Leeches, catnip oil, strange potions

The place floats by in a one-sentence paragraph, one more detail in “a city of things unnoticed”:

Within a serene brownstone on Lexington Avenue, on the corner of Eighty-second Street, a pharmacist named Frederick D. Lascoff for years has been selling leeches to battered prizefighters, catnip oil to lion hunters and thousands of strange potions to people in exotic places around the world.

Gay Talese, New York: A Serendipiter’s Journey (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961).

J. Leon Lascoff opened a pharmacy in 1899. His son Frederick followed him in the business. J. Leon Lascoff & Son, Apothecaries (or Lascoff Drugs), closed in 2012. From 1931 to the end, the store stood as 1209 Lexington.

There is much affection for Lascoff Drugs online. Forgotten New York and Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York have substantial posts on the pharmacy. (The latter also has an epitaph.) Flickr has a goodly number of photographs.

From a 1953 New York Times story about the store’s collection of old mortars, pestles, and apothecary jars:

Nearly 2,000,000 prescriptions have been filled since Dr. J. Leon Lascoff, father of the present owner, founded the shop in 1899. Among these was one from Los Angeles for hiera picra, a drug virtually forgotten since ancient Egyptian times. The late Martin Johnson used to stock up on catnip oil at Lascoff’s to lure lions in Africa. A millionaire once bought bottles of attar of roses, at $35 an ounce, to perfume his home. Prize-fight managers still get leeches at Lascoff’s, although a hypodermic needle would reduce a black eye better.

Dr. Lascoff fears his collection is getting too well known. Recently, while haggling over an antique mortar in a Columbus Avenue “thrift shop,” the proprietor told him:

“Take it for ten bucks. There’s a crazy druggist on Lexington Avenue at Eighty-second who’ll pay you double for junk like that.”

The 1209 address is now occupied by Warby Parker, described by a real-estate broker as “a wonderful addition to the community.” Things could be worse: the Lascoff neon sign (here’s a closeup) remains on display, minus Lascoff Drugs but still bearing the word Prescriptions . Clever.

Also from New York: A Serendipiter’s Journey
Chestnuts, pigeons, statues
“Fo-wer, fi-yiv, sev-ven, ni-yen”

Spellings of the future

[As seen in a newspaper. As in “a smoldering cigarette bud.”]

Another spelling of the future, traveling backward in time to give us a foretaste of our — or are ? — language’s evolution. Because language is always evolving.

The slang term bud (marijuana) probably has something to do with the bud – butt eggcorn.

Other spellings of the future
Aww : Bard-wired fence : Now : Off : Our : Self-confidance : Where

Recently updated

Ending a sentence with it Now with a 1795 source for the ill-considered prohibition on sentence-ending it .

MLK

[“Martin Luther King Trial Montgomery Alabama Intergration.” Photograph by Grey Villet. Montgomery, Alabama. From the Life Photo Archive.]

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.

The Life Photo Archive gives no date for this photograph or other Villet photographs with the same description. The context, I think: King was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 3, 1958, when he tried to enter a courtroom for the arraignment of a man accused of attacking Ralph Abernathy. King had refused to obey a police order to move on. More information here and here.

If King were alive today, the hatred, inequality, xenophobia, and violence that pervade our American culture would cause him to weep — and do more than weep.

Procrastination and creativity

Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology, and a pre-crastinator:

My natural need to finish early was a way of shutting down complicating thoughts that sent me whirling in new directions. I was avoiding the pain of divergent thinking — but I was also missing out on its rewards.

So he taught himself to procrastinate.

Related reading
All OCA procrastination posts (Pinboard)

Richard Hendrickson (1912–2016)

Richard Hendrickson, a weather observer for eighty-five years, has died. The New York Times has an obituary.

Mr. Hendrickson made an appearance in these pages in 2014, after the CBS Evening News ran a story about him. I liked seeing his checked button-down shirt and solid tie, his rotary-dial telephone, and his 1930s weather notebook.

Topical humor from The New Yorker

Zack Bornstein, “First Obama Came for My Guns.” Clever, funny, and short.

Bill Flanagan, “Li’l Donald.” Clever, funny, and a little longer.

Plainfield T.

An imaginary football team (its colors: mauve and puce), an imaginary star (Johnny Chung, the Celestial Comet), an imaginary school (Plainfield Teachers College): “The Greatest Hoax in Sports Agate History” (The New York Times ).

I think this story beats that of I, Libertine .

[Agate: “condensed information (as advertisements or box scores) set especially in agate type.” Agate type: “a size of type approximately 5½ point” (Definitions from Merriam-Webster.]

Everyday carries

Pez, candy cigarettes, pocket flashlight, pocket magnifying glass, pocket microscope, “ID wallet,” ChapStick, Coin Caddy, bike-lock key, wallet, house key, license, car key, college ID, pen, cigarettes, lighter, grad-school ID, tobacco, rolling papers, Kryptonite-lock key, faculty ID, office keys, Wrigley’s Extra, El Pico key ring, Burt’s Bees Lip Balm, discount cards, keychain flashlight, miniature California license plate, multi-tool, iPod, iPhone, emeritus ID, Jack Black Lip Balm.

Related posts
El Pico key ring : No smoking

[“ID wallet”: made of black plastic, with plastic windows to hold a maximum of two cards. Used by grade-school secret agents to carry, uh, ID. Sequence often approximate. Thank you, Rachel, for the Jack Black. No connection to the actor. I went back and added a pen: what was I thinking?]

Gevalia coffee, unbalanced?

We bought the wrong Gevalia coffee, Traditional Roast, not House Blend. As with toothpaste, there are just too many varieties. It is easy to err. Traditional Roast, as it turns out, tastes just fine. However:

Gevalia describes its Traditional Roast as “medium-bodied, smooth, and perfectly balanced.”

And House Blend, as “medium-bodied, smooth.”

Does Gevalia believe its House Blend to be less than perfectly balanced? Slightly askew? Off its foundation?

Related reading
All OCA coffee posts (Pinboard)
[Image found here and altered.]