Dirty Veggies

I like my vegetables dirty...

The best thing about the local Green Markets around New York City is the locally grown produce straight from the dirt...

We're talking black, rich, gorgeous dirt...

And there's mud still lodged near the celery heart, caked around the crown of a fresh pepper, or dried along the skin of a royal red tomato... Then you know you got the real deal...

So, you wash... You see a few blemishes... Perfect! Means it's not pesticided to death...

And the taste... ? So worth it!!

The days before the frost are numbered... So I'm scarfing down as many from the Green Market at 57th Street and Ninth Avenue as I can...

Wednesday Music Break: Duck Sauce

Duck Sauce... Barbra Streisand

Thanks to Joe.My.God

Preparing for Dry Winter Weather on a Humid Warm Autumn Day

Even though it's so warm and humid today, we all know the dry winter weather will get here to Hell's Kitchen eventually...

And, this article is interesting... I always wondered how and why gargling with salt helped a sore throat and eased symptoms... This also explains why Donner's important nasal cleanse system works so well...

I'm armed with my tools for the winter ahead: NeilMed Sinus Rinse/ Neti Pot kit...

But fingers are crossed that I'll escape the sinus infections of recent winters...

... And I've still never had a flu shot or the flu... And in my profession.... For many, it's an occupational hazard...

Fingers are very crossed...

REALLY?
The Claim: Gargling With Salt Water Can Ease Cold Symptoms
By Anahad O'Connor
The New York Times
Published: September 27, 2010


THE FACTS Nothing but time can cure the common cold, but a simple cup of salt water might ease the misery this winter.


A sore, itchy throat and respiratory congestion are some of the more common symptoms of a cold, and gargling with salt water seems to help for several reasons. A saline solution can draw excess fluid from inflamed tissues in the throat, making them hurt less, said Dr. Philip T. Hagen, editor in chief of the “Mayo Clinic Book of Home Remedies,” which is due out in October. Dr. Hagen pointed out that gargling also loosens thick mucus, which can remove irritants like allergens, bacteria and fungi from the throat.


In a randomized study published in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2005, researchers recruited almost 400 healthy volunteers and followed them for 60 days during cold and flu season. Some of the subjects were told to gargle three times a day. At the end of the study period, the group that regularly gargled had a nearly 40 percent decrease in upper respiratory tract infections compared with the control group, and when they did get sick, “gargling tended to attenuate bronchial symptoms,” the researchers wrote.


Other studies have also found gargling helpful against sore throats and congestion.


According to the Mayo Clinic, for best results, dissolve half a teaspoon of salt in a full glass of warm water and gargle the solution for a few seconds before spitting it out. Adults who want a more palatable remedy against cough and sore throat can try mixing warm water with lemon and honey. No need to spit it out.


THE BOTTOM LINE Gargling with a saline solution can ease symptoms of a cold.

Set the Tone: Today is Life

"Today is life - the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today".
- Dale Carnegie

Today's Broadway Flea Market

I ran over to the Broadway Flea Market today...

A couple of celebs spotted: Carol Kane, Cherry Jones, and Julie Halston. I helped the latter to her limo as she had two shows of the critically acclaimed The Divine Sister to do later today...

Also saw Kenny, a stagehand friend... And Rawss.

Danny and Mara were texting their wherabouts until I was able to zero in on them... They were maybe gonna stroll by TKTS and see if they could score some discount tix to some matinee or other...

Swung by the Broadway Beat  booth to say hi to producer Bradshaw Smith, Rose E., Richard Ridge, and Sidney Myer. They were hard to find as they had moved to the Southernmost corner of Shubert Alley after so many years on the Northernmost side. This hardworking team had already raked in $4,000 for Broadway Cares and it was still barely noon.

Crowds were terrific...! Lots of cash changing hands for this exceptionally good cause...

It was sooooo good to see the event back outdoors again this year. Last year it was raining so badly that they moved it all indoors to Roseland... Outdoors is definitely better...

Too Darn Hot

Today was damn near 90.

I'm over summer...

Why isn't summer over?

Celebrity Sighting: Jackie Mason

Walking home from work...

At 55th near Broadway... A driver dispute... Horns, yelling, cursing, and blocked traffic...

Jackie Mason is watching from the sidewalk...

He goes over and gets right in the middle of it all...

Shortly thereafter, the driver of the car does move his car to the curb and lets all the traffic pass...

...A coincidence?? Or maybe Jackie told them a joke".... "Hey, did you hear the one about the Mack Truck and the Mercedes"??

I told Jackie that fellow comedian Mickey Freeman died the other day... He hadn't heard... Mr. Mason asked me if I knew how old Freeman was?... I didn't know at the time, but I just Googled, and the New York Post sez Mickey Freeman was 90. 

"Only in New York, kids, only in New York", as the late comedian Joey Adams' famous wife Cindy Adams would say....

A Most Divine Sisterhood

Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of The Divine Sister...

Several of the cast live right here on my own Hell's Kitchen street...

They got a rave review by Ben Brantley in today's New York Times...

And a nice review in the New York Post, too...

And they were the subject of another great Ken Fallin caricature (at left) to capture the three main characters in the show...

Julie Halston is faaaaaabulous in this show! Charles Busch really outdid himself in creating a role for her that allows her to chew up the scenery...

Please see this show... You will love it!

Buy tickets now.

Wednesday's Word: Tired

... That is all.

Set the Tone: Change

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living".

-- Gail Sheehy

Adjustments

Still adjusting to the new fiscal year... And also adjusting to the balance between work related stuff versus personal related stuff... Haven't figured out how to work blogging related stuff into the mix yet... But, it'll all come together...

An Easy Fast

Wishing my Jewish friends an easy fast on this Yom Kippur...

Wednesday's Words: Jump the Shark

Jumping the Shark:, idiom

Def: The moment when a plot, band, actor, politician, or other public figure has taken a turn for the worse, gone downhill, become irreversibly bad, is unredeemable, etc.; the moment you realize decay has set in.

Origin: A Happy Days TV series episode where the Fonz jumped a shark on waterskis in a desperate attempt to save the series' ratings. It is now deduced to have been the lowest point of the series.

Source: Wikipedia

Watch My Mouth by Cazwell

Set the Tone: Best Way Out

"The best way out is always through."-- Robert Frost

Sunday Afternoon in the Jewish New Year...

I'm not Jewish... But, I always find myself agreeing with the timing of the Jewish new year. This feels much more like the start of a new year than January 1st does!

Gray, rainy and damp Sunday afternoon... Perfectly fine with me!

Postal Lady gave me a heads-up on the Sunday TV talkshows... I'll make a point to watch Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group...

Found a Gertrude Stein quote I completely relate to: "I like a room with a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it." My dear friend Lisa always runs to the latest restaurant openings and enjoys being on the crowded cutting edge. I like to know they are there, but I'll be at the coffee shop across the street... No Sex in the City stylishness for me! Oh, nooo. And no crowds... But, thanks!

I've decided I prefer two day work weeks... I wish there were more of them...

Trader Joe's Vegetable Masala Burgersare very good! Two in the microwave make a good lunch with added sliced raw string beans, broccoli, and tomatoes... The brand new UWS store should be opening soon. Not sure when.

Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project book reminds me of mindfulness. Gotta be more mindful in the new (Jewish) new year!! We all do...

Punch Players Liza and Judy Hip Hop

Cream of Wheat starring Liza and Judy

Thanks to Donner

Wednesday's Word: Dorkswoon

dorkswoon, verb

definition to fall in love with something of a nedish, usually masculine, un-trendy nature...

I’ve been using a Field Notes notebook instead of my trusty Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase for the last week or so and I’m loving the crap out of it. Frankly, it’s borderline embarrassing how much I dorkswoon over quality paper products.

Source: Brett Kelly on Nerdgap.com

Set the Tone: Don't Worry

"Don't worry about what's ahead. Just go as far as you can go - from there you can see farther".
- Unknown

(Thanks to Scott)

Back to the Future

Back to the working world today...

What is Labor Day Anyway?

Today's New York Times published an opinion piece that explains the origins of this often confused US holiday and the ensuing "Bank Holiday" throughout other countries around the world...:

Labor Day, Now and Then
Published: September 5, 2010, The New York Times

Labor Day has been around for a surprisingly long time, longer than Mother’s Day, longer than Father’s Day, and almost as long as the official celebration of Washington’s Birthday.
Related

What’s changed since the first local Labor Day parade, in New York in 1882, is the very nature of labor. Go searching for Labor Day history — on the Department of Labor Web site, for instance — and you invariably come across a quotation from one of the founders of the American Federation of Labor, Peter McGuire.

Labor Day, he said, was meant to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

There is not so much delving and carving these days, and nature doesn’t seem quite as rude as it once did. Labor Day has expanded well beyond the realms of organized labor, and what was once a “workingmen’s” holiday is now a respite for nearly everyone with a Monday job.

In 1882, this country was still a dozen states short of the full union. It was, like every year, a time that seems anachronistic from a certain distance, the year that Jesse James was killed and Ralph Waldo Emerson died and Franklin Roosevelt was born and the first commercial electric plant lit Lower Manhattan.

This was a country of about 51 million people, and New York a city of about two million.

That is perhaps quite enough to think about on this Labor Day, this line in the beach sand between summer and whatever comes after summer but before true autumn. If Labor Day feels like a comma in the year and not a semicolon — like Thanksgiving or Christmas — it’s probably all to the good. We need a holiday that needs no preparation, which is a true holiday indeed.

It's A Great Party, New York Is!

"Most of us live in small spaces in New York. we grumble about it - we're prone to grumbling here - but, really, most of us don't mind. Walk out the door, and the city's great parks are your lawns; it's gardens, your gardens. Its museums are your courtyards; its restaurants, your kitchens and dining rooms; its stages, your home theaters. Musicians come from all over the world to play for you in your glorious chambers, grand and intimate, devoted to music. It's a great party, New York is." (- Jan Benzel, "Once Around the Park, Then Farewell", The New York Times, September 3, 2010)

Sometimes when people ask me about my summer vacation they ask: "Where'd ya go??" As if to say that a vacation should/must mean travel... To get away from it all...

I always respond something to the effect that my idea of a vacation is spending time right here in New York City.

Even after all my own extensive world travels in year's past, I remain convinced New York is the greatest city in the world. So, why would I want to go anywhere else?...

So another summer vacation was spent here exploring new things right here. And with each new look, there's so much more to see...

At this juncture, the most recent entries on Postcards from Hell's Kitchen act as a virtual scrapbook to remind myself what a great summer vacation I've just had... It's like one big happy gratitude list of museums, art galleries, music, theater, film, old friends, new friends,  street fairs, new foods and restaurants, walks, hikes, bikes... And even the accomplishment of chores and projects in my small space. (Grumble, grumble)

And for it all... I'm most grateful and happy...

Earl G. Talbott, My Great Uncle

As Hurricane Earl barrels toward the East Coast, I got to thinking about my own Uncle Earl... Great uncle actually, as he was my grandmother's brother... I met him when I was a child, and corresponded with him for a time. He was a newspaperman...

I remember he gave me a stack of self-addressed stamped envelopes to encourage my writing to him at his Gramercy Park home from my bedroom in Westview Park, Maryland...

I came across a yellowed obituary clipping, probably published in the The Baltimore Sun. It is undated... I came across it the other day when preparing family photos to digitize. I'll add comments and more details below below this post as I unearth them. Somewhere, I have photos of his tombstone which will have his birth and death years chiselled into the granite...

So, during Hurricane Earl... here's my shout out to Uncle Earl... Yo! Uncle Earl...

Earl G Talbott Dies at 61
Former 'Sun" Copyreader Served in World War II


New York, September 25 [Special]. Earl Talbott, who began a 44 year careeras a newspaper man as a copy boy for The Sun in Baltimore, died here Saturday in St. Vincent's Hospital of cancer. He was 61.


Born in Baltimore, he left high school at the age of 17 to go to work for The Sun. The late H.L. Mencken, who was then working for the Baltimore paper was said to have a great influence on Mr. Talbott's life.


Served in World War II


After spending nine years with The Sun, he left his job on the copy desk to go to work for The Washington Post. He worked the Post and the old New York World-Telegram until 1941, when he entered the Army.


He served as a public relations officer in germany, and attained the rank of lletenant in the Army Air Force. He later entered the Air Force Reserve, serving until 1966, when he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.


After World War II, he resumed his newspaper career on the staff of the Jersey Journal, and in 1960, he joined the New York Herald Tribune. He wrote feature articles for the Herald Tribune and wrote a weekly column on antiques.


He was considered an authority on Chinese antiques.


Obituaries of Notables


At the Herald Tribune he also worked as a rewrite man and obituary writer. Among the notable persons whose obituaries he wrote were Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Eleanor Roosevelt.


He retired when the Herald Tribune went out of business last year.


Survivors include his wife, the former Ann Mavis Bunch; his mother Mrs. Camille Shettle, of Baltimore; and a sister, Mrs Virginia T Krisch, of Baltimore.


Funeral services will be held at 1 P.M. Wednesday in the chapel at Arlington National Cemetary, Arlington, Va.

Decaffeinating, Decluttering and Just Chillin'

These last days, hours, minutes of my 2010 cherished summer vacation are ticking down to a precious few... We go back the day after Labor Day... this Tuesday... Will have a new position this year (with the same overall employer) and it will likely require a long adjustment period before I get a feel for how I'll feel about it... "Day at a time" and all.... And just for today: I'm still off and refuse to think about it... So there!

My late summer morning today?: Had breakfast  at Giorgio's and devoured most of the New York Times. My biggest beef with the place is the teensy cramped tables that make juggling reading and eating into an essentially stressful and hostile experience... Also visited with Sergiu, Ralphie, & Sean all before 11am. Dropped off my laundry at the Thai wash and fold place, and scooped myself some Maryland Crab Soup (Thursdays only!) at Westway Market for lunch later. Donner drops by for tea later on his way to Iceland...

I must, must, MUST start a serious caffeine addiction reduction plan (again!)!... Iced coffee flows thru my veins these days like TruBlood. Always happens at this end of summer juncture... Nagging headaches in the AM suck... So let the weaning off begin... I'll start halfing portions this afternoon til I'm down to a teaspoonful.... Takes a while, but it works....

Am reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin... I was an early fan of her Happiness Project blog when she was first starting out on Typepad... I'd pre-ordered her long awaited book to help her boost her Amazon ratings... And now, am fnally getting around to reading it... Just the few pages on reducng clutter alone has gotten me up and running to get some things done... In this teeny Hell's Kitchen mancave, uncluttering is the consistent beign of my apartmental existence... I highly recommend the book as a way to survey and improve all aspects of your own life!! Longtime readers of Postcards from Hell's Kitchen know always been a voracious fan and consumer for the Self-Improvement genre'...

Here's some Gretchen advice from the blog: "When I’m reluctant to take a risk or face something uncomfortable, I ask myself these five questions which, in melodramatic form, I call the "Five Fateful Questions." They help me think clearly about a situation... What am I waiting for? What would I do if I weren’t scared? What steps would make things easier? What would I do if I had all the time and money in the world? What is the worst, and the best, that could happen?"

One thing that admittedly makes me happy is my Pinocchio collection... And every summer vacation I make a point to research, shop carefully, and add a few new quality things... This summer was no exception... I'll update The Pinocchio Museum soon with the new thingies which have yet to arrive...
 
Oh, it feels like this is gonna be an awful scorcher of an afternoon today... So glad work hasn't started yet and I can buckle my seat belt into the A/C and just chill! (Both lit. and fig.)
 
... And de-caffeinate, de-clutter and chill....

Wednesday's Word: Mantor

Mantor, noun, pronoun

Definition: A man to whom you as a man aspire towards. The Ideal man.

Usage: Fill in the blank readers, _________ is my mantor.

Adapted from: Urban Dictionary.