor in battle, allegedly over a "dispute on the payment of bets on a horse running at Belmont Park".  The Times continues:

In one corner of the hall they found a black plush curtained booth.  Inside of this was a cabinet on which lay a large, heavily bound book.  The detectives thought it was a new gambling device till they learned from the proprieter, Jacob Brown, that he had rented the hall for religious purposes several days a week.

Brown seemed surprised when he learned of the arreset.  He said the man who hired the hall for the afternoons told him that they intended to hold a series of prayer meetings.  Brown added that his hall was used in the evening by a tango teacher.

Contrast that with the New-York Tribune's take on the raid:

To all outward intents and purposes the buildings... were living up to their accepted character as synagogues...  The scores of sportily dressed men who visited them in taxicabs and afoot were looked upon by dwellers in neighboring buildings as devout Hebrews.  The busy hum which issued from each of the hosues of worship was regarded as merely the drone of prayers.

Then into each of these religious scenes in turn were introduced the Hibernian persons of Inspector Ryan and Lieutenant McAuliffe...

Wistminster Hall... serves as a synagogue only for overflow services on Jewish holy days.  At one end of the chamber is ablack case in which are stored away the articles used in the Hebrew ritual.  This is surrounded by an embrodered canopy. 

The hall was filled when the inspector and his cohorts entered.  What religious atmosphere still clung to the place was supplied alone by the canopy.  Men stood on chairs and yelled strange litanies like "Lazuli, 3 to 1" and Lady Theresa, 7 to 2."

The hall had been rented for the purpose of conducting a special synagogue service, so Jacob Brown, the owner of the building, said afterward.  When the detectives came in a number of the gamblers evidently began to suffer qualms of conscience.  They faced about and began reciting Hebrew prayers at the top of their voices.  Their fellows, less religiously inclined, began a mad scramble for the stairs and fire escapes.

It is a shame we don't get writing like that in the newspapers anymore.

Harlem Wings

There's been an explosion of chicken wing emporiums in Harlem lately.  Atomic Wings, Just Wingin It and New Wing City are within five blocks of each other.  All opened last year.  The most cleverly named of the three, New Wing City, is practically across the street from where scenes from New Jack City were filmed.  Alas, there's only so many wings a neighborhood can eat and it has already closed.

Mirror, Mirror

Despite the chill I went for a long walk yesterday afternoon.  If Google is to be believed it was a little over six miles.  My feet began to hurt around mile five, which is also when my face apparently melted.

Ford Torino GT

Looking through the photo slush pile that is my hard drive I saw these pictures of a Ford Torino GT taken in Amherst, Massachusetts.  This is either a 1968 or 1969 model.  The yellow house to the left of the car in the top photo is Emily Dickinson's house.  The white house in the second picture is her brother's.  It is a little known historical fact but the Dickinson siblings hated Fords.  It is said they had a Calvin peeing on the Ford logo sticker on the back window of their Duryea Motor Wagon made in nearby Chicopee.

Dairy Yum Yum

Aberdeen, Ohio looked on the map like a convenient place to stop along the Ohio River.  The Daniel Boone Motel on the outskirts of town didn't look so great, but Brown's, in the center of town, looked okay for a night.  Rooms were only $35!  However the plexiglass window in the office and that I needed to give them my driver's license so it could be photocopied drove me away.  I didn't see any other motel in town so I headed over the river to stay at a Super 8 in Maysville, Kentucky.  Maysville has a lovely downtown but nowhere to eat so it was back to Ohio for me.

I splurged at the Dairy Yum Yum and got a bacon cheeseburger, with all the fixin's, for $2.45.

Is it just me or does the out-of-focus part of the menu make the top photo look like a fake tilt-shift picture?

When Life Gives You Donut Muffins

Recently, I ran across a recipe for donut muffins.  Muffins that taste like donuts.  What could be better than that?  Everybody likes muffins and everybody likes donuts, but eating both for breakfast is overkill.  But if the two great flavors could be combined... well, that could be as revolutionary as the pretzel-croissant at City Bakery. 

The muffins were delicious but tasted only faintly of donuts.  It is interesting that baked nutmeg imparts almost the same flavor as deep-frying grease.  I altered the recipe slightly by using buttermilk instead of the soured milk but I doubt that would have changed the flavor much.  I also did not add the  butter and sugar topping, which might have enhanced the donutty ambiance.

I ate a few muffins on Monday and a few more on Tuesday.  Muffins go stale pretty quickly.  I began to think about what to do with the donut muffins that taste only faintly like donuts.  Then I had a thought. 

It was a beautiful thought. 

What could be done to donut muffins that taste only faintly of donuts?  Why, slice them up like this:

and make...

Under Wraps

One of the slower construction projects in the city may be slowly coming to completion.  The reconstruction of Frederick Douglass Circle at the northwestern corner of Central Park was originally scheduled to be finished in November 2005.  That was pushed back to August 2007.  Within the past month Fred, I assume that is Fred, has appeared.  He is still under wraps but maybe the circle will be unbroken again in a year or two.

First Inauguration

Federal Hall on Wall Street marks the location where, on April 30th, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office to become the first president of the United States.  This particular building was built in 1842. 

In addition to being the spot Washington was sworn in as president, the original Federal Hall was where Congress met under the Articles of Confederation, where the Northwest Ordinance was adopted (leading to the states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin and the forbidding of slavery in those states).

Federal Hall was also the first Capitol of the United States under the Constitution and is where the Bill of Rights was drafted.  Before and after serving its federal duties the original building served as New York's City Hall until 1812.

The "new" building was intially the country's first Customs House.  After that duty the Treasury stored silver and gold in the basement of the building.  Today it is taken care of by the National Park Service as the Federal Hall National Memorial.

Service Changes

What is the MTA trying to communicate here?  This sign was at 110th Street today (Sunday).  There were similar signs last Saturday at 116th and 145th Streets.  The first problem is that the B train doesn't run on weekends as a matter of course.  How then, does a non-existent train go out of service early?  Also, how does shutting down the service "ensure that trains continue to operate safely"?

P&G Bar and Cafe

The P&G Cafe and Bar has been at 73rd and Amsterdam for ages.  From what I read it was supposed to move, and lose the neon, at the beginning but that has been postponed until mid-February.