A lost Clipper

[Doyers Street, Manhattan, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

This morning we find ourselves in Chinatown, right off the Bowery. Doyers Street has a substantial history. Here’s some more. And still more. I chose this photograph because of the strangely shallow building to the left, looking almost like a facade from a movie set. And then I noticed the sign to the right, at no. 3.

[“Real Chinese Dishes.” Click for a larger view.]

The China Clipper Restaurant has some history of its own. It was one of three restaurants owned by Wah Sun Choy, or Watson Choy, a restaurateur fascinated by aviation — more specifically, by the seaplanes or “flying boats” built in 1935 and 1936 for Pan American Airways: the China Clipper, Philippine Clipper, and Hawaii Clipper, first used for transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila. Choy’s other restaurants were in Jersey City: a second China Clipper (menu included!) and the Plaza Tea Garden. It seems that the design of the Jersey City Clipper was meant to give patrons the feeling that they were aboard an airplane.

In 1938, Choy embarked on a flight from Alameda, California, headed for Honolulu, the Midway Islands, Wake Island, Guam, and Manila. Choy was — allegedly — carrying $3M in U.S. gold certificates, raised by his own efforts, to be delivered to Chiang Kai-Shek to aid China in the Second Sino-Japanese War. His plane, the Hawaii Clipper, disappeared on July 29, 1938, en route from Guam to the Philippines. No trace of the plane, its six passengers, or nine crew members was recovered. But the considerable speculation about what happened lies beyond the borders of a tax photograph.

“Distinguished Men on Board Clipper.” The New York Times, July 30, 1938.

*

A reader found a bit of film from the 1950s in which the strangely shallow building is visible, with a 7 Up advertisement on its side. Thanks, reader.

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard) : More about the flying boats : More memorabilia from Wah Sun Choy’s restaurants

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Stella Zawistowski, is another Stumper that I thought would have me beat. I started late Friday afternoon and had the puzzle less than half done when we went to our favorite (Thai) restaurant for dinner. We were lucky that we arrived shortly before a table of fourteen did. When I went back to the puzzle after dinner, the rest of the it fell into place. Thank you, pad woon sen and panang curry, both “spicy number three.” The scale goes from zero to five.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

5-D, six letters, “Phone battery saver.” Never heard of it.

6-D, eleven letters, “Unoriginal writing.” That’s pretty strained. I know, it’s a Stumper. But it’s pretty strained.

17-A, ten letters, “Circular skill.” Just one example of this puzzle’s obliqueness.

24-D, eleven letters, “Early target for Edison electrification.” Makes sense.

25-A, thirteen letters, “They act as a pair.” So not obvious, at least to me, and so clever.

25-D, four letters, “Transparent flute feature.” Nicely defamiliarizing.

30-A, five letters, “Ring figures.” ZEROS? Is that the plural of zero?

32-D, four letters, “European cardinal that sounds sapped.” I thought it had to be some four-letter bird.

38-D, four letters, “Hog’s grunt.” Ha!

39-A, five letters, “Word from the Hebrew for ‘one who understands.’” Surprised that this is what the word means. I thought it referred to would-bes.

40-A, thirteen letters, “Acquisitional power.” Lordy.

45-A, four letters, “Story starter.” My first guess was ONCE.

50-D, four letters, “Minor diamond.” I was thinking of baseball, or trying to.

My favorite in this puzzle: 11-D, ten letters, “Capital an hour’s drive from Vienna.” Because I knew the answer (thanks to music) and because the answer opened up a whole bunch of puzzle.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Pocket notebook sighting

Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin (John Turturro) uses a tiny datebook as a notebook to record chess games (or, at least, lines of play). Notice the partial cigarette saved between pages. From The Luzhin Defense (dir. Marleen Gorris, 2000).

[ Click any image for a larger view.]

Related reading
All OCA pocket notbook sightings (Pinboard)

Zippy collars

[“Collar That Perp!” Zippy, August 23, 2024. Click for a larger view.]

Today’s Zippy is just one more bit of evidence attesting to Bill Griffith’s draftsmanship. See also fedoras and sleeves.

It’s wonderful to think of Zippy as the work of a reality-based artist.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)

“I accept”

“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination for President of the United States”: Kamala Harris, a few minutes ago at the DNC.

And: “The future is always worth fighting for.”

And: “We are not going back.”

And: Harris is the only presidential candidate whose acceptance speech has namechecked John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, and Aretha Franklin.

[The Emhoff children, Cole and Ella, are named for Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald.]

Country first

“Tonight, as a Republican speaking before you, I’m putting our country first”: Adam Kinzinger, a few minutes ago at the DNC.

[I’ve always liked this guy. He reminds me of some of my best students.]

Items in a series

“Why wouldn’t we choose the leader who‘s tough, tested, and a total badass?” Gretchen Whitmer, a few minutes ago at the DNC.

Reappropriation

The reappropriation of “Born in the U.S.A.” at tonight’s DNC — a song first appropriated by Ronald Reagan so many years ago — makes my head hurt.

Here are the lyrics.

Doones

We were in the cookie aisle, where the Nabisco man was bent down stocking the shelves. “Oh, you’re right where we’re need to be,” one of us said — something like that. And the Nabisco man reached up and handed us two boxes of Lorna Doones.

“That’s exactly what we need,” said I.

“Really?” he asked. “Two?”

“Yes,” said I. And I added that while Lorna Doones seem to get little attention, they are excellent cookies. He agreed, and he added that Lorna Doones are the cookies he has on the shelf at home.

It’s four little Lorna Doones a day for me. “I’ll fly to the moon for a Lorna Doone.”

An EXchange name sighting

[From Murder Most Foul (dir. George Pollock, 1964).]

Milchester is a place name in the Miss Marple world. MIlchester is therefore a real exchange name in a fictional world.

Related reading
All OCA EXchange name posts (Pinboard)