Pigeons love Patsy's pizza. The original Patsy's in East Harlem to be exact.
If you are missing the Ohio reports fear not, more will return next week. I need to take a couple of New York photos to accompany the next Ohio post. Shelby, Wooster, and Youngstown are coming up, as are three weird towns in Pennsylvania and perhaps the most ridiculous photo ever taken.
6:24 p.m., 118th and Madison
4:49 p.m., 118th and Madison
The storefront here at 118th and Madison had a sign in the window a couple days ago "Coming Soon Giovanna's Restaurant and Pizzeria". Let's hope they don't use that sundial to keep track of time.
The sundial reminds me of a favorite story. The Lincoln, Nebraska newspaper used to run an "ask an expert" column once a week. People would send in their unsolvable problems and the paper would get in touch with an expert for an explanation.
One letter writer wrote in about their defective sundial. It was attractive on their coffee table. It was also heavy and they got tired of moving it every hour to get the right time. If they didn't move it the sundial just told the same time, all the time, day or night. The paper got a professor of electrical engineering, who would have no expertise in sundials but that's beside the point, to respond. As delicately as he could, he explained that they were using the dial as a LAMPdial. If they wanted a SUNdial it had to be placed in SUNlight. That article was the talk of the geography department the next day.
You may have heard about planned service disruptions on the 7 train and the A/C trains this weekend. What didn't make the news were the disruptions to the 2/3 lines. There was allegedly electrical work being done on the downtown local tracks between 72nd and Times Square. The 3 was re-routed to the Broadway line instead of going up Lenox. This meant all of us in Central Harlem had to rely on the 2.
What was unannounced was that the 2 was running on a reduced schedule. It was at least 20-30 minutes between trains. To add to the delay, downtown trains were running (slowly) on uptown tracks between 110th and 96th. As far as I could tell there wasn't any work being done on that stretch. The MTA had just parked a supply train on the downtown tracks.
The end result was that a trip that would normally take 10-15 minutes took two or three times as long. I easily spent two hours this weekend waiting for trains.
For a trip to the east side of town I used the 6 train. The 116th Street station is where there was a building collapse a few days ago. Most people walking by paused and shook their heads. A couple of walls are still partially up, but the site is mostly rubble.
On a wall, somewhere in East Harlem.
Off of 3rd Ave in the 120s.
East Harlem to be accurate. I wonder if the proprietress of Bagel in Harlem has been here?
In no particular order, here are four places in northern Indiana that are worth visiting:
1. Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, Auburn. You don't have to be a car to appreciate these beauties.
2. United States Vice Presidential Museum at the Dan Quayle Center, Huntington. Vice Presidents! "...emphasizing those who have called Indiana, "home"."
3. Greentown Glass Museum, Greentown. You'll likely have this place, on the site of the former Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company, to yourself. When I visited the sweet old volunteer lady told me the story of the factory and how, when sales began to fall there was a mysterious (wink, wink) fire (wink, wink) that burned the factory down. The owner (wink, wink) elected to take the insurance money (wink, wink) but didn't rebuild (wink, wink). The glass is quite nice and an abundance of chicken-topped butter dishes is always appreciated.
4. Wednesday Flea Market and Antique Auction, Shipshewana. When the auction tires you out a slice of shoo-fly pie will give you the strength you need to raise your bid.
5. Fourteen Places to Eat. You can experience rural northern Indiana via the magic of those series of tubes known as the Internet.
Yes, yes I'm aware that Bloomington is in southern Indiana, but the southernmost I've been in the state is Frankfort, home of the Hot Dogs.
Today is the opening day for the Harlem Auto Mall, the largest auto sales and service center in the city. It is the first auto dealership north of 60th Street in 40 years. There are actually two dealerships in the mall, one selling Chevys and Saturns, the other Hummers and Cadillacs. The pictures above were taken in late-January, before the cars arrived.
Progress is slower on the Home Depot-Costco-anchored shopping plaza a bit further south in East Harlem. This project was announced in March 1998. Known as East River Plaza (includes pictures), the original cost estimate was $87 million. A June 2004 article (scroll down) in the Times estimated the cost at $215 million. An article from earlier this year mentions a new developer, Forest City Ratner, and a new cost - $315 million. Groundbreaking is expected this year, but for now you can still see all the way to Queens.
It's that time of year: WFMU is holding their annual fundraising marathon. Donate and see the amazing marathon map.
Known to Metro-North riders and motorists along FDR Drive.
Known only to those who've walked up 2nd Avenue north of 125th.
Know your history. No Nazis, drugs, or chasing the duck. I have nothing more to add.
Passenger: Dude, you just backed into that light pole.
Driver: What?!
Passenger: You just knocked over the light pole.
Driver: Crap! Did anybody see us? I don't see anybody.
Passenger: I don't see anyone. Let's get out of here before anyone notices.
Driver: Yeah, let's get back to Hoboken.
Of course, the driver could always claim he was distracted by this sign across the street:
Finally, I was remiss yesterday in mentioning weird and New Jersey in the same post and not linking to WeirdNJ.
The East Harlem Asthma Working Group has been combating asthma in the neighborhood for years. They are having a health fair and parade tomorrow. I really like their lung-cityscape design.
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