What a treat and a privilege it was to read a preview of Catcher in the Reservoir the day Lou dashed it off and sent it to the Diary. Lou, you never cease to amaze me, you always make it look easy, and I know you will do it again and again -- and again! Thank you for another of your literary gifts to New York City.
Your good friend,
Mr. K.
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@Vincent - Jon Vie! I miss that bakery - it had THE BEST cookies. Buttery and crunchy and sweet.
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@M E R - I was thinking of Jon Vie this past week. It will live only in memory. They made the best Mandelbrot ever made and their Chocolate Babka was nonpareil. I hope one day to find another Jon Vie quality bakery, alas, those days might be long gone.
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These always make me weep.
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New York is so easy to love. As such, the Diary is one of my very favorite things in the whole world.
Something in it always leaves a lump in my throat, like Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain" or videos of dogs excitedly and lovingly jumping all over soldiers returning home.
It is with great joy and honor that I add Mr. Lou Craft's soothing poem to my list. My favorite line: "Both you and the birds are lovely and lucky."
Indeed.
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I hope that Joel Bloom will continue his budding relationship with Shirley, and that he reports to us about it in the NYT.
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Love this column and drawings—and the comments are a lovely bonus.
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Every big city should have a column like this one. The stories are heartwarming and remind us that we are all in this thing called life, together.
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Since we moved out of NYC, I miss that lightning quick meeting of the minds that happened with someone in the bakery or deli line in the middle of a solitary home office workday - observing some absurdity or appreciating a new menu addition, especially at my soup and sandwich haunt, Patisserie Margot by the Ansonia! I stopped back there recently with my son, when we were in the city for a doctor's appointment, and as we sat enjoying our (world's best) soup-an older woman reached over to our table and put her hand on my arm and said "it's so wonderful to see you again - I missed chatting you!" I hadn't been there in six or seven years! My son was not only impressed by the wonderful food - even better than I remembered - he was excited that his parent is NYC-renowned! We both gave her big hellos, and hope to see her (and the beloved Patisserie) again soon!
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Maybe it was the Ansonia, but it was a hotel on the Upper West Side where a friend had an apartment on one of the floors allotted for that. The elevator door opened and my spouse happened to be where it opened and said, "Hello, Mr. Holbrook." We got on and it was Hal Holbrook, and it turned out he was on his way to perform "Mark Twain Tonight" - well, that night.
And there was the time when Alicia Keys got on our elevator. She grew up in the building, but this was the first time happening to see her since the 1990s. Her car (it may even have just been a car service) waited outside the building, and she seemed the same, just twenty years older, and back to visit friends - and also her childhood piano teacher, who is a wonderful composer and still lives in the building.
People can be larger life on stage or screen, but can still be folks!
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@Freddie- A few years ago I got into the elevator in my building on a snowy blustery day. There was a very bundled up Michelle Phillips there and I (casually) said to her "you and I are brave to be going out in this weather". She replied " I hate it- I'm from California". As if I didn't know.
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@Freddie I met Alicia Keys on an elevator too. Didn't know it was her until after
I love this collection of stories. Thank you!
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Joel reminded me of a Saturday in New York, about 24 years ago. My three year old daughter and I were at a bus stop near Penn Station, and a blind man with a white cane waited with us. My daughter asked him why he was carrying a golf club. He explained that it was a cane, just well padded around the handle, and it helped him avoid obstacles. When the bus arrived, I helped him up the stairs.
Two weeks later, on a shuttle bus between terminals at LAX, a young black man got on and sat across from us. He was carrying a Big Bertha golf club upside down with both hands, leaning his chin on it. My daughter leaned forward and asked, "So, you need help getting off the bus? Because we help blind people." He looked at her indignantly, and said, "I'm not Stevie Wonder!" She replied, "Stevie Wonder is a lot bigger than you. I don't think you are Stevie Wonder." At that point I was laughing too hard to explain anything, to anyone.
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@Mary Clark Reminds me of a time when we were in line with our friends 3 year son. A man ahead of us was throwing a fit and young John piped up "look at that angry, ugly man." The ribbing his buddies then gave him instantly defused the tension.
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The Metropolitan Diary...this is just one reason I love The New York Times!! Thank you.
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Positively delightful!
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Oh Lou! You made me cry.
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When people are angry about political reporting in the NYT and write "I'm canceling my subscription!" I think about Metropolitan Diary and other wonderful features of the NYT. Just turn the page, angry readers - it's all worth it.
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@Susan. Thank you. I like what you wrote.
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Thank you! Just loved these stories. Brings back living in New York, among all you clever, witty people.
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Love these stories, love New York.
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Metropolitan Diary - my favorite of favorites
thank you
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"Joel, is that you?". Is this column a regular feature? What a delightful way to start the week!
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@George L in Jakarta Yes sir! since 1976 every Monday Metropolitan Diary has been recording the daily kindness, weirdness and interactions all of us see in this city every day-It takes a big village to make a city of 8 million work-
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@George L in Jakarta Suggestion...go to the NYT search window and enter Metropolitan diary and you will have a list going back years that is further wonderful reading.
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Thank you Lou Craft, you’ve done it again. Superb.
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The Metropolitan Diary - Boy, do we need it now!
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I got my cat Otto at about the same time but he was a abandoned by his mother flea infested kitten. Black and white, he stayed with me as a faithful companion for 18 years. I suspected he had some dog genes in him, he acted like it.
Still miss him every day.
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I thought something about the five stories being in the back page of the print A section made it really eye-catching!
It was interesting to see "Catcher in the Reservoir" in the print edition formatted as prose, but it looks classy and beautiful that way, and the rhyme scheme still clear.
I submitted this Angela Lansbury - Vincent Zito tribute in comments under NY Today before, but maybe it's Ok to put it here too, trying out this format taking up less space?
tune of “Beauty and the Beast”
Tale of a short line, Sunday at Jon Vie. Barely just awake, there to buy the cake that’s their specialty..
All is looking fine, hopes are now increased. I step through the door, sure that I will score cheesecake for our feast
But they have no more, much to my surprise. Wanting my first choice, then I hear a voice, and the voice is wise:
“Certain as the dough rises with the yeast. Is your first choice gone? You can soldier on: Strudel for your feast.
Choc'late cheesecake’s gone? Smile and soldier on: Strudel for your feast." [spoken: Run along and have a good time, Vincent. Apple's better for us than chocolate anyway. Long life, love.]
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@Freddie
I love your words and I sang them in my head to that tune "Beauty and the Beast", which I just adore. I think many people know that music in their mind's "ear", instead of "eye" of course...
Please keep on "soldiering on" here, Freddie...
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Freddie,
Well done, sir!!!
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Thanks, Anne and NYC Traveler! I mentioned it in the other posting, but forgot here: She actually does do the spoken "Run along and get in the cupboard, Chip..." part when she does the number in concert!
Angela Lansbury sings "Beauty and the Beast" at Lincoln Center, with the composer Alan Menken at the piano!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOy7eVjz-2I
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Oh how I enjoy these Monday stories!
Thank you,one and all.
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Thank you, Lou, for your charming, witty poem. Now spring is really here.
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A hearty thanks to all contributors for a lovely set of Diary entries to begin the new week. But I wonder: Mr. Zito, did you try the apple strudel and was it delicious? And Ms. Peck, what did you name your very lucky little calico? And thank you Agnes Lee for another charming set of illustrations to accompany this week’s stories.
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@Allen J. Share I totally agree with you Allen...A former NYC basketball player, McAdoo, said something similar. It would be nice to see you soon. Let me know somehow...
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Dear Anne,
I will arrive in Rome next Sunday morning and will be staying at the Hotel Diana. I’ll be on a Road Scholar trip which will depart (too soon) for Florence the following Wednesday. But there is free time built in and we can surely talk, and I hope have the chance to visit. At the very least a week from today we will both be reading the Metropolitan Diary in the Eternal City!
Be well and enjoy a good week.
Allen
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@Allen J. Share,@Anne- This has the makings of a great Metropolitan Diary story!
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Even in New York, it's a small world...
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@yl New York is a large city but we are comprised of many small worlds- our neighborhoods. My favorite personal story- I live in a building with 400 apartments and I once got a Christmas card from a cousin in Maryland with just my street address and my husband's and my first names-not unusual ones- no last name- no apartment number- and my mail person knew what box to put it in!
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"That's when I realized it was Angela Lansbury."
I did NOT see that coming. Great story.
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@Jo, same here - even with the title "Strudel, She Said," I felt it would be a mystery type story. I'm always surprised when well-known people are out doing their own shopping, but I guess in 1973, she was better known for her Broadway stardom than TV.
After "Murder, She Wrote," the joke was that if you're in a hotel and you see "Jessica Fletcher" is also staying there: Something bad is going to happen to someone any time she goes on a trip, so why chance it - check out and stay somewhere else. :)
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