New York 2025 -- Day 2

We had breakfast at Barney Greengrass. It was delightful to sit on their sidewalk seating and take in New York sights and sounds. Our waiter said to every customer "Just to remind you -- we have latkes. It's not on the menu." Of course most of the people eating there have never eaten there before, so we thought it was pretty funny. I had a pumpernickel bagel with sturgeon, which was completely delicious. And Cel Ray and coffee and we had those latkes, which weren't great but we had to have after the performance of our waiter.

Museum of Sex? Yeahnothanks. We had tickets to visit the butterfly room at the Museum of Natural History.

We headed back to the hotel, intending to see the balloons inflated nearby on the way to the museum.

Uh oh! All of New York was there to see the same thing (balloons, floats, museum). Neph overheard someone say, of the line, "It's long, but it moves". Here's the view to the right and left of us. Royal Flush porta potties at the ready.

TRUTH. KNOWLEDGE. VISION

GREEN GIANT

We bailed, and went uptown to Harlem (Sugar Hill!!) to see the place listed on my dad's birth certificate, 291 Edgecombe Ave. While waiting for a Lyft, the Chairman of the Walt Disney Company walked right past us. Santa Pizza Man thought we were looking at *him*, and was pretty jazzed.

Here we are at our destination! I had never seen it in person but our besties had once sent us photos. The building looks fancier on the outside than I believe it is on the inside. My aunt said that when my dad was a baby they had a coin-operated stove, and that they put him in there in a shoe box. My dad's retort was "And that's why you called me your half-baked little brother."

Here's the view from the building. It overlooks what is now Jackie Robinson park. The pool wasn't there when my dad was born.

Getting back home wasn't as easy as getting there. Neph couldn't make contact with the Lyft mothership. I had only 6% battery, and didn't think I had enough to hail the Lyft. So we tried to hail a cab (they do exist, but are infrequent), and met some nice people and their dog Pistol ("with no bullets!") who were waiting for a ride. After a while I decided to try to hail a Lyft. At this point I was at 4%. The Lyft arrived, I immediately tipped, and we were good to go.

Back at the hotel we had some snacks and could both watch Star Wars and see that the fire inspector hasn't been there recently. Can't wait to show this photo to our head of facilities at the factory. She will lose it.

Then we went to see the worst comedy ever, at the New York Comedy Club. There were two or three MCs, who really needed help with their crowd work. We in the audience often gave them something to work with and they'd get stuck on the meaning of a WORD, which is part of one of the guys' schtick (being dumb). One young woman, who we were really rooting for, had just booked a Neutrogena commercial that day and I hope that goes well cause she was really not good at comedy. And one guy talked about how his dad goals were for his daughter not to be a "ho" and that if your kid gets molested by a person in a wheelchair, "that's on them". He was met with absolute silence.

Speaking of "that's on them", several of the comics blamed the audience for themselves not being funny. "You're giving 'preview audience' vibes."

That's on you, babe.

New York 2025 -- Day 1

The neph and I went to New York last week to participate in the Macy's Parade. It did not disappoint.

This was a blitz of a visit.

First, transportation. The Lyft driver got to my house at 4:45. As I was putting my bag in her trunk, she went around the front to hitch up her front bumper with gaffer's tape. I asked her politely to please come to a complete stop at stop signs.

I took Mr. Salty with me as a companion on the plane. Housekeeping put him on my pillows every morning.

Our Lyft driver was a peach compared to our car service from JFK to our hotel. That guy scared me so often that I put my hands over my eyes multiple times. I did not hear him use his turn signal until we were somewhere around 125th.

The hotel was nice. It smelled exactly like Comme des Garcons' Avignon. So good.

We played pub quiz and ate dinner a few blocks from our hotel. The other teams were parties of 6. Our own modest goal was to not come in last. We tied for second to last :)

I had a cherry cola slurpie and found it delicious. Also some felafel and shishito peppers.

I believe that Honey Brains is no longer in business. I wonder why.

End of an Era

I passed by Dr. Wong's office yesterday on my way to the shoe repair to pick up my cowboy boots. Without so much as a howdy-do, our eye doctor has closed up shop. I told my friend and Pilates instructor, yesterday morning while I was working out. 

She went to the same doctor for her whole adult life. She cried. I think this is as much notice as Dr. Wong gave anybody. I hope that his retirement means that he has lots of time in which to see 1970s soul bands.

It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

From November:

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of my Irish genealogy group. The topic was FindaGrave and other cemetery databases. One of our members showed us a database that you can use to find additional cemetery information that isn't in FindaGrave. For instance, if there was more than one person in a grave before it was moved to a different cemetery, the entry in the new grave might omit one of the names by mistake.

I was kicking the tires on this new (to me) database and not finding what I want. Because my own relatives aren't buried in this cemetery I looked up I don't have people buried in this area other than my grandparents, so I was looking up Colonel Somebody who is my friend's ancestor. 

Did not find.

Did not find.

Did not find.

Finally I used this search "col%" and it brought up Colonel Somebody Else. Or at least his leg. Then I looked up the circumstances of the amputation:

And then I started searching for amputated limb burial. Fascinating!

Michael O'Rourke lost his leg while following orders during his job on a steam ship. His employer claimed it was not liable for negligence caused by one of its employees. A leg was buried. During later removal of all buried persons out of the city limits they did an inventory of each grave. This is the reason that these index cards exist.

Back then, it cost as much to bury a limb as a whole person:

For a comprehensive article about why people had their limbs buried, enjoy this article from the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery.