I love the piece, "Riding a Time Capsule to Apt 8G". Took me back to my teens and a summer job where I occasionally got operate one of those lovely old-style elevators. They didn't have automatic levelling and that became a challenge. Especially nerve-wracking at the beginning of the office day when the elevator was full. "Watch your step, please." was all too common, I'm afraid.
3
It looks more like decorating for the 4th of July.
1
Where is everyone this morning?
Freddie, are you there?
Beautiful decorations at Gracie
Mansion. Kudos to the First Lady
of New York for her work to
promote mental health. She also
has a lovely, welcoming smile for
all holiday visitors.
Let’s all take this Friday off and go
ice skating!
Laura, thanks so much for asking! That’s so nice of you. I’d written something early this morning that was turning out way too cranky and political (about Gracie Mansion’s “Blue Room” pre-K decorations, to tune of Sinatra’s “Blue Moon”), so it just seemed so wrong for the middle of try-to-feel-good December! (Tried the warm, nostalgic Saturday Night Fever Brooklyn memory lyric that’s below during lunch time instead.) Thanks again!
1
Fun article about the Gracie Mansion décor! I’ve done enough (too much, some friends say) kvetching elsewhere lately in the comment boxes about how unnecessarily high NYS and NYC income taxes are, so I’ll just enjoy the beauty of Gracie Mansion this time of year and maybe leave it at that, LOL! But since I’m also so glad this morning’s NY Today linked this Times story I’d missed:
“Fans of Saturday Night Fever gathered to celebrate at a space re-created to look like the disco from the iconic 1970s movie.”
"More Than A Movie" [to use an obvious nostalgia bit, of course!]
Tune of "More Than A Woman" - from Saturday Night Fever”
Oh, film that we know very well
Saw it on its op’ning day
The next day we went back again
It still can take our breath away
Pictures of a former time
Looking at an old Bay Ridge
So did we really long to climb
Some ladder to across the bridge
Back in the day it felt like paradise
Those weekends teemed with happiness
These days the neighborhood feels pretty and nice
On screen I’ll always have my Brooklyn
On the D-V-D
Now it’s quaint, but film's preserving what it used to be
More than a movie, more than a movie to me
More than a movie, more than a movie to me
More than a movie, oh, oh, oh.
8
STREAKS OF NEW YORK
Cyclists are swift and fearless
Citywide, at all sites,
Browbeaten by neither
Stop signs or red lights.
7
Not to sound like Scrooge, but just judging by the photos, the Gracie Mansion holiday decorations are less than enthralling and a bit threadbare. And about as festive as...an old gray mitten.
5
For a moment I thought I was imagining those mittens along the staircase in that photo and couldn't figure out why -- so, thanks for clearing that up.
And those pencil-trees are also quite stunning.
Nice to know that they'll all be put to good use and not end up on E-bay.
But, "your front-door wreath will look extra Christmassy..."
Really?? Most of us here live inside of apartment buildings, but thanks for the thought! Very pretty.
1
No wreath on your apartment door?
1
Re Gracie Mansion: "The house has served as the official residence of the city’s mayor for 75 years. Every mayor but one (Michael R. Bloomberg) has lived in the house since Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia moved there in 1942."
True, but it was Michael Bloomberg who footed the bill (anonymously -- but we know) for the magnificent and long-needed renovation of the mansion. I am not sure if tours are still possible, but if so, do take one. There are pieces of furniture, some Dutch in origin, on loan from the Bartow-Pell Mansion and other museums. And it's lovely to look out from the porch at the East River and think that it was the way people got about -- a different thing from driving along the FDR.
5
Wow really?! Michael Koors gloves in a tree?! Give the gloves to the needy! All that money WASTED on hiring a decorator! That money would be better spent on social services programs and the subway.