A Spur to Social Conscience

In 1939, Dorothy Parker wrote about her social conscience in an essay called “Not Enough.” Here’s the opening …

I think I knew first what side I was on when I was about five years old, at which time nobody was safe from buffaloes. It was in a brownstone house in New York, and there was a blizzard, and my rich aunt–a horrible woman then and now–had come to visit. I remember going to the window and seeing the street with the men shoveling snow; their hands were purple on their shovels, and their feet were wrapped with burlap. And my aunt, looking over her shoulder, said, “Now isn’t this nice that there’s this blizzard. Now all those men have work.” And I knew then that it was not nice that men could work for their lives only in desperate weather, that there was no work for them in fair. That was when I became anti-fascist, at the silky tones of my rich and comfortable aunt.

via Dorothy Parker

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The High Fashion of Defiance?

“PUNK: Chaos to Couture” opens today! Featuring more than 100 designs for men and women, the exhibition examines punk’s impact on high fashion. via Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Trinity’s Divine Stash

There was never any doubt that Trinity Church was quite well-to-do. In fact, the church’s total assets are currently estimated to be around $2 billion in well-to-do-ness. While this divine nest egg seems rather paltry when compared to the Vatican‘s inestimable store of heavenly manna, it still runs contrary to the essence of a Protestant Episcopalianism; the presumed values that, beyond King Henry VIII’s personal idiosyncrasies, led to its establishment.

When the church was founded in 1705, Queen Anne of England bestowed 215 acres of Manhattan farmland to the church. Trinity Church obviously took that profitable ball and ran with it for over three centuries. The New York Times explains that the 215 acres has since been parlayed into 5.5 million square feet of commercial real estate with an estimated value of more than $2 billion. This brought in $158 million in revenue in 2011, with philanthropic causes receiving only $3 million compared to$2.5 million going to  its music program.

This is what compelled a former parishioner to bring a lawsuit against the church that caused quite a stir amongst the congregation.

“I felt that the church was being too corporate and wasn’t acting on its values,” he says. The church’s rector, James Cooper, says Trinity Church is striking the right balance. But Cooper—who makes roughly $1.3 million a year in total compensation—is a controversial figure; last year a resigning vestry member said he had “created a glaring atmosphere of deceit.”

Personally, I know that Trinity Church’s famed Christmas presentation of Handel’s Messiah will sound forever off-key to this blogger from now on. Indeed, after all is said and done, it appears cozily appropriate that the church is situated right at the end of Wall Street.

via Newser

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Urban Chess

Would you play a game in this Manhattan Cafe?
via Chess

My father taught me to play chess when I was about 9 years old. I learned the game in less than an hour. In less than half a century, my proficiency at the game has soared…from awkward beginner to masterful mediocrity.

Greenwich Village

Reblogged from Fabulous 50's:

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Greenwich Village in New York City is very similar to what I had envisioned through the years it might be like.  Artsy and colorful with beautiful old buildings!

Having arrived in the City the night before, with only four days to explore, I got an early start the following morning walking the 3/4th of a mile to the train, from the home of my…

Read more… 294 more words

I lived in Greenwich Village while attending NYU. In those days (the mid- 1970s), the neighborhood teeter-tottered on dilapidation and gentrification. Nowadays, it teeter-totters on elegant dilapidation and exorbitant rents. But some of my most cherished memories are forever hovering throughout this place, even though I'm a native (hence, jaded) New Yorker.

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“I Hear the Drumming”

I was in high school at the time; daydreaming through history class. Our teacher informed us as to what had just occurred at Kent State…we were discussing the Boston Massacre.

Achromatic Countenance

“Two-faced: Meet Battenberg, the four week-old lamb whose black and white markings saved his life.”  http://bit.ly/ZFPaAd Daily Mail

Reminds me of  Bele (Frank Gorshin) in the Star Trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.”

This Has to Be a Joke!

“A beach under the Brooklyn Bridge is just one of the many features included in a plan for an East River “Blueway” stretching from East 38th Street to the South Street Seaport.” via Newser

I’d sooner swim in shark-infested waters or sail over Niagara Falls in a paper raft.  Normal people don’t venture directly into the East River unless a disaster forces them to do so.

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