Celebrating Community
Yesterday I stood on a step ladder to change a ceiling floodlight. The packaging said my new LED light would last fifteen years if it was used 8 hours a day. Doing some quick math, I realized this floodlight would probably outlive me. I decided to install an old incandescent bulb instead. For the third time on the same day, […]
I’m not a big theater fan. I’d rather see a flick. No need to change out of flip-flops, plenty of legroom, no lines at the urinal, and somewhat affordable. On the other hand, my wife grew up in rural Illinois, but as a kid her parents took her to Broadway to see My Fair Lady. Thus was a theater buff […]
It was Junior year Physics class in St. Augustan Diocesan High School, in a Park Slope that had seen better days and would again someday but not in 1963. I had just written a novelty song about Nicholas Piccione, our math teacher, who I actually liked. The song sprang to life after I dozed off in his class while he […]
On October 29th, 2011, thunder-snow was heard in Central Park as up to six inches of snow fell across the City, the earliest heavy snow in our history. In retrospect, an eerie omen of what nature had in store exactly one year later. 2011 Oct 29 The Frankenstorm came ashore near Atlantic City on a Monday at 7:30 PM. Its […]
“Hot bird!” It was George again, bursting into the Star-Review newsroom. “Enright!” he boomed. “We need to get to the bottom of this faded ghost sign I just passed on Court Street. A lot of it’s washed out, but it says to ‘Eat Healthy.’ Was that even a thing years ago?” George showed me the picture he’d just snapped. Not […]
I opened an old friend’s email the other day. It read, “That was a time it was…wasn’t it?” Attached was a copy of the Brooklyn DA’s felony complaint against David Berkowitz, sworn to by Detective John Falotico, dated August 11, 1977. Back then, I was a Brooklyn probation officer again. My first go-round ended on July 1 of 1975, when […]
On Monday, March 19, 1877, over 200 Italian immigrant laborers were laying tracks amidst the chilly woods of Flatbush, just yards beyond the southern boundary of the Village of Parkville – an old dirt trail called Foster Avenue. Many more of their crew had been left a quarter of a mile behind to dig a tunnel under the recently completed […]
In other news I notice the Bike-Nazi-Politicos have proposed eliminating parking for the Not-Really-Affordable-Housing (NRAH) going up in “transit rich zones.” Our new Beep, Antonio Reynoso, leads a cast of nine Brooklyn Council members, including Alexa Avilés (Red Hook/Sunset Park) and Lincoln Restler (Dumbo/Boerum Hill) who sent a letter (penned by Reynoso and Restler but yet to find its way […]
A week before Christmas, when the New York sun is perpetually in your eyes, I was standing in a crowd at the corner of Henry & DeGraw Streets, an intersection that was about to be dedicated to the memory of Mary Crisalli Sansone. While we squinted into the distance waiting for Mayor DeBlasio to show up, it occurred to me […]
On the eve of Christmas Eve, former Mayor deBlasio presented a cardboard check of nearly eleven million dollars to the Director of the Old Stone House in Washington Park. The money, drawn (extorted) from the Gowanus Neighborhood Plan, will pay for rest rooms to be added to the small remaining space on the north end of the building, as well […]