Tacos Nuevo Mexico

I can never get enough of these views, and every so often have to leave the train at Smith St., on my way to work, & scoot down the platform to stand by the chain link fence. Pure wonder. Then it's back onto another F & on with the crossword.

4th Avenue

No US Distributor For Charles Darwin Movie

Via One Good Move, this story from The Daily Telegraph. This looks like a fairly mild mannered film, & is being distributed all over the world, but it's too much for U.S. audiences, apparently. Read this & despair.

Mystery Sign

Even though I've pored over this for some time I've no idea what this (not especially old) sign says. There's something in very small print about The City University of New York, but otherwise it's indecipherable. Oh, hang on. Is it Interborough? It's just off 5th at 10th.

Years later - 9/12.  Probably Kingsborough.

Stanley Robertson

Stanley Robertson died last month at the age of 69. Robertson, of Traveller descent, worked for most of his life in the Aberdeen fish houses, and was generally acknowledged to be the best storyteller in Scotland. There are many tributes & obituaries to be found online. Here's one, from The Economist. And from Radio Scotland, here's a clip of Robertson describing his co-workers.

Fading Fast

Berry Street

Inspiring Example of Construction

Ruth Ades Carrying on the Family Trade

Ruth Ades selling the famous carrot peelers in Union Square

Bad, Bad Food Writing

"One of my treasured memories of eating fried eggs is on the beautiful Caribbean island of Barbados, where I have been lucky enough to get to spend several holidays. For me it's the best place on earth for an early morning dip in the sea, and as you swim and look back at all that beauty, the evocative smell of bacon and eggs cooking is sheer heaven. At breakfast, there's always a happy, smiling Bajan wielding an old, blackened frying pan, enquiring how you like your eggs fried."
How to Cook by Delia Smith (2001)

It was while raising her children in a remote valley in Andelusia in southern Spain and living for a year in the Languedoc in rural France that she acquired an appetite for the feasts and festivals of the peasantry whose lives she shared.
Blurb for European Peasant Cookery by Elizabeth Luard (2007 ed.)

The second one sounds straight out of the 1950's & does, I have to admit, make me laugh. And it's not actually Luard herself doing the writing. But Delia, a mediocre writer at the best of times, outdoes herself here. Awful beyond belief.

Tire Shop

Birthplace

As it's my birthday, I have to slip in a picture of the house where I was born. It's a pretty recent picture & as such, doesn't really represent the house of my childhood. Three other owners have had it since I was there, so there have been plenty of changes. For a start, the name, Grove House, & that sign on the wall. In this picture, the garden is very bare, but in our time, the place was full of flowers, with fuschias flanking the front door, & a witch elm in front of the house. Though you can't see the back of the house, there were old stable buildings around a flagstone yard, pretty run down in our time, but fun to play in, and a big old barn. All converted to functional looking flat and office space. We had an orchard & a big vegetable garden, but now it's a smooth empty space with a swimming pool. Recently sold, more additions to the house are planned. I have an unabashed love for this place, & to me the alterations are completely out of keeping with the its spirit, leaving it bare and out of context. But it's still amazing to me, & I'm so far removed from it now that I'm tempted to think it's just a figment of my imagination.