Famous Ankles

What lies below Chinatown?

Posted February 19, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Chinatown, Manhattan, Wanderings

A confession. I always comment about the size and growth of Chinatown and how it is enveloping all of Little Italy. I’ve wandered throughout Chinatown, but I had never, ever just gone through Chinatown to reach the other side. It’s a weird “confession”, but I was noticing that my own ideas of Chinatown seemed to have it go all the way from Canal Street to…well, I hadn’t given it a huge amount of thought.

There is an “end” to Chinatown. As I went through Chinatown recently, I decided I’d travel until I reached the other side. I knew where it was, but just had never made that particular transition (I’d always turn around near the bottom and head back up). It ends in the government area of Manhattan, right near where the courthouses are that you’ve seen on Law & Order and every other NYC cop/lawyer show when they want to show the institutes of justice in the City.

There are two big ones, plus a plethora of standard government office buildings.

Right across the street from them is Foley Square.

The sculpture in the fountain is based on something called a Chi Wara, a type of African headdress that itself is a symbol of the antelopes of West Africa.

The writeup on the Chi Wara talks about how it symbolizes the antelopes which symbolize men and women working together to produce a good harvest. Well, I’m sure they’re also being symbolic to mean something other than successful farms in Lower Manhattan.

Forgive me. I’m having too much fun with the idea of a symbolic symbol symbolizing harmony. Is the harmony symbolic of something else?

Incidentally, Foley Square is named after one of those behind-the-scenes-politicos of yesteryear who was the mentor of Al Smith, one of Gotham’s great mayors.

So, I wanted to write about going through Chinatown and hardly said a word about Chinatown itself.

-H

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An International Tweak

Posted February 18, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

I pass by the corner of 38th Street and Lexington on a regular basis. I know the area pretty well, but just recently looked up and saw something I hadn’t noticed.

There are a lot of streets in NYC that have two names. It will be a street number and an honorary name on a blue sign. I hadn’t noticed this one because I don’t really read them anymore, but this time I did. This one is relatively unique in that it isn’t a honorary street name, but a corner name: “Brothers to the Rescue Corner” or “Equisna Al Hermanos Rescate”.

If you step back, you’ll notice that there is another unusual feature to this corner: a police box.

Once again, you see these around, but it isn’t a random placement. The cop is there in response to one of the block’s residents: the Cuban mission to the United Nations.

The “tweak”? Brothers to the Rescue is a group of Cuban exiles that used to fly near Cuba searching for Cubans fleeing by raft. Later, they engaged in a leaflet dropping operation that would go near, and sometimes inside, Cuban airspace to drop leaflets to be blown onto Cuban soil. If you read the Wikipedia link, you’ll see all sorts of governmental machinations including a probable Cuban infiltrator of the group and a host of different sources saying opposite things. During its rescue/leaflet flights, the government of Cuba protested the actions until, in 1996, they shot down two of the group’s airplanes.

The point of naming the corner after the group is simply to remind Cuba that they are viewed as barbarians willing to kill unarmed leaflet droppers rather than to let them speak their minds.

I suppose Cuba has retaliated in some similar diplomatic fashion.

-H

Comments: 3 Comments

Rita Ford Music Boxes

Posted February 17, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Upper East Side, Wanderings

Every so often I’ll run into a specialized store that will amaze me with its ability to be in business with a very narrow range of product. The most amazing, at least for me, has been “The Tassel Shop” which sells nothing but tassels.

But, I was recently wandering in the Upper East Side and ran into another one but this one has certain pluses that the Tassel Shop can’t match.

It’s Rita Ford’s Music Boxes. It’s located on 65th Street near Fifth Avenue which makes it an absolutely first rate location.

All they sell is music boxes. Really nice ones, too.

To be honest, I’ve never really given much thought to music boxes. I asked the gentleman running the store about it and he mentioned that they have been in business for around 50 years and are a leader in the field. He showed me some of the workings of the music boxes and how there are various levels of sophistication to the sound. I always think of them as having a limited repertoire of notes, but some of them sounded pretty good.

The shop also has some big ones and obviously antique versions.

The one below was amazing to see. I didn’t want to ask him to play it. Okay, I did want to ask but I didn’t want to put him out.

Don’t expect to come in here and pay $9.99 on a music box. They may have some, but I sure didn’t see them.

-H

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Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side

Posted February 16, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, Upper East Side, Wanderings

From what I understand, this Temple is the premier Reform Jewish house of worship in NYC. The building itself certainly is impressive.

It is just massive and impressive. It does have a Wikipedia article that goes through the history of the Congregation: it started in the Lower East Side and bounced around that area for decades until the 1920s when it moved to the Upper West East Side (it’s on Fifth Avenue and 65th Street, where I’ve recently found a bunch of interesting spots). [Corrected. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote the location.]

There’s a plaque that does provide some of the details of the building and its worshippers. It states that the building is made of limestone and was built in 1929. The designers based the building on a “Moorish-Romanesque” style to capture both the eastern and western cultures. It notes that there are mosaics by Hildrevh Meiere in the sanctuary.

As always, I love a good doorway.

Wikipedia provided other items that I wasn’t aware of. The site was where John Jacob Astor’s old mansion used to be. In NYC, that’s class. It also has seating for more people than St. Patricks Cathedral. That’s big anywhere.

Here’s another shot of the Temple that indicates where those 2,500 congregants can fit. This is from the 65th Street side.

-H

Comments: 4 Comments

Westminster Dog Show Part 4

Posted February 15, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Mid-town

And now to the last of what I saw at Westminster. All in all, it was a very pleasant evening, but I’m an early-to-bed kind of guy and didn’t want to get home just before midnight. So, once the Terrier group was finished, I decided to head out.

I’m glad that the Terriers were the second group. Had they been the last, I would have been more tempted to stay. But I probably would have left anyway.

Lakeland Terrier #6

One think I found very interesting is captured in the picture above. The handlers are actually moving quite a bit faster than it appears on TV. In the above case (and in too many of these pictures), they’re practically just a blur.

Manchester Terrier (standard) #9.

Miniature Bull Terrier #11.

Miniature Schnauzer #5. The last dog I had was this breed. Just a wonderful little dog: didn’t bark, didn’t shed, and didn’t lick. And watched every move I ever made: that dog knew my mind…and how to get food out of me.

Norfolk Terrier #7.

Norwich Terrier #8. I’ve always thought it was strange that they separate the Norwich and the Norfolk. With the exception of the ears being up on the Norfolk, they appear exactly alike. The ear difference doesn’t seem enough to differentiate for me. (Of course, the 13-inch versus the 15-inch Beagles where both sides can reportly be born in the same litter seems just as strange.)

Parson Russell Terrier #5.

Scottish Terrier #8. The Scottie is always a crowd favorite. It’s the first dog I really remember from my childhood (I have faint memories of an earlier one, though.) For all my less-than-stellar pictures in these postings, I kind of like this picture of the Scottie. The problem with Scottie pictures is that the blackest ones take the worst pictures, but their color is one of the key attributes. As normal, you can’t see any of the detail in the dog below, but it has that perfect profile.

Sealyham Terrier #5. Look at the exuberance in this dog. It won the Terrier Group and I sure didn’t resent the choice. As much as I liked some of the others, this one was special.

Skye Terrier #6.

Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier #15.

Staffordshire Bull Terrier #6.

Welsh Terrier #11.

West Highland White Terrier #15. This was the last of the Terriers.

Then it was time for the judging.

Once again, there was no voiceover from the announcer. You got a general idea of who was being selected, but it was all done in relative silence. The Sealyham won and the others congratulated the handler.

And the final four picture.

At this point, the TV commercials started and we finally got the verbal announcement. I, of course, wasn’t sure exactly which dog had won up to that moment, but I was certainly in the minority of the crowd. From the previous break between groups, I knew that there was going to be a long wait for the next group, so decided it was time to leave.

Actually, there was a mass of people getting up and moving out. Most were probably going to take a break themselves, but I was in a crowd that kept on going to the outside. I guess others either had to work or just wanted to see the Terriers.

-H

Comments: 4 Comments

Famous Ankles

What lies below Chinatown?

An International Tweak

Rita Ford Music Boxes

Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side

Westminster Dog Show Part 4

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