This news photograph is entitled, “Government agent mixing and weighing heroin and morphine.” September 20, 1938.
All they needed was some cocaine for a giant speedball.
Why the government needed an agent to mix these massive quantities of drugs I do not know. Continue reading
Open For Business ** Shop 2nd Ave ** It’s Worth It!
A cryptic poster on a city bus that says absolutely nothing. Typical of the MTA.
The punishment for the person who wrote this slogan should be to live in an apartment adjacent to the constant construction.
Below is the text of this MTA sign pictured above that “encourages” shoppers.
The many interesting shops, restaurants and services on Second Avenue are open while MTA Capital Construction builds the Second Avenue Subway. Shop Second Avenue. It’s Worth It!
Visit mta.info and click on the Capital Construction link for more about your local shops, restaurants and services.
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce is a partner with MTA Capital Construction in support of local establishments as construction continues on the Second Avenue Subway.
This is going to convince anyone to shop in the construction zone?
Lame signs do not get people to shop in an area that is having many of its businesses being decimated by the constant construction for the Second Avenue Subway project. The poor business owners and residents along the construction route have suffered since 2007 and many stores have gone under in the intervening four-plus years.
Solutions, Not Signs
More people might patronize the establishments on Second Avenue if the MTA didn’t in a prima facie way, block access to the stores along the construction path. One side of certain streets appear to be inaccessible. Maybe the MTA could cut down on the hours that allowed filth and noise to be generated. Or just make a conscious effort to make the streets more inviting by not chopping the sidewalks to half their normal width and blocking re-routing crosswalks, making it difficult for pedestrians to stroll.
Plus the area is just plain ugly. It seems little or no thought was given into making the avenue look more appealing. The fences, walls and temporary banners give Second Avenue a very shabby appearance. In many places Second Avenue looks more like a post-war zone, not a construction zone.
Originally the MTA projected the first phase from 105th Street to 72nd Street of the Second Avenue subway would be completed in 2014. It is of course delayed and over budget. If they don’t run out of funds it might be completed by June 2018.
One side note: the entire first phase of the original New York City subway from City Hall to 145th Street, (almost nine miles) was built in just over four years from March 27, 1900 – October 26, 1904.
Jimmy Savile was found dead at his home in Leeds October 29. He was just two days shy of turning 85.
In the United States Jimmy Savile is a relatively unknown name except to die-hard music fans or those who might have spent time in the United Kingdom.
In the UK you could not help but know Jimmy Savile. For twenty years, from its inception in 1964, Savile hosted Top of the Pops, a television music countdown show featuring hit singles. Think of a British version of a cross between Casey Kasem’s radio program American Top 40 and Dick Clark’s television show American Bandstand and that was, Top of The Pops. Savile ended his reign as a regular host in 1984. Continue reading
Celebrating Rising World Poverty, Hunger and Lots of People
The news yesterday was not earth shattering. The estimated number of people living on the earth is now seven billion. But that is a number that can shatter the earth and its resources.
What all the world’s cities can look like in 20 years – hooray!
News venues are touting this historic event as if it is something to be proud of. ABC television was showing babies from around the world born October 31, 2011 speculating that any of these children could have been the seven billionth living human. It was then remarked by anchor Diane Sawyer that when these children turn fourteen, there will likely be eight billion people on the earth. Great. Overpopulation being glorified. Continue reading
Speech Impediments Were Fair Game For Early Songwriters
Forget The Who with “My Generation” or David Bowie with “Changes.” Stuttering lyrics were once blatant and over the top. Unlike today where some songs contain stuttering verses, 100 years ago, the stuttering was in the title or subtitle.
In 1907 an imaginative songwriter said to himself, “Hey. I’ve got an idea, I’ll write a song about stuttering, it will be a smash!” But he thought it over, “Hmmm, that’s been done already. What if I added something about having a lisp?”Maybe that is the way the smash hit, The Boy Who Stuttered and The Girl Who Lisped by Louis Weslyn came to fruition. Two speech impediments are better than one.
Today it seems politically incorrect (and in bad taste.) If songs like this were being produced today, protesters would be lining up to have the songs banned.
Back then, nothing was thought of it; a stutter or lisp would make perfectly acceptable lyrical content. The more outrageous the lyric, the better. Click here to listen to the song performed in 1908 by Billy Murray and Ada Jones.
The unusual thing is that Billy Murray seemed to be very good at fake stuttering and recorded one of the most popular stuttering songs of all-time, K-K-K-Katy “the sensational stammering song success” written by Geoffrey O’Hara in 1917.
When you hear Murray’s rendition of K-K-K-Katy in the vocal break towards the end, you will be reminded of Mel Blanc, the famous Warner Brother’s cartoon voice of Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc. etc.) . You can be sure Blanc took a page from Murray to create Porky’s stammer as Blanc later recorded his own version of K-K-K-Katy. Click here to listen to Murray’s K-K-K-Katy.
And while Murray was an accomplished early recording star and performer, and could sing i
n other styles, he recorded another stuttering song in 1922, You Tell Her I S-T-U-T-T-T-E-R which was written by Billy Rose and Cliff Friend. Continue reading
The Name Game Continues
While New Zealand may have outlawed some names, the USA, with the exception of what a judge may find to be a frivolous name, (Your Majesty; Copyright; Superman) still allows people to name themselves or their offspring pretty much whatever they want.
So when George Blackburn, 64, of Bethalto, IL recently got divorced, he wanted a fresh start and legally renamed himself Led Zeppelin II. According to an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch the newly named Zeppelin said: Continue reading
Woman Steals Identity of 8-Year-Old Girl Killed in an Auto Accident 30 Years Ago
This story out of Delray Beach, Florida confirms that identity thieves are the scum of the earth.
Juliet Sherry-Ann Smith Mahabir the “alleged” identity thief, was caught when the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud received a tip that Mahabir had “fraudulently obtained” a U.S. Passport.
Yes, besides being an identity thief, Mahabir is apparently an illegal alien.
I can only imagine what the deceased girl’s family whose identity Mahabir stole must be feeling.
After reading this – I have only two questions:
1- Why was she released on such low bail?
2- She is an illegal alien – shouldn’t she be deported?
Date – July 2011
Time – Morning Rush Hour
Weather – On and Off Light Drizzle
Lots of traffic coming off the FDR Drive and many vehicles moving northbound on York Avenue. The NYC traffic enforcement agents are usually directing traffic here.
61st Street and York Avenue
Yet on that same corner – 61st Street and York Ave. It’s dry under here.
Shooting the breeze.
One block away on 61st Street and First Ave.
and finally – 60th Street and First Avenue…under the Queensboro Bridge.
‘Nuff said.
Happy Labor Day.
As reported in the West Australian newspaper on July 19 and other news outlets down under the New Zealand registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages have compiled a list of 102 names (so far) of names they will not allow parents to name their bundles of joy.
It might seem an arbitrary list, as they allowed one set of parents to name their child “Violence.”
Wouldn’t it be easier to just change your own name rather than embarrassing your offspring with your own idea of a unique name?
This is probably a case of the government overstepping their boundaries, but I am astounded by the number of stupid names American parents give their babies.
In New York City, a teacher I know who taught in the lower income South Bronx, actually encountered two children (from different families) with incredibly unique names. Continue reading
Graffiti is Vandalism, Not Art
The New York Times story on the rise of graffiti in cities both large and small is disturbing. For those who say graffiti is art, I would like to be invited to your home and I will splash paint over your entire home inside and out Jackson Pollack style, dripping and splashing it everywhere I can. If you don’t like it too bad, I’m not cleaning it up.
But you say that’s not art. I say that it is.
You say, what right do I have to come to your home and deface it?
That is exactly my point.
Our cities and public surroundings are our homes and no one has the right to deface public or private property.
The majority of graffiti artists are not frustrated artists but are in reality criminals, juvenile delinquents and gang members, who have a compulsion to etch, paint, mark or deface public property. Continue reading