One of my favorites,The Apartment, was on earlier today on TCM. As you know, it's November 1959 in the film. Jack Lemmon's character, C.C. Baxter -- C. for Calvin, C. for Clifford -- lives 0n West 67th Street in a one bedroom place just a half block from Central Park. His take-home pay is $94.70 a week. As he says, "My rent is $84 a month. It used to be $80 until last July when Mrs. Lieberman, the landlady, put in a second-hand air conditioning unit."
Hmm, a quick look at just one West 67th Street price today...
Drug dens, homeless shantytowns and prostitution are rampant in New York City's parks, a Post investigation found. Comparing the manicured lawns of Manhattan's Central Park to the barren, rat-infested eyesore of Spring Creek Park in Brooklyn, the disparity is shocking. While the Bloomberg administration boasts that parks are in better shape than they've been in four decades, an investigation of 70 parks over the last nine months found: * Clusters of homeless living in tents and small shantytowns in 10 parks, including Riverside Park near 148th Street in Manhattan. * Hookers brazenly plying their 24-hour trade, including at Printers Park on Hoe Street[EV Grieve note: !] in The Bronx. * Areas where junkies shoot up and crack dealers set up shop, including at Fort George Playground in Washington Heights. * An illegal chop shop where stolen vehicles, including a stripped US Defense Dept. sedan, are harvested is thriving in Fresh Creek Nature Preserve in Brooklyn. * And many barren parks covered in weeds up to 12 feet high that are used as illegal dumps for items like abandoned boats and cars, construction debris, containers of hazardous material, opened steel safes, Vegas-style slot machines - and even a discarded tombstone in Dreier-Offerman Park in Brooklyn.
To be honest, this sign makes me sad. Someone wanted to start a business and they went to the trouble of making all these fliers (there are many taped up along Avenue C). And then they went and spelled the name of the company incorrectly. Unless they do mean Cinderlla's and not Cinderella's. (And I'd argue that Cinderella's isn't the best name for a cleaning business...) But I'm probably thinking way too much about all this.
I walked by this discarded Ab Lounge on First Avenue twice this morning...and each time someone stopped and futzed with the thing for a moment, as if he might seriously bring this home. They wisely moved on. And this other guy stopped and took pictures of it...Oh, wait.
Last night, we were on a rooftop in the neighborhood enjoying a nice, quiet evening. Then, about 9:30, we heard a series of loud "bangs." My first thought was the ConEd plant on 14th Street had finally blown. But we still had power. The ruckus seemed to be coming from somewhere over the East River, I'd say in the 30s. From what I could gather, someone was setting off explosive pyrotechnic devices, which can be very dangerous. Anyway, the noise continued for nearly 30 minutes, all the while a great variety of sparkling shapes, often variously colored, could be seen through the cloudy skies. We called the police several times, but couldn't get through. Regardless, my guess is that someone was filming a big Hollywood movie. (These people have no consideration for the rest of us who have to live here.) There are many rumored sequels in the works that may be filmed here, such as Cloverfield 2: We Still Can't Afford a Tripod or I Am Legend 2: Still the Legend Despite that Hand Grenade at the End of the First One. Must have been that.
Anyway, I'll continue to investigate this. Here is 30 seconds of the action.
As I wrote one day last week, I've long been a fan of the random use of quotation marks on signs, which is why I'm a big fan of The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.) Bonus here for the quotation mark going the wrong way after difference...