[505–501 West 207th Street, Inwood, Manhattan, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]
With the exception of the Cloisters, Upper Manhattan is a mystery to me, as are the 1940s. So I went exploring at 1940s.nyc and came back with the photograph above. I chose it for the shadow of the El, the rugged brick street, and the delightful unexpectedness of the commercial sequence: the Tally-Ho, a bar and grill with various prohibitions (click to enlarge and notice the NO on the sign), followed by Roy’s Clam Broth House and City Tire Stores. Clam Broth House was once a thing: Hoboken had a celebrated one. Here, have a menu. And a New York Times article. And some more history.
And now back to Upper Manhattan.
The 1940 telephone directory lists the Tally-Ho Bar and Restaurant at 505 West 207th. No listings for Roy or City Tire. Today Google Maps now shows the entire block as no. 501. It’s a similarly shaped building that houses a clothing store and a barber shop. Cole Thompson at My Inwood has written the surprising history of this block from 1911 to 2016.
Before leaving Upper Manhattan, I have to mention Billy Strayhorn’s “U.M.M.G.,” named for the Upper Manhattan Medical Group, the home of Duke Ellington’s physician Arthur Logan.
And I have to wonder: when I found this photograph last night, after about two minutes of browsing, how did the Internets know that Elaine and I had bought a bottle of Snow’s Clam Juice (juice is just another name for broth) earlier in the day? We used our clam juice in a pot of gumbo that will see us through the next two or three days.
Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)
Sunday, January 21, 2024
Upper Manhattan, with clam broth
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Ben Zimmer. At its center, a trio of stepped thirteen-letter answers and a thirteen-letter answer running down. To the left and right, two fifteen-letter answers running down. But I found the puzzle not especially fun. Too many proper names for my taste — seventeen of sixty-six answers. The nadir: 47-D, four letters, “Czechia’s second city.” I filled in four letters and thought must be. And it was. But when I told Elaine about that clue, she knew the answer instantly.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
3-D, fifteen letters, “Rapper who wrote for 30 Rock.” I did not know that.
11-D, fifteen letters, “Did a swift scan.”
15-A, eight letters, “Chinese character.” Forget about ideograms and logograms.
15-D, thirteen letters, “Offering assistance.”
22-A, four letters, “Capsule review?” I know this answer only as part of a rhyme.
27-A, six letters, “Advisor to Truman through Obama.” I think advisor here is inappropriately misdirective.
27-D, six letters, “Gentle slope (akin to an icy expanse).” For me, gettable only from the crosses, which I imagine dictated the use of this answer.
30-A, thirteen letters, “AFI’s #3 funniest film.” Ah yes, #3, not #2 or #4. Such an unimaginative way to clue a title. I’ve offered a more Stumpery clue in the comments.
33-A, thirteen letters, “Result of $5 1.5-quart ice creams.” Huh? Aren’t the 1.5-quart cartons its result? Or evidence of it?
35-A, thirteen letters, “Where house rules are followed.” Where? Not really a location.
39-A, four letters, “Nellie Bly contemporary.” I knew the answer, but see what I mean about proper names?
42-D, five letters, “High winds.” Beaufort Scale, help!
45-A, four letters, “Mandela in 2013.” See 39-A: another proper name clued with a proper name.
45-D, four letters, “He’s a citrus reversal.” Whatever you say.
My favorite in this puzzle: 37-D, six letters, “Present-day presence.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
Friday, January 19, 2024
“Oh, piffle, you dumb-bells”
Sonie Marburg’s teacher has made her cry and then, in a moment of kindness, allows sick, headachy Sonie to wait in the teachers’ rest-room until she can go home without the other children seeing her.
Jean Stafford, Boston Adventure (1944).
One of my most vivid memories of high school: the cigarette stink that filled the hallway upon every opening of the door to the seen-only-in-glimpses teachers’ lounge.
Also from this novel
A pallet on the floor : “The odors”
[The Beelers: Esther and Ruby, schoolmates.]
Shovel-ready (Hi and Lois watch)
[Hi and Lois, January 19, 2024. Click for a larger view.]
People of the future should know that in the early twenty-first century, it was common to carry one’s snow shovel through one’s living room. From the kitchen or dining room through the living room to the front door, that’s how we rolled.
But seriously: this panel suffers from redundancy. Chip has said he will shovel “later” — whenever that might be. Hi is headed outside, dressed in his winter togs. He need not carry a shovel for the situation to be clear.
In the second (final) panel of today’s strip, Hi is lying down on the blue sofa, which appears to have been moved, with a heating pad on his back. He whimpers: “AAAEEUGH.” (Notice: no exclamation point, and not even a speech balloon.) And Chip asks Lois, “How is this my fault?”
Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)
[In Peanuts, it’s “AAUGH!”]
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Pay-phone noir
[Al Willis (Gene Barry) places a call. From Naked Alibi (dir. Jerry Hopper, 1954). Click for a larger view.]
The cinematography is by Russell Metty. Among his many credits, The Stranger (1946) and Touch of Evil (1958), both directed by Orson Welles.
Siri talks back
I used Siri to add a reminder to the phone yesterday morning, then changed the time and changed it again. Was it supposed to be 4:20? 4:40? 5:20? And I said to Elaine, “I’m sorry; I’m not thinking clearly.”
And Siri replied, “Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
The Last Repair Shop
From the Los Angeles Times, here’s a short documentary, The Last Repair Shop, directed by Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot.
The instrument repair shop for the Los Angeles Unified School District is the last shop in the United States taking care of student instruments. I’m not sure what I expected when I fired up YouTube, but I certainly found more than I could have imagined.
Watch if you can: it’ll be time (39:58) well spent.
[Found via kottke.org.]
Overheard
“What did it knock over?”
“Just the snow globes.”
Related reading
All OCA “overheard“ posts (Pinboard)
[Fortunately, they were plastic.]
An alternative to Barbenheimer
Our household’s Friday and Saturday night movies: The Killers (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946) and Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023).
The Killerbies.
