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The Algonquin Round Table

September 28, 2007

As odd as it may seem, one of the great desires I had when I first moved to NYC was to see the Algonquin round table. It took me a month or two, but I did it and I still ankle over there on occasion to check in on it. My version of a thrill.

And it always astonishing me that no one seems to know what it is. What it is….is a round table in the Algonquin Hotel located on W. 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

And the round table itself.

It’s got ten seats around it now, but my memory of its reference was that there were actually eight seats in the heyday of the 20’s. Wikipedia has a nice entry on the table with all of the key players identified.

I first remember learning about it when I read Harpo Marx’s autobiography “Harpo Speaks”, which is a great read. The table was where NYC’s intellectual glitterati of the 20’s would gather each day to one-up each other with witticisms and cut-throat insults. The most famous of the participants were Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, and Robert Benchley. There were lots of hangers-on (like Harpo), but the gist of the table was a celebration of how smart and popular these characters were. Harpo was apparently a good friend of Alexander Woolcott (a key member of the “real” group) and I’m sad to say he’s one of only two characters in the core group that Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for. As I understand it, Woolcott was a critic and newspaper writer who had something of an edge to him.

The hotel has a painting of the group next to the table.

People do sit and eat at the table and I’ve always wondered if they knew that they were sitting at the center of a lot of what the “Roaring 20s” was all about. It doesn’t matter. The Algonquin is still a very, very nice hotel with an active entertainment schedule such as lounge singers and the like. I haven’t eaten there (their prix fixe is about $60 and I keep telling you folks I’m cheap), but it gets good reviews.

-H

Categories: Celebrity Points, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Cleopatra’s Needle (AKA “the Obelisk” in Central Park)

September 27, 2007

I haven’t been to Central Park for a month or more and got the itch to go back. This time I actually had a plan. It hurts to admit that. I’ve wanted to go back to Cleopatra’s Needle and take some photos with my new camera and it meant I needed to make sure I went in the right entrance. Here’s a tip: it’s just south of the Metropolitan Museum. Enter around 81st Street and walk straight. You’ll see some bears (with the occasional child hanging on)…

Continue straight on by and ignore the first right turn. Take the second right turn. Life is good, you’re close.

Cleopatra’s Needle is somewhere around 3,600 years old. And it looks pretty good for that kind of age. Unfortunately, New York City is aging it faster. Or, rather, the pollution and the rain and the temperature changes and the….are all ganging up on it. Nevertheless, it’s a magnificent point of interest.

Here’s a view from just north of it.

Ain’t it photogenic?

A little closer it starts to really show both the good and the bad. As you can see, one side’s in pretty good shape and the other is very weathered.

With a slightly different view, the weathering is very evident.

Okay, that’s enough of the negatives. I love this obelisk. It is very historic and the history of it being constructed thousands of years ago, being moved to Alexandria a thousand or more years later, and then to New York another couple of thousand years after that is just mind boggling. I love to sit and stare at it and think about the original makers and how they couldn’t have begun to conceive their handiwork’s fate.

And, no matter how crowded Central Park is, there are few people here. When I showed up on Sunday, there were about 10 people milling around, more than I’ve ever seen there. But within two minutes they had wandered off, leaving just three of us. A few minutes later a couple of others showed up. Here’s a shot for scale.

You can notice a couple of things about the base from this. First, at each corner near the ground is a plaque with a translation of the markings; sometimes with blanks where the archeologists couldn’t read it due to weathering. Second, at the point of the actual obelisk meeting the new base, there are “crabs” holding the obelisk steady. These crabs are modern, but are based on the stone ones in the Metropolitan Museum just across the way. One at each corner holds the obelisk upright.

If you like history, and I do, the sight of Cleopatra’s Needle is quite inspiring and impressive. If you want to know more about it, I’d suggest the Wikipedia article.

-H

Categories: Central Park, Manhattan, Wanderings

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Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue

September 25, 2007

This is just a simple post about a nice little church building that I’ve walked by many times, but only recently noticed.

This picture is from somewhere around 5th Avenue and 26th Street in the middle of Manhattan. When I originally took the picture, I was thinking in terms of a post commenting on the Empire State Building and how it really doesn’t capture the hearts of New Yorkers. It’s not a bad building, but it isn’t one that you admire in the way that the Chrysler Building is admired.

The picture above captures some of the plainness of the Empire State Building. It isn’t an ugly building by any stretch, but it is only notable because it’s the tallest building in the city…now.

Anyway, the nice church in front of it does capture the difference between big and beautiful. That was how I was thinking of characterizing it. It’s not a deep thought by any means, but this blog is all about introducing and presenting NYC (I’ve had several tourists point at the Chrysler Building and ask if that was the Empire State).

But the church is the subject, let’s stop my straying.

It’s formal name is the Marble Collegiate Church. It’s part of the Reformed Church of America. That’s a puzzle to me and I’m usually pretty good on that sort of stuff. Apparently is the new version (or “a” new version) of the Dutch Reformed Church. The church itself says it’s been around since 1628, making it plenty old.

It’s got a great front door.

On the day I walked by, the surrounding fence was covered with ribbons.

The ribbons are posted to symbolize the deaths of American soldiers (gold), prayers for the Iraqi people (blue), and prayers for peace (green). The writeup doesn’t give any indication whether the ribbons are part of a protest or simply exactly what it seems to indicate: prayers for peace and help to the grieving.

And was this the reason for me doing this post? No. Nor was the relative ancientness of the church. Instead, it turns out that this is where Norman Vincent Peale spent 50 years of his ministry. He’s famous for his teaching on “the power of positive thinking”. There’s a statue of him in the courtyard. Barely visible due to the ribbons. I had to climb up on a ledge to get a decent shot of the statue.

And, tucked away well to Dr. Peale’s left, is another statue.

It appears to be Joseph, Mary, and Child; possibly on their flight to Egypt (Matthew 2:14).

It’s small and well out of the way whereas the statue of one of the church ministers is big and front and center. Make of that what you will.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Flowers on Taxis in NYC

September 23, 2007

All cabs are yellow…unless you look at the hoods/trunks/roofs nowadays.

It seems that something like 5% to 15% of all cabs have this sort of flower stencil on them nowadays. I started noticing it a couple of weeks ago and it turns out that from Sept to December, the taxicabs are celebrating 100 years of motorized service in NYC with some colorful additions to the topsides of some cabs. The painting is done by a group of disabled children and their supporters.

The paint job is a handpainted decal. It makes for an interesting sight to see on an occasional cab, although I think it’s better to keep them non-universal. That would be a bit much.

I’ve only seen one taxi with the hood, roof, and trunk decorated. If it has the decal, it will always be on the hood. The ones with just the hood and not the trunk decorated seem to be lessening.

I don’t know how many patterns there are. I’ve seen as few as one flower to as many as three.

You can see writing on them. It’s from the children that paint the decals.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan

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Ankling through Greenwich Village in the rain

September 22, 2007

The weather has been so good for so long that I barely check the weather anymore. A few days ago I had seen the all clear for another beautiful weekend…and got surprised.

I initially went down to Union Square and found the usual artists and farmers markets in full bloom, but nothing else of any particular interest. One artist’s work caught my eye and that of others. He was painting a nice depiction of Union Square.

Although in a wheelchair, he stood up a moment later and did some moving around. I don’t know if he uses it as a medical necessity or just to cart his stuff around. I suspect the latter. And…if I were really cynical I could make a further guess. I won’t…at this time.

Anyway, I wandered off to Greenwich Village (AKA West Village, AKA the Village) just to do some wandering. Okay, right now the purists are shouting that “Greenwich Village” is the whole area east to west. True in definition but not really in practice. If you want to talk about the East Village, you say “the East Village”, but if you’re talking about the West Village, you can use any term you want.

The Village was, as always, wonderfully calm and cool (in all the senses). The best part of the area is how weird the streets are laid out. If you know NYC, you know that avenues go north-south and streets go east west. So how do you get an intersection of 10 Street and 4th Street? I’m not even going to try to explain the layout.

As I was wandering, it started to rain. At first, lightly. Later it grew to moderate size. I found myself at the corner of Charles Street and Hudson Street under some scaffolding (it does come in handy sometimes even though it usually annoys me). For a long time it was just me, a little traffic on the car and sidewalk, and a teenage candy vendor trying to sell his wares to passersby. Very, very relaxing.

It seemed that only about 60% of the pedestrians were using umbrellas. A lot of them had abandoned themselves to a wet fate.

After a while, I decided to get my own umbrella and then did some more wandering. Here’s Waverly Street.

And, of course, now that I had my umbrella, the rain lessened. It did kick up now and then, but no problem.

12th Street is one of those streets in the Village and SoHo that have the old paving. It has to be a pain for the streets department, but it is very cool.

So, my wanderings around and about the Village were cut a bit short, but it was pleasant and I have to admit after last weekend’s wall-to-wall events, it was nice to stop and just watch a pleasant rainfall.

-H

Categories: Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Union Square, Wanderings

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