NEW YORK, NEW YORK, WHAT A WONDERFUL TOWN

What makes New York so unique:

OUR WELCOMING SPIRIT

beautifying our buildings

beautifying our women

beautifying our streets

beautifying our store fronts

                 

beautifying our parks

                                         

8:00 a.m. Sunday Morning

Two girls waiting outside the St. James Theatre on West 44 Street, waiting to get tickets to see SOMETHING ROTTEN!  Only 4 more hours to go until the box office opens.  

The purpose of the board game MONOPOLY is to force the player into bankruptcy, the perfect game to play while waiting to see a play on Broadway whose tickets can cost as much as $147.00 each.  

They must have taken the "railway" to get there and "rented" the "property" they're sitting on, otherwise they would have had to "Go directly to jail." But, on the other hand, they might have been lucky and got "free parking" so they could sit outside the theatre for another 4 hrs. Now if one of them gets "4 houses" she can buy a "hotel" and they can stay the night!! Or just buy the old, historic theatre!

Girls, a word of warning: "Keep that 'Get out of jail free card' in your pocket, just in case the police arrive and give you any trouble!"

When was the last time you played the board game MONOPOLY?

A NEW YORK TREASURE

I was walking down 9th Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan when a sweet smell caught my attention. I couldn't place it, it wasn't the aroma I'd expect from a restaurant or a pastry shop, it intrigued me so I followed it, which led me to... a carved wooden Indian, the symbol of a tobacco shop. It was the sweet sweet smell of cigars the had caught my attention. I discretely peaked into the shop that seemed off limits to me, a non-smoker. A row of men and one woman, sitting comfortably, lined one of the walls, 

their faces still visible behind a thin cloud of smoke, their mouths filled with stogies. It's probably the one place in New York where you can smoke indoors, other than in your home. On the other side of the shop was a glass case overflowing with... the treasure, hand made cigars. You could tell it was the neighborhood hang out, above the case of cigars, was a box of Entenmann's coffee cake, a coffee maker and a half filled pot of steaming coffee, and plastic containers filled to the brim with snacks. On the opposite wall was a television set and tonight was "the fight." These guys looked ready, and really happy, happy to have a home away from home to hang loose and commune. If there were an empty chair, I just might have joined them!

NYC Fine Cigars
506 9th Avenue

Manhattan

(permanently closed)

AN' IT WASN'T EVEN A BOOKSTORE

April 8, 2015

Quick, go take a look before they take it away, 2nd avenue on the SE corner of 54th street, a window display that was...I thought I was passing a bookstore, or an independent library, (an independent library, hmmm, that's a good idea). The window display was made originally for Harrods Department store in London, but when the marketing person of this establishment saw the display, I'm told he said,  "I want it!" so adamantly that they got it. I passed the window and did a double take, had to go back and look at it again.

If libraries had window displays like this one, there'd be a lot more of us in there reading. The books, or similarities, were laid out helter skelter, stacked high, piles of books everywhere, like on my living room floor; the typewriter, yes typewriter, brought back the music of tapping keys, and returning carriages. And the empty bottles once filled with amber warmth.... I lingered in front of the window display, daydreaming... nostalgic for the era, before television and computers and all things electronic... Oops, excuse me a second, there goes my phone!