Words of Wisdom - NYC Edition
- you cannot buy wine anyplace other than a liquor store. if you bought it at the bodega or grocery store, it is NOT wine.
- Quit smoking. But really. Quit
- movies before 11am are like $7. The folks at the AMC in Times Square aren’t paying attention, and you can movie hop all day.
- Falling asleep on the train is a bad idea—at best it’s inconvenient at worst you’re an easy target for muggers and thieves.
- It’s very difficult to go out to eat and spend less than $30. It’s impossible to spend less than $20.
- Even though supporting local coffee shops is cool—Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts will invariably be faster.
- a good raincoat and a pair of wellingtons will protect you from wet weather. An umbrella will be a pain in the ass.
- “Making a good first impression” means showing up on time, with a good attitude, ready to LISTEN and do the task you were brought in to do. It does NOT mean telling lots of stories about yourself. There will be plenty of time to self promote later—and everyone will be much more receptive once you’ve proven yourself competent.
- Get a library card(s).
inothernews:
Manhattan.
So I assume everyone can’t help but think of “Look What Happened to Mabel” when they see the word “knishes”?
I try not to shamlessly self-promote TOO too often, but this is going to be INSANELY fun and them what’s in the NYC area should doooo it. Use the code TRAVISFAN for 2-for-1 tix.
Yesterday some friends and I went to check out a less known beach at Fort Tilden in the Rockaways, Queens. The beach is adjacent to a former Army Base, so we encountered a few interesting sites on our way to the beach. We went down a somewhat uninviting path that google maps suggested and a local told us to turn around and go back. Not, it turns out, because we were wrong, but because folks round there don’t seem to take to kindly to visitors. Regardless we found a lookout spot with a stunning view, a 360 panorama of which can be seen via this link. When we finally got to the beach we found the holy grail—a free public beach that was totally unattended and uncrowded. My friends and I hot TONS of room to ourself, felt comfortable going into the water without someone staying behind to watch our stuff, and even did a touch of skinny dipping (not photographed). Not for nothing, there was a food truck near the bus stop that sold 50 flavors of $5 milkshake. I had a peanut butter shake, and it was delicious!
Marie’s Crisis is a dirty divey piano bar in NYC’s West Village where wall to wall gay men sing old school showtunes at the top of their lungs over a clanky out of tune piano. Several times an evening the waitstaff perform solo numbers (before passing around the tip fishbowl). Maggie (if that’s her real name, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t), has been a waitress at Marie’s since the late 70s. Her rendition of “Fifty Percent” from Ballroom is incredibly moving, and bordering on legendary.
About that proposed NYC soda ban.
inothernews:
- The city’s restaurant industry wants you to think it’s opposed to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed ban on many sugary drinks 16 ounces or larger because it’ll hurt their bottom line.
- But such a ban would actually put more money in the industry’s pockets.
- “But how?” you say.
- Well, now that they can’t sell you a 32-ounce cup for, say, $2,
- they can now sell you two 16-ounce cups instead for, say, $1.50.
- Do the math!
- Even at fast food restaurants and movie theatres that offer free refills,
- they’ll be refilling a — you guessed it! — smaller cup. Less product given out for free = padding the bottom line!
- Your standard cup sizes at most food service establishments, BTW?
- 12 ounces (kids), 21 ounces (“small”), 32 ounces (“medium”), and 44 ounces (“large”).
- Standardizing a 16-ounce cup will be an inconvenience for the food service industry, that’s for sure
- but once they start making the cups, all they gotta do is sell them
- and believe me, restaurants will sell them
- at whatever price point they damned well please
- so give me another argument as to why the city shouldn’t ban these drinks
- like “drinking that much soda on a regular basis might kill you” or something
- and not this whiny restaurant industry argument
- which has as much appeal as a 16-ounce cup
- of bullshit.
well, I oppose it the same reason I am bothered by the required calorie counts posted on menus—I resent the implication that I can’t feed myself and I don’t understand what such meddlesome behavior accomplishes or why our legislators’ time is being consumed with motions that won’t effect anyone’s life whether it passes or fails.
“Little Old New York” from Tenderloin
music by Jerry Bock lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
performed by Debbie Shaprio Gravitte and friends
Tenderloin is basically the exact same story as Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Minister riles up the public to shut down a whorehouse—possibly for personal gain—people have conflicted feelings about everything. The big difference is that Whorehouse was set in the 70s and told from the hookers’ point of view. Tenderloin, on the other hand, was described by Walter Kerr as, “The most serious musical comedy I ever saw…Maurice Evans plays a crusading minister who wants to eliminate the production numbers.” The curtain rises on a hymn but soon gives way to a trio of prostitutes who sing this delightful Bock & Harnick gem (led here, of course, by the estimable Ms. Shaprio Gravitte). This is the New York song you DON’T hear at benefits.
