Nice of them to think of us this holiday season

Seen on TV Christmas eve day.

I should really give old Jane Gallagher a buzz

"The Catcher in the Rye" Christmas tour. This is an AP story from last December. Just remebered it for some reason. Good thing for entertaining visitors. Visitors who like the book. Have fun, folks. I'll be at a bar.

"The Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger, was published in 1951. But nearly all the landmarks Holden mentions as he wanders around Manhattan at Christmastime — the Rockefeller Center skating rink, Radio City and the Rockettes, the zoo and carousel in Central Park, Grand Central, the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art — are still drawing holiday visitors more than a half-century later.

"The things that he chose tend be crowd-pleasers," said Matthew Postal, a researcher with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. "In a city where so much changes, there is a tendency, especially with institutions, to protect the crowd-pleasers."

The Yule blog

Need a tree?

Just took a quick inventory of some of the remaining Christmas tree lots around the neighborhood...In previous years, it seemed as if too many trees were left as of Dec. 24...And this year?

At Rite Aid on First Avenue at Fifth Street this morning:



At a stand on First Avenue and 19th Street last night:



At Stuyvesant Farms on 14th Street and Avenue A last night:



Or, if fake is your thing, there are trees left at the East Side 99 cent shop on 14th Street near Avenue B:



Meanwhile, Christmas is apparently over for this Ninth Street resident:

Noted

From the Times today:

Martha Stewart was among the many who were saddened a year and half ago by the closing of Kurowycky, the Ukrainian butcher in the East Village, and the loss of its legendary hams. Ms. Stewart, whose heritage is Polish, has decided to try to recapture the Old World style.

Her bone-in applewood-smoked holiday ham is made by Kirkland Signature and sold, either half or whole, at Costco stores.

It has a fine texture and a haunting, smoky taste, though it would be better with a wider rim of creamy fat, a detail that might not bother most people. It is fully cooked, ready to slice, and can also be heated with a glaze.

Now Martha can go to the old Kurowycky spot on First Avenue and get a DVD or CD.

Noted ("high-end horn-dogs" edition)

From Page Six today:

THE world of ecdysiasts -- a coinage of H.L. Mencken from the Greek "to peel" -- is changing fast with the closings of Scores West last February and Scores East this month. Now, Las Vegas strip club Sapphire has opened its first New York outpost on West 23rd Street. The busty beauties there, with hearts of gold, have been collecting Barbie dolls to send to poor girls in Brazil. Word is Sapphire will also soon be taking over the much larger Scores East space on East 60th in an attempt to lure back the high-end horn-dogs who now patronize Rick's Cabaret on West 33rd.

More holiday cheer and stuff

Christmastime in the East Village from GammaBlog on Vimeo.

Holiday cheers

At 7B. Or Vazac's...or the Horsehoe bar...

Up on the Parkside reindeer pause...Out jumps good old Santa Claus...Down thru the chimney with lots of booze

Houston and Attorney on the Lower East Side.

Yankees now handing out money faster than the US Government

By giving Mark Teixeira $180 million, the Yankees now have the four highest-paid players in baseball. Well, guess that means beers will be $40 next season at the new Yankee Stadium.

Breaking! Firetrucks (and firefighters!) in action at the corner where Keith McNally will somehow probably ruin

Just after 3, the corner of Bowery and Houston was the scene of chaos! Enough equipment to put out the inferno at the Towering Inferno! Fire trucks! Ladders! Firefighters! Drivers trying to turn right onto Bowery and honking their horns!








Everyone stood around for a little bit then left. No report of actual flames from the people standing around -- the people standing around who weren't firefighters. Tourists took pictures. Someone had a video camera. Anyway, good thing there wasn't a real fire -- the firefighters would not have been able to penetrate the quadruple plywood protecting McNally's new pizza joint.

Let me get all Metropolitan Diary on you

I was walking in the 30s today for some reason...I got stuck behind a slow-moving tourist dad and his young son (7? 8?)...They were taking their time looking here and there. I wasn't paying too much attention. But it was clear they couldn't find what they were looking for.

The boy said, "But I thought you knew the city."

The dad shook his head sadly, "Not anymore I don't."

Turned out he used to live here.

The Christmas tree at Washington Square Park could likely use a hug or something

The Christmas tree at Washington Square Park looks lovely....well, from a distance, anyway....Get a little closer....



and it starts to look a little more, well, straggly.



Closer still! And there's branch cracked off...A whole section looks somehow dented. Someone miss the light and plow into it? Or maybe just a hungry rat?

I'm not waiting on a lady...say, what the hell is Mick wearing anyway?

Yeah, we've all seen the video for "Waiting on a Friend" enough times...



However, we've never seen these photos taken by schillid when the Stones were shooting the video on St. Mark's Place in July 1981. (I found the photos at the It's Only Rock'n Roll Stones fan site.) Here, the boys hang out at the old St. Mark's Bar & Grill on the corner of First Avenue.





Here's what the corner looks like now.

For more on the St. Mark's Bar & Grill, go here.