Famous Ankles

Right smack across Broadway from Columbia University is the much smaller Barnard College. Originally a college for women, it may still be. But I know that male students from Columbia attend classes there as needed. It’s small, compared with Columbia or most any other university that’s as well known. At most, it covers about four [...]

I really liked this bench. I mean, it was so simple and plain and ordinary that I might have passed right by it. And I probably have during my several visits to the campus over the past couple of years. It’s just a simple stone bench. With a good inscription and provenance. It’s hard to [...]

One of the most aesthetically pleasing buildings within Columbia University is, wouldn’t you know it, a church. Or, rather a chapel. St. Paul’s Chapel, by name. As an Air Force brat, I’m used to chapels and their distinctly multi-sectarian focus. I wasn’t surprised to note that they have Jewish services and even have a Moslem [...]

When I was in Spanish Harlem recently, I came across a number of community gardens. The most absolutely unusual one I have ever seen is right there on Pleasant Avenue and has the very “Barrio” sounding name of “Los Amigos Garden and Casita”. The key to the “unusual”-ness of it is the word “Casita”. I [...]

One thing I rather admire about Columbia is the layout of the buildings. There are a bunch of them and they generally share a similar architecture (at least to my eye). Yet, their settings make them distinct and I never got the feeling of a grid where there was a building every X feet or [...]