Tag: misc

Change is bad

Yeah. I changed the layout of my blog. Honestly, I should probably care more about how my blog looks, but I have other things to do. So why’d I change anything when I, of all people, know damn well that change is bad? Because I wanted to make the text column wider. It was (for…
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Back in the Days…

November 1922. Washington, D.C. “Woman’s Bureau, Metropolitan Police Dep’t. Telephone calls bring prompt attention.” From Shorpy.com.

More later

I’m not posting much here because I’m finishing my book. But I’ll be back in full force after November 8. It’s 5AM. Time for bed.

Trapped in a cold dark place

The human drama of survival in closed spaces, the utter boredom and brief moments of joy, the gathered crowd — why, there’s nothing like the minute-to-minute Twitter updates of my wife’s jury duty. Any moment now the doors of the metal lift will open and she’ll be sprung into the open air of Queens County…
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Back when the job was fun

“Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrill, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee.” June 30, 1922. From Shorpy.

My Hood

Of all the places for heaven on earth, people rarely think of Queens. I was just about to get to work when a friend called and said to meet him in the park for a picnic. So off we went to meet him and his son. My friend, a restaurant owner from Egypt (he’s been…
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The Bandit

Incredible car crash caught on police dash-cam. But I’m really posting this because it’s the same car I had in Baltimore. Like the Bandit. But my car was white. And I was more Smokey than the Bandit. It was the last of Detroit’s metal cars. And I never crashed it.

Cairo Art Heist

Yes, I too was more surprised that a bunch of priceless paintings are housed in a Cairo museum that the fact that a Van Gogh was stolen. But get this: they didn’t steal the real one! According to an Egyptian source of mine, the real one was stolen a decade ago when corrupt American-supported dictator/pharaoh…
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Our Evening Constitional Past the Mosque

We went on a “hidden harbor” tour Tuesday evening that went through NY Harbor and down to Port Elizabeth (by Newark Airport). Industrial decay… working harbor… good stuff! It was a beautiful evening. But as a harbor, compared to Rotterdam, it looks like Single-A. The guide said the biggest six harbors in the world are…
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Happiness is a steamed crab

It’s crab feast time of year. I’m off to Baltimore. Crabs will get ate. Beer will get drunk.