Two or more grocery stores

  [Roulston’s and 11th Ave. Market, 4512 and 4510 11th Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click either image for a much larger view.]

As a young Brooklynite, I never made it to 11th Avenue, but there I am today, where I noticed these grocery stores side by side. What was that all about? I think I know.

Roulston, it turns out, was a major name in groceries. Thomas Roulston (1840–1918) founded what became a chain of at least 700 stores in Brooklyn, Long Island, and Staten Island. His son Thomas H. Roulston (1874–1949) succeeded him. The New York Times headline for Thomas H.’s funeral: “1,000 in Last Tribute to Thomas Roulston.” The chain was sold in 1951.

Here’s a bit of Roulston history and some sample advertisements:

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 30, 1936. Click either image for a larger view.]

[Home Talk, September 23, 1908. Click for a larger view.]

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 6, 1921. Click for a larger view.]

[The Brooklyn Daily Times, June 17, 1921. Click for a larger view.]

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 18, 1949.]

Here’s my idea about 4512 and 4510 11th Avenue: I can’t imagine a grocery store opening next to the outlet of a long-established chain. I suspect that the 11th Ave. Market came first. Some circumstantial evidence: the 1940 Brooklyn telephone directory lists 161 Roulston’s stores. But there’s no listing for this Roulston’s, which makes me suspect it’s a relatively new addition to the chain. Move in next to an established business and — you already know the story. Notice the contrast between Roulston’s many slick-looking signs and the two homemade signs in the windows of 4510.

One more detail: if you click for the larger image, you’ll see a grown-up and a child looking out the window above the ls of Roulston’s.

Before sealing up this rabbit hole, here’s one more Roulston’s, just twelve blocks away. This might be the sharpest, most beautiful tax photo I’ve seen:

[5702 New Utrecht Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections.Click for a larger view. You really should.]

Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives : The Roulston warehouse : The warehouse, repurposed

MSNBC, sheesh

A reporter, on the ground (as they say) in Wisconsin:

“Her and her husband voted for,” &c.

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard) : John McWhorter’s me

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, is a Stumper indeed. Difficult to work through, satisfying to finish, and filled with unusual stuff. And the northwest corner — difficult indeed.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

5-D, nine letters, “Forecaster without favor.” Of course. But my first thought was of impartial election predictions.

12-D, ten letters, “Rolling over for dinner.” A bit of a stretch.

14-A, eleven letters, “Green first course.” So there really is such a thing.

17-A, eleven letters, “Hits the beach, perhaps.” Okay, but from which direction?

23-A, six letters, “Have undone.” My first (and plausible) thought was REPEAL.

26-D, five letters, “40%-silent soldiers.” Defamiliarizing.

28-D, ten letters, “Chain store?” The question mark is deserved.

36-D, nine letters, “Swift, notably.” SATIRIST — nope. IRISHMAN — nope. Needs another letter.

41-D, seven letters, “Corny Disneyland debut of the ’60s.” Another great gift to modern life. Who knew?

58-A, eleven letters, “Handheld virtual reality sensor.” Nicely novel.

62-A, eleven letters, “Much more than pleased.” Delightful. I laughed when I figured it out.

64-A, ten letters, “Crystalline cleaner for cookware.” Another novel clue-and-answer. Those last three clues are great stuff.

My favorite clue in this puzzle, for its sheer weirdness: 49-D, five letters, “Casablanca bilateral lyrical equivalence.” Say what?

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Feed changing

For anyone who reads via RSS: I’m switching from FeedBurner to the standard Blogger feed. (Too many lags.) This’ll be my last post via FeedBurner. The new feed will be

https://mleddy.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Please add the URL to your reader to keep reading Orange Crate Art.

[Don’t paste the link into the address bar — you’ll see gibberish. Just copy and paste into a reader.]

Pocket notebook sightings

[Lovett (Edward Everett Horton) records his thoughts. From Lost Horizon (dir. Frank Capra, 1937). Click any image for a larger view.]

More notebook sightings
All the King’s Men : Angels with Dirty Faces : The Bad and the Beautiful : Ball of Fire : The Big Clock : Bombshell : The Brasher Doubloon : The Case of the Howling Dog : Cat People : Caught : City Girl : Crossing Delancey : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dead End : Deep Valley : The Devil and Miss Jones : Dragnet : Extras : Eyes in the Night : The Face Behind the Mask : The Fearmakers : A Foreign Affair : Foreign Correspondent : Fury : The Girl in Black Stockings : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : I See a Dark Stranger : Journal d’un curé de campagne : Kid Glove Killer : The Last Laugh : Le Million : The Lodger : M : Ministry of Fear : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : Now, Voyager : The Palm Beach Story : Perry Mason : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : The Racket : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : La roue : Route 66 : The Scarlet Claw : Sleeping Car to Trieste : The Small Back Room : The Sopranos : Spellbound : Stage Fright : State Fair : A Stranger in Town : Stranger Things : Sweet Smell of Success : Time Table : T-Men : To the Ends of the Earth : 20th Century Women : Union Station : Vice Squad : Walk East on Beacon! : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window : You Only Live Once : Young and Innocent

The price of fish

From Roses Are Red (dir. James Tinling, 1947), a line worthy of a villain — say, perhaps, John Candy in an SCTV parody. It’s spoken by Jim Locke (Edward Keane), crime boss and aquarist, as he stares at his critters:

“There's always a price – with men or fish.”

Feed, me

I am having daily problems with my blog’s feed. If you aren’t seeing posts, please know that I post once or twice every morning. Though if you aren’t seeing posts, I don’t know how this one would help. Maybe IF I SHOUT?

No, too rude.

If I decide to switch from FeedBurner, I’ll give notice in a post.

*

Posts at the FeedBurner Help Group suggest a general problem.

Bebop

The New York Times offers a tasting menu, with five minutes of music that are meant to make you love bebop. It prompted me to make a menu of my own. It’s a tasting menu, so I’m omitting the detailed info I usually post with music:

From Charlie Parker, “Embraceable You” and “Ko-Ko.” A beautiful ballad and musical cubism.

From Dizzy Gillespie (and Charlie Parker), “Salt Peanuts.” Frenzy!

From Bud Powell, “Parisian Thoroughfare” and “Tea for Two.” Lyrical piano and a dash through chord changes.

From Thelonious Monk, “Brilliant Corners” and “Monk’s Mood.” The one zig-zagging and changing speed, the other lyrical and serene.

And from Dizzy Gillespie and a special guest, one mystery surprise.

[To keep to the five-minute premise, you must listen to only 37.5 seconds of each recording. But feel free to take more time.]

Winter ahead

“If we treat this winter as normal, it will be anything but”: “Warning Signs About the First Post-pandemic Winter” (The Atlantic).

“Official activity”

A commission for “the inquiry into the condition of the native population in all its branches” has worked “with an unusual speed and energy” inspired by Aleksey Alexandrovich Karnenin.


Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Constance Garnett, revised by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova (New York: Modern Library, 2000).

Also from this novel
“The turning point of summer” : Theory of dairy farming : Toothache : Anna meta : “Brainless beef!” : “He could not help observing this”