The Angel of Union Square

This morning I attended a 2 hour panel discussion at the Foundation Center, on how to successfully start up a nonprofit organization. Afterwards I went scouting up East 15th Street to look for vanity plates for my other blog, Vain Plates

Union Square was full of produce, cheese, meat, wine, and baked goods stands, for Monday's Greenmarket. I gave a glance but I always end up feeling that everything is just too overpriced. Standing in the midst of all this was a very tall woman dressed as an angel. I have no idea why she was there or what she was supposed to represent. At her feet was a cloth-covered container (for money?) and a large paper rose.

When I got into the subway station I spotted another unusual woman, wearing full makeup but with her head shaved. She wore a "Bald Headed Soprano" tee shirt so I assume she was advertising for a show. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of her. But that's one thing I enjoy about New York City. You never know what you might see.

Sand Sculpture

Today we went to Coney Island to see the Sand Sculpture contest. There wasn't really much. Maybe there were 10-15 sculptures in the sand. There were other mounds, unused, that no one claimed.

If you bought a place in the contest you got a tee shirt that said, Coney Island, Summer of Hope. Well, I wonder just what that is about. I know developers are coming in but I hope they won't turn Coney Island into a boring, homogenized bunch of condos and a strip mall. It's run down, it's somewhat tacky, but that is part of it's charm. I'd like to see it stay the same but that's probably a hope that won't be realized.

Bruce says the problem is, for many years people stayed away and didn't give Coney Island the attention it needed. It had become a bit of a no-man's land, and that's probably what attracted the eyes of the developers. Oh yes, they want it to be entertaining, but they'd probably clean it up, do away with the weirdness and freakiness.

I like the weirdness. I want the Mermaid Parade to go on, and Circus Amok to come visit and put on their zany political performances for years and years to come. So that's my hope this summer.

It's All Happening At the Zoo

We finished up our "staycation" activities on Saturday with a trip to the Bronx Zoo. Here are a few representative photographs. That huge bug is a Madagascar hissing cockroach, which will give you a piece of its mind if you annoy it. When Jason stood close to the docent holding it, the roach jumped onto his shirt. This would have given me a heart attack, but Jason was amused. We are glad it wasn't perturbed with him for tickling one of its cousins and getting it to hiss many years ago at a demo in Prospect Park.

The tiger needs no introduction. It looked fierce and beautiful, everything a big cat should be. The mist up on "Tiger Mountain" was cool and refreshing, too.

I don't know what species of bird that is, but it had a long, snakelike neck when extended. Quite an odd looking little creature. If anyone can identify it, please let me know.

It's hard to get a butterfly to pose. They are forever fluttering their wings. This one obliged long enough for me to snap a photo.

The subway station nearest the Bronx Zoo, East Tremont/West Farms, has a number of stained glass windows illustrating scenes from the Zoo. On the way home, I snapped several photos of them. It's all a part of a memory of a fun day out, even if our feet did get sore traipsing almost the entire length of the zoo and back again.

Staycation

Since July 4th, Bruce has been on a "staycation." We've done these stay-at-home vacations for years because there hasn't always been the money to go away. All of a sudden it has become trendy to vacation at home, because people can't afford to go away with the high fuel costs.

We did some running around at first, trying to grab all the gusto. After the July 4th party at Tony's (see my other blog, Brooklyn Humanist Community) we went to the Paley Institute of Media, which used to be the Museum of TV and Radio. There was a special on the late George Carlin, including his "seven dirty words" routine. He was hilarious, I was sad when I read he died so young. Nowadays seventy-one is young!

We also treated ourselves to some old TV shows like Get Smart, Seinfeld, and the Twilight Zone. In the library, I watched an Outer Limits episode that starred William Shatner, made back in 1964. Two years before "Star Trek," he played in this episode as a space explorer captain whose project was called "Project Vulcan." I wonder if there was any connection between the script writer and Gene Roddenberry who created "Star Trek" two years later.

Sunday we got a late start and wound up going over to the Brooklyn Historical Society. It was not that exciting this time but I did find some of the Vietnam veterans' stories interesting, and there was an exhibit of antique children's books. Some of them were so moralistic, today's kids probably would chuck them right out the window. For all I know, kids in the 19th century may have wanted to as well. There were stories about dreadful fates that befell children who disobeyed, sucked their thumbs, or committed various other heinous sins. You have to hope that impressionable little minds did not have to listen to these as bedtime stories; they are made-to-order nightmares.

But along with the cautionary tales there were some cute alphabet books and easy reading classics, such as "The Swiss Family Robinson" in words of one syllable.

Monday we met Cynthia for lunch and went to the Malibu diner, and afterwards Bruce and I visited the Museum of Sex. I had to see it at least once since it's such an unusual subject for a museum. I found it all very interesting but none of it particularly stimulating. What I came away impressed with was the extensive human imagination that has put so many bells and whistles on something that is a natural function. But we have surrounded it with so many fantasies and artifacts that it becomes something else entirely.

Tuesday we went on a walking tour of Greenwich Village. It was a Big Onion tour, led by a young man who just earned his Ph.D. in history, with a specialty in the history of New York City. So he was able to give us an in-depth talk on the history of Greenwich Village and why the area is so different from the rest of New York City. Community activism, whether by landowners or by civil libertarians and civil rights activists, has shaped the Village, even to the peculiar layout of the streets and the survival of older style buildings that have vanished in most of the rest of the city.

On Wednesday we went into Hoboken, the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, and took ourselves on part of a self-guided walking tour of the town. I got tired about a third of the way into it; there was too much zig zagging back and forth. So we headed over to their historical society before going home. It turned out to be a very tiny museum and only one of the two galleries was open. We saw a history of Hoboken in postcards. I enjoyed reading the little scribbles people wrote on them, little one liners like, "We'll meet you on Wednesday." Before telephones were popular, that's how people sent their "text messages." It's hard to imagine having to wait a few days to hear from someone about a simple meeting.

The docent was very friendly. We were the only visitors to the museum so we had his full attention. We chatted about Frank Sinatra, and about the museums in New York. Bruce invited him to see the Brooklyn Museum, which he'd never visited before.

After that we took a very long walk back to the Path station, and narrowly escaped the pouring rain.

Yesterday, we had to buy a printer because our old one insists on printing on a slant, and we went to the Bowery today and bought new living room lamps. We've had terrible luck with lamps and I hope these will finally turn out to be the ones that will last us for many years. Oddly, before this, the best lamps we had were a pair of used lamps we bought at a yard sale for $15 for the set. Too bad we didn't find a deal like that again.

Tomorrow it's off to the Bronx Zoo if the weather is right, and Sunday we'll probably take it easy. After that Bruce goes back to work on Monday, and our "staycation" will be over.

The Great Debaters

Friday morning before the July 4th party, we watched "The Great Debaters." This movie was based on a true story of a professor at Wiley College in Texas, back in 1935, who inspired his students to form a debating team that wound up taking on Harvard. Because these young people were African-American, this was big news, and the debate made history.

Denzel Washington played the starring role and directed the film. He came across as an intensely dedicated man, determined to lift his students (and the sharecroppers in the town) out of their second-class citizenship. He assembles a team of four, but one young man quits the team because the professor will not answer him as to whether he is a Communist. The three remaining students go on to rack up victory after victory, but the professor's other agenda, union organizing, lands him in jail. By the time the summons to face off with the Harvard debating team comes, he is forced to let his students go on alone, in order not to be imprisoned for jumping bail.

There's a romance between a young brilliant and angry ne'er-do-well and the only female student on the team, while the youngest member, a fourteen-year-old boy who is most profoundly affected by the discrimination and cruelty of the Jim Crow south, breaks out of his shyness to become one of the best debaters of all.

This was a real feel-good, inspiring movie that made me want to give a standing ovation. For those wishing to inspire present day students to hone their debating skills and make the most of their education, visit GreatDebaters.org for more information.

Summer Jobs for Teens

The New York Times reported that summer jobs for teenagers this year are fewer and farther between than they have been in 50 years. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/business/25teen.html?_r=1&ref=jobs&oref=slogin


Overall, only 1/3 of all teenagers between 16 and 19 years old will find summer jobs this year. That's pretty poor. I know Anthony Weiner is working on getting more federal funding for youth employment programs, but is that going to come through quickly enough to save us from a long, hot summer?


With 2/3 of the kids on the streets, idled, we are at risk for the kinds of trouble kids get into when the weather is unbearably hot and sticky, there's no money in their pockets, and nothing productive to do.


What's the alternative? Well, in New York City, at least there are volunteer opportunities, and plenty of free events. Jason will be taking classes in job hunting and office skills at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow. He'll also take a math class at his college to prepare for yet one more entrance exam (and here I thought he was exempt from those).

Kids in need of volunteer work (which, by the way, can lead to paid job opportunities once you show them what you can do) can find opportunites at Volunteer Match or at Idealist. The public libraries have programs almost every day, and there are free museums, free book readings, concerts, and lectures. So kids don't have to be out on the street looking for mischief, at least not if they make an effort to find something productive to do.

Still, it's hard on the self-esteem, and reduces opportunities to put paid summer jobs on kids' resumes. The economy is in a mess, true, but there's got to be a way to get kids working.

Incident on the Platform

This afternoon, after volunteering at HMI in the morning and enjoying a lunch of nachos with Cynthia, I arrived on the subway platform at Union Square to witness a disturbing incident. A young man, probably around 30, went into convulsions at the very edge of the platform. He fell over, whacking his head hard against the concrete, and would have rolled onto the tracks if other passengers hadn't grabbed him and pulled him to safety. (He still was not all that far from the edge, though).

Apparently he cut himself when he fell because he was bleeding from somewhere on his head. A few people went upstairs in search of help and came down saying help was on the way. But I didn't see anything. I went upstairs, called 911, and reported the incident to EMS, in hopes they would send an ambulance. I came back to the platform to find one man with a police badge and a walkie talkie hovering over the unconscious man, speaking into it. Then another man in a sort of Transit Authority vest came over and they prevented him from rolling onto the tracks as he tried to turn over (but still not moving him more than a foot or two from the edge).

Meanwhile, probably about 15 minutes had passed and I didn't see any evidence of an amublance. Two more policemen came down, looked the man over, but didn't really do much of anything.

I had to wonder what this unfortunate fellow's chances of survival would have been if he had been dying. Probably not much better than the proverbial snowball in hell. As it was, he might have a concussion or some kind of bleeding on the brain, and precious moments were being lost.

Finally I boarded the train and went home. It's discouraging and disheartening to see how slow the response to this incident was, given that we were only a few minutes away from several hospitals. Someone should have been down there actually doing something for this guy a lot quicker. All I can say is, don't get sick on the subway, darlin'. You may not survive.

A Weekend to Remember

Last weekend was one of those memorable ones. Friday night we went to the Cyclones game in Coney Island. I'd never been to a professional baseball game before and had all kinds of reservations about it since I was never a sports lover. But because this was a minor league game, it was much more "user friendly" and entertaining. Sammy the Seagull did his thing as the official mascot, and there were some entertainments for the little kids (human bowling balls, etc.) in between innings. Also, the stadium was small so we could see what was happening.

It was one of those good, tense games where the Cyclones were behind at first, then pulled into a tie with the Ironbirds, and finally made the winning score at the very end of the 9th inning! Right after that the Coney Island fireworks went off, and we had a perfect view of them from the stadium.

The BHC turned out in force, with 22 in attendance including some family and friends.

Saturday I brought Bruce along to be my "caddy" while I shopped for bargains at the Salvation Army. I actually found 2 summer weight skirts and 3 pairs of summer weight pants, all for $25.95 (tax included). That's the sort of shopping that makes me smile.

Sunday afternoon Jason and I went to the BHC Book Club where we discussed Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven. In certain ways the book reminded me of the old Jimmy Stewart movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." But there the main character was alive. I felt sad that in this book, Eddie had to die before he got a chance to see his life in perspective and realize that although he felt his life was wasted in a dead-end dreary job as a maintenance man at an amusement park, in fact he'd saved the lives of many, many children, and his life had meaning after all.

That's great, but why couldn't he have learned this before he died?

Still, the discussion was excellent and so was the exercise Sheila had us do, where we designed our own idea of Heaven and then put down the names of 10 people we wanted to meet there. For a little while, Heaven was an apartment in Sheepshead Bay.

I'm excited about the upcoming July 4th potluck BBQ. And next week, Bruce will be off from work and we will have a New York City Staycation, the sort of vacation we've had for years in an attempt to be frugal, but is now all the rage because gas prices have skyrocketed so high. I'm making a list of places I've either never seen or haven't seen in ages, to check out while Bruce is home.