The cantilevered Westly at 91st and Broadway. Does it give you a queasy to look at this photo?

 

                                  The former Williams Residence at 95th and West End Avenue
 

Manhattan Ghost Building

 

                                        103rd and Broadway

West End Avenue Nightly Healthcare Shoutout ~ April 1st, 2020

Run to Run For Your Wife

 

Joshua Nicholson and Maria Silverman in Run For Your Wife (photo by Bella Muccari)

This is an off, off Broadway gem that will chase away the winter blahs for an evening and maybe even the whole week because you'll keep laughing about it that long. Don't let that second off mislead you,  Run For Your Wife is a top notch production with some seriously talented comic actors. Written in 1983 by Ray Cooney and playing at The Gallery Players Theater on 14th Street in Brooklyn, it's the story of a London cabby who happens to have two wives, and the lengths he'll go to stop them finding out about each other. The single set, cleverly designed to be two apartments in one (one for each wife,) suggests London's go go days in the 1960s or 70s, a style that is also borne out by some

of the groovy costuming. The show's very talented cast-members run through their lines with the impeccable timing that farce requires, in the process creating hugely funny and memorable characters. While the jokes are funny and suit the situation, so can be a little obvious, it is the misunderstanding and broad confusion on the stage that makes this play so hilarious. The plot keeps you guessing how the lead will get out of this one, a task made more difficult by the help of the layabout bum from upstairs and the arrival of rival police inspectors. Excellent performances by the credulous wives and a bit of a mess made by another neighbor, keeps the doors slamming and the story churning. It all makes for a great evening of theater.

It's a short ride on the R train out to the theater. Run for Your Wife closes on February 1st, so you better hurry. You will not regret it.

Manhattan Painted Cobalt

                                                                                                                                    Photo by Katherine Sharp ©

A friend sent along a photo she took recently on Central Park South at the end of a cold January day. It seems to just capture the moment when the city passes through the earth's penumbra before the full onset of night. Except for the presence of the brightly lit Bloomberg tower, it evokes Manhattan in the 1970s with its oily sheen and silhouetted skyline. Back then, this spot was the intersection of fashionable and dangerous. Central Park South was fashionable to live on then. Now, it is not. Central Park at night was scary. Now it feels quite safe.

This corner of the city still has the ability to capture the imagination. It has always attracted a slick crowd and now it seems to have been taken over by foreigners. Taller and taller buildings financed by sovereign wealth are going up here and people coming from somewhere else are moving into them. The hair styles, clothing, body types are all different from what you see elsewhere in the city. It's all serious eyed, well dressed men with short cropped hair and black cars so you can't tell if they are bodyguards to the oligarchs upstairs, or just gay. In the 1970s it was taxi cabs and wavy-haired Midwestern hustlers like Midnight Cowboy, and executives wives and blond divorcées from the coast. The same skinny women promenade past the buildings now, updated in French twin sets and hailing taxis in their matching shoes as they check the hotel and restaurant windows to see who's inside.They pass in ones and twos, always on the building side of the street, never along the park. You never know if they are the real deal or just hangers on. Or prostitutes. For someone who is not impressed by all the dubious money and style that has flooded this place, it creates anxiety about income inequality. My own, in particular. How much better I could spend it.

From One of Our Far-flung Correspondents

Jerry Miller writes that he was out walking in the snow this week and observed the following scenes and thoughts. They were a woman sitting reading in the snow in Riverside Park and a poetic pause by the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt at 72nd Street and Riverside Drive.

Quote Jerry: I saw Eleanor Roosevelt and asked her what she thought of this oddly cold and snowy winter.  She didn't reply right away and seemed to be thinking it over.  It was too cold to wait for her answer so I just continued my walk.

Don't Mind Us While We Add a Few Floors Under the Building

This is a pastiche of photos I took of a building on Columbus Avenue and 92nd Street where somebody decided to add a few floors under ground. From all appearances, the building is still occupied by its residents, though you have to wonder if it's safe and if the noise of this construction wouldn't drive you to kill yourself anyway. The hole in the foreground used to be a large concrete plaza that nobody ever used. Given the success of the Columbus Square retail development five blocks north, the owner is probably trying to cash in on all the wasted space. 

Supreme Court Stands up for the Constitution. Well, Mostly.

The Supreme Court killed DOMA today, and as expected the conservative block led by Antonin Scalia railed in its dissent at the injustice of it all. In a truly twisted turn of logic, Scalia claimed that those who were completely unaffected by the law are the real victims. It is revealing that his hissy fit from the bench made only an emotional dissent to an outcome he could not win through logic. That's the problem with conservatism these days. Unable to justify its point of view through anything in the way of an ideological truth, it panders strictly to emotions. The bigotry enshrined in DOMA was overtly discriminatory against a whole class of people. And yet, year after year after year conservatives denied it was so while continually failing to elucidate a logical argument in its favor. It was just so much emotion and fear. DOMA was good because they said so. 

Bigotry is looking at someone and seeing something intrinsic about them that you don't like, be it their manner, their skin color, who they associate with, or any other thing you can't put your finger on, but use to rationalize a hatred of them. When this hatred is recognized by others, it becomes discrimination. When it is enshrined in law, as in DOMA, it is unconstitutional. Persons who insists that only their values are the correct order for the world fall easily into emotional thinking. They quickly discard the logic and rule of law. Under such circumstances, they will never come to a rational point of view about their own self interest, let alone others.

DOMA was born out of fear that the state of Hawaii would pass the first same sex equality law. In a way that was a big favor. It focused the fight. Congress would never have passed a law guaranteeing marriage equality on its own. It was only by doing the opposite that equal rights could eventually be claimed. The clear assertion by the Supreme Court that DOMA, or anything like it is a violation of the constitution could only have happened if the law existed to begin with. It will be interesting to see how the fight plays out in the thirty states that have marriage discrimination laws. It's not looking good for them.

Window Washer Could Use Another Pair of Suspenders

This is known in the neighborhood as the ivy covered building. It is covered in ivy, which hasn't leafed out yet this spring, up to about the 8th floor. There's a window washer standing on the ledge on the 7th floor in this photo. It's difficult to see him, but I wanted to give an idea of the fearless height he is working at. From the second photo, you can see that he didn't bother concerning himself about showing an eyeful of builder's cleavage. He probably didn't think anyone was looking.

Romney Condemns the Politics of Envy, Says the Other 99% is Just Jealous

Bugger’s Notch, S.C. Speaking at a campaign stop, Mitt Romney responded to criticism today that he helped create the enormous gap between the rich and everyone else by blaming everyone else. Amid growing attacks on his years as a corporate vulture, Romney lashed out against critics he described as jealous people who just seek to divide the country more evenly. Citing President Obama as an example, Romney said, “Everywhere he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires. He’s got what, one maybe two mill in the bank? I have over 100 million smackers. It’s obvious, he’s jealous." 

"I like being able to fire people."

Defending his work at Bain Capital, Romney asserted that creative destruction is part of capitalism. “At Bain, we just happened to be more creative.”  He said that it was almost painful to pile debt on a company and pay the proceeds out to Bain, "but how else could we teach the workers we didn't fire to be competitive? If you can’t carry the load, move to Mexico because that’s where your job is going.”

"Okay, so we killed a few people."

Reminding his audience that corporations are people, Romney admitted that Bain’s business strategy may have included a few killings, but he quickly characterized them as mercy killings. “Corporations are people, my friends. They are. And like people, they sometimes have mishaps, like breaking a leg that is too expensive to fix, and then they have to be put down.” A spokesman quickly clarified that the candidate’s remarks were not intended as an appeal for the euthanasia vote.

Electric Kool-aid Acid Guy

I met this German fellow in the gift shop of the Calhoun Mansion in Charleston recently. He was very proud of his Moods of Norway outfit. You have got to check out their website. It's fascinating. 

A week before that I had never heard of Moods of Norway, but after a recent trip to Zuccotti Park to see the Occupy Wall Street protesters, I made the required stop at Century 21, the designer outlet store that is always a mob scene. I bought a plaid shirt that I liked without even noticing the brand. I saw it was Mood when  I cut the tags off. So, it gave me a great laugh when I asked about the suit. He opened the front and pointed to the Mood label inside which also said  'Made by Sexy Blond Women in Norway'! 

The Real Zombies of Italy

A PR photo for Sarah Murray's book, Making an Exit seemed appropriate for Halloween. This is from a Capuchin Monastery in Palermo where in the 1800s, noticing that bodies preserve particularly well in the dry air of their basement, they began hanging dead clergy from the walls. National Geographic has a number of photos from the crypt on its website. One in Sarah's book is particularly startling for the snarl on its face, but you'll have to buy the book to see that.

Richest Congressman Practiced Republican Job Creationism in China

The richest man in Congress, Darrell Issa, was on NPR  the other day talking about the Postal Service where he brilliantly observed that “as a businessman, that no matter what they say, they have more than a small cash flow problem.” That comment was to establish his credentials as a "successful businessman" before his next move which was to propose a classic management maneuver: cut wages. Issa wants to establish a Government Control Board that could impose wage and benefit reductions on Postal workers. This is just good business. Never mind that Congress has refused to invest in the postal service, let it modernize, or even raise the 44 cent price of sending a letter from New York to California (something UPS charges between $23 and $71 to do) while demonizing its management and workers for the large losses.

Here is yet another millionaire businessman doing his vision thing on the economy. Cut wages, increase profits, cut wages, make money, cut wages, run for Congress.

Issa, through his company Directed Electronics, is responsible for more nights of disturbed sleep than anyone else  in America thanks to his annoying car alarms. The company's home page states, “Directed Electronics is the largest designer and marketer in North America of consumer-branded vehicle security and remote start systems ,” Notice it doesn't say manufacturer. Guess what that means. In all likelihood their products are not made in America. Like so much other junk that is sold here, they are made in China or Thailand or Indonesia, or even Japan. So, the richest capitalist  in Congress made his fortune without ever creating an American manufacturing job. (Oh, except at that factory in Cleveland that burned down.) Issa is a Republican and I think it is safe to assume he supports his party's low tax on business platform. Why wouldn't he? He is one of its greatest beneficiaries.

Organic Matter

My friend Sarah Murray has just published a book about the rites and practices people follow when saying farewell to their dead. Apparently, not just the mafia has unusual ways of disposing of bodies. Making an Exit explores what in the author's words are "sad, funny, dark, enlightening, moving, scary, weird and wonderful" things people do to deep-six their loved ones. It seems Sarah was moved by her research, as you can see from this video of the unusual conversation piece tucked discreetly into a corner of her apartment.

Tarte aux Abricot

This is pretty easy if you have some frozen pastry and fruit and jam on hand. Bake the shell, smear a generous amount of jam on the bottom and then put the fruit on top. Bake it again until any juice that's released is fairly thin, up to 45 minutes. It will  thicken more when it cools.

All Hail Ina

I am a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa,  Ina Garten. I watch her while I am on the elliptical machine at the gym. Usually, just viewing her prepare her food satisfies my taste for it, though sometimes it looks way to rich. And I love the way when she's having a dinner party, her guests are mostly the gay guys from the neighborhood, while when it's her husband, he's usually relegated to the kitchen or patio to dine solo. Anyway, I made her lobster pot pie this spring and as promised it was delicious. I cut back on the portions a bit, which was my loss, but it was pretty darn good.

Random Photos

Hamilton Grange, Alexander Hamilton's country house is no longer in the country. Here it is being moved for the second time in its history from Convent Avenue to a site in Saint Nicholas Park. In 1889 it was moved from its original location about two blocks north.

Not far from Hamilton Grange is the George Washington Bridge. It's towers are about 600 feet high and its span is close to a mile long.

Trinity Church Cemetery, the uptown property of the famous church at Broadway and Wall Street is the resting place of many local politicians and society notables including a number Astors. Ed Koch just bought a plot there, even though it is an Episcopal cemetery. I am not sure who the goddess on this column is.

Umbrella Carnage in Manhattan

 

Saturday's big storm  was rough on umbrellas in the city. I went out that morning and my umbrella was destroyed almost instantly by the heavy winds and rain. On Sunday I took a walk up West End Ave and the carnage was everywhere. 65 abandoned umbrellas on a nine block stretch.

Continuing on the French Theme

My Larousse Gastronomique, a food encyclopedia that I refer to rarely, has instructions for making a tarte Tatin that start something like this: Heat a brick oven until the coals are red. It's an old edition, so I believe that suggestion is more an assumption about the era it was published in than an haughty French insinuation that your kitchen is less than complete if you don't have a brick oven. France in the 1950s was still very much like a 19th century country. Well outfitted homes would have had brick ovens.
You can make a perfect tarte Tatin in a gas oven in your apartment. The trick is to use a pâte brisée for the crust(OK, short crust to we Américains)and to make sure, no matter what, that you let the apples caramelize to a dark amber color, or even deeper. You will be tempted to remove them too soon. Do not do it. Also, apple pie recipes often suggest using Granny Smith or other tart apples, but I use Golden Delicious. They are sweet, caramelize well and keep their shape after long minutes of cooking.
Lastly, don't let the final step in the recipe intimidate you. The one where you take the hot tart and flip it onto a plate. First, bake the tarte in an ordinary glass pie dish. When it comes out, cover it with the plate, lift to chest level (using oven mitts) and quickly invert it. Let it rest while the apples unstick themselves. This can take a couple of minutes and can be hurried by jiggling the plate. Then, with your mitted hand on one side and the point of a knife on the other, gently lift the pie dish up from the platter. You can also make mini tartes in ramekins, as I have done in the picture.