what about the plastic animals?

Last Stand of the News Stand

Semi-detached news stands like the one above were once found every few blocks along the avenues of Harlem and many other neighborhoods in New York.  This one is on 112th Street just off Frederick Douglass Blvd.  I don't remember ever seeing it open but it is allegedly under renovation.

Let's Try This Again

It works!  That was a strange interlude.  Over the weekend my Internet connection, especially the upload speed, slowed to a crawl. 

Let's bore everyone with details.

I've got a wireless connection between my computer and the router.  The wireless connection between the router and my phone was just as slow, so the computer wasn't the problem.  Plugging the ethernet cable directly into the computer didn't speed things up, but it did eliminate the router as the problem.  That was good news because the two expensive items weren't the cause of the problem.  The modem lights were blinking properly and resetting the modem didn't improve the situation.

Hmmm.  What to do next?  The only thing I could think of was to look at my ISP's web site.  Muddling around there for a while wasn't very helpful but I eventually stumbled upon a page where I could test my connection speed.  Downloading was fast but not only did my connection fail the upload test, it actually caused that test to crash.  I reloaded the page and started the test again.  This time both download and upload speeds were normal.  Four more tests resulted in four more normal speeds.

I don't know if the test fixed the problem or if the service improvement coincided with the test, but the problem has been fixed for the time being.

Grand Central Terminal Postings

Post-it notes with sincere and positive messages written on them were all over Grand Central Terminal this afternoon.  I don't think they are leftovers from this artwork from a couple of years ago.

Shorakkopoch Rock

According to legend it was on this date in 1626 that Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Lenape people who inhabited the island.  The sale took place under a tulip tree in what is now Inwood Hill Park.  The tulip tree fell in 1938. In its place is this glacial erratic and plaque.

Reconstruction of Hudson Street

It's pretty impressive that this sign has stayed up, virtually undisturbed, for twenty years.

Yet More Markers

My previous post about the Morningside Park markers was misleading.  I was confused!  The marker at top above is between the two shown on that previous post. The marker in the middle was difficult to see from the trail but it is among the southern group of markers.  At bottom is a wider view of the arrow pointing at 82 degrees in this earlier post.  All the markers are about the same distance away from the upper trail through the park.

2012 Bike Path Hole Visit

The big hole in the East River bike path doesn't look all that much worse than it did last year.  Rebuilding of the bulkhead are moving southward from near the RFK Bridge so maybe the path will get fixed before someone falls into the river.

Last Pair of Arrows

I've now scouted all the trails in Morningside Park, finding two more markers with arrows in them.  Both of these are on the upper trail between 120th and 121st Streets.  Unlike the other markers these two are just east of the trail. Even though these last two markers are only a hundred feet or so apart, their arrows point in almost opposite directions.

More Morningside Markers

On Sunday mornings I'll often walk over to Morningside Heights to get the paper, visit the farmer's market, and perhaps get a chai latte and pastry from Oren's.  Sometimes that trip takes less than an hour and sometimes, like today, I start wandering around and the trip takes three hours.

Following up from last week I located two more markers this morning.  The marker at top is close to the 112th and Morningside Drive entrance to the park.  The marker in the second photo is the one I referred to in the previous post.  It is close to the 114th and Morningside entrance.  Unlike the arrow at 115th, which is not next to a park entrance, these two are pointing in the same general direction.  All three markers are on the west side of the stone border that lines the walking path.

The Andre Monument

Jumping back to New York, but staying with the revolution theme, this little monument within a circle certainly looks peaceful enough but it has had a contentious history.  The monument is to British Major John Andre, who plotted with Benedict Arnold to turn West Point over to the British.  Those plans went awry and Andre was soon caught in Tarrytown.  He was then brought across the Hudson to Washington's headquarters in Tappan.  Andre was tried and convicted in the '76 House tavern (still open after 230 years!).   The monument, is maybe a half-mile away from the center of Tappan and is where Andre was hung and buried.

Andre's remains were returned to England in 1821.  In 1879, Cyrus Field, who laid the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, paid for this monument.  Despite being a century after the revolution, the monument was controversial and was vandalized and blown up.  Field replaced the original monument with the current one and surrounded the new monument with the iron fence.  Someone tried again to blow it up in 1885, but it's been pretty peaceful since then.  After Field died his heirs refused to pay the property tax on the small plot of land and Rockland County, which could not find a buyer, took possession. 

The tacky brass plaque commemorating "the fortitude of Washington and his generals" was attached to the monument by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society in 1905.

If you're really motivated and read the pages I've linked to you'll notice some confusion about the ownership of the land.  Rockland County says they took possession from the ASHPS in 1983.  Other sources say the county got the land in 1904.  If it weren't past my bedtime I'd investigate further.