STL DPB IN NEW YORK - YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

 

It seems like a hallucination. Maybe it is. A shipping container had been pulled into Luna Park in Coney Island. The doors were opened and workers threw a mountain of large plush dogs, wrapped in plastic bags, onto the pavement. Ellie calls them stuffies (she has her own mountain of them) and wanted one so badly. Won’t fit in the suitcases, kid.             

STL DPB IN NEW YORK - NATHAN'S

 

On Tuesday, we took granddaughter Ellie to Coney Island, on the Atlantic shore of Brooklyn. (There is no island in sight.) It is home to a string of amusement areas that have been around since the early 20th Century. I loved our rare family visits when I was a kid. Ellie went on the wildest rides over and over, things that would twist my stomach and spine.

Coney Island is also home to another American institution, Nathan’s hot dogs. On the Fourth of July, our Independence Day, Nathan’s has a hot dog eating contest. How many sausages and buns can you cram down your throat in 10 minutes? It’s on national TV and is a bizarre spectacle. The men’s winner put away 54, which was nowhere near the record.  See https://tinyurl.com/587rxebs             

Four Boroughs

Didn't get anything of Brooklyn on this trip except for the bridge shot already posted. Otherwise, from top to bottom:

Queens - Silvercup Studios in Long Island City. When I was young Silvercup was the major brand of white bread (which everyone ate) in NYC. When our family drove back to Sunnyside on Sunday nights after visiting my father's family, the air would be full of the aroma of fresh baked bread as we passed. Now it is an enormous film, photography and television production site. 

Manhattan: a halal street food trailer outside the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Street food in the city used to be mostly Hebrew National kosher hotdog carts. Now things are more ecumenical. Note the worker wearing the soccer jersey of the Argentine (and therefore presumably Catholic) Lionel Messi. 

The Bronx: nothing needs more explanation. I went to high school in this borough.

Staten Island: floor mat on the ferry.

NYC political nomenclature is confusing. There are five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. But each of them is also a separate county of the State of New York, sometimes with different names. Manhattan is New York County. Brooklyn is Kings County. Staten Island is Richmond County. It's just to confuse the tourists. 

Straight Outta Brooklyn

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Landed at La Guardia yesterday on a hazy summer day. The photo below is lower Manhattan from somewhere over Brooklyn. (Please turn off all electronic devices for landing.) Note the Liberty Tower, built on the site of the World Trade Center, which is near its full height. Below it and just to the right, on the shore of the East River, is a much smaller building, whitish and with stepped upper stories. It's the last building on Wall Street. My father spent most of his career working there. He was in commodities, not securities - sugar, actually. He always had a huge cache of candy when grandchildren started coming to his home.

Son Andy and special someone Claire came out Monday from Chicago and spent the night with an old high school friend of his who now lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The picture above is from the friend's rooftop, looking back toward Midtown.

Fourth of July parade and fireworks in Ridgewood, NJ, today. Into NYC tomorrow.