Saturday, March 3, 2012

Don't Mess With Texas


Drugs often leave Mexico at the borders, cross the Rio Grande and head straight for the underground economies of  American cities.

The Texas State Police Department of Public Safety is spending a total of $3.5 million in taxpayer dollars to outfit six high-speed riverboats with machine guns and armor plating. 

The Texas border with Mexico is a busy drug smuggling corridor, the longest of any state at 1,241 miles and is entirely along a river.

But at a time when teachers are losing their jobs to budget cuts, this is a controversial purchase.

The State Police have also acquired a $4 million helicopter as aerial back-up, expressly to patrol the border river and the Gulf of Mexico to watch for drug smugglers and pirates.

But this is less controversial. It cost the taxpayers nothing because it was purchased with seized drug money.

The drug cartels have real firepower, but the new gunboats will boast an arsenal of six mounted machine guns which should level the playing field quite a bit.

The Rio Grande is also narrow and not very deep, so the small 34 foot length allows the boats to make sharp turns and operate in as little as 2 feet of water.

If you were thinking drug smuggling might be a good idea in this recession to temporarily tide you over, you might consider a different border, somewhere else.

They don’t say  
for nothin’, y’know.
Hat tip to:

Friday, March 2, 2012

it’s not just me who feels it

It’s the only thing I need.
It intoxicates your mind, 
all your troubles left behind
J&R MusicWorld 2006
so come on and take my lead.
Roseland 2006
It’s not just me who feels it.
Carnegie Hall 2009
Music plays a mind trick.
Town Hall 2010


Thursday, March 1, 2012

olde skool kewl


telegraph.co.uk

the 60’s were a time of strife

But they were silly fun, too.
Thanks for the laughs, Davy Jones.

 
1967

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I was engaged to a girl with a wooden leg

but we broke it off. 



Leap Year 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

geeze, not even Thursday?

our very own Carnegie Hall


One of the few remaining examples of Beaux Arts architecture in the Bronx is in the shadow of Yankee Stadium.
The WoodyCrest Home at 936 WoodyCrest Avenue was built in 1902 of stone, terra cotta and gray brick.
It embodies the neoclassic detailing that followed the redbrick Victorian era of our 1886 ClockTower.

WoodyCrest was designed by William B. Tuthill, the architect who designed Carnegie Hall.
A NYTimes article describes the exterior as “a rich, chaotic succession of bays, pavilions and other protuberances.”

Even the rear facade is cool.

Sited on a Harlem River bluff covered in trees and vegetation, the building was literally placed upon a “woody crest.”
It was never a private home; at first a facility for impoverished women and children.

Later, it was the American Female Guardian’s “Home for Friendless Children.”

By 1930, 235 children and 42 Staff members resided in this glorious facility.

There is also a chapel, five dormitories, a kindergarten, a hospital, a dining room and a quarantine ward for new arrivals.

It was listed by New York Landmarks Preservation in 2000.


Go see it, just 2 stops on the 4. 
A study commissioned in 1987 by architecture firm Pier, Fine Associates found this building “one of the best in the Bronx.”

It’s hard to disagree, and it’s ours.



Monday, February 27, 2012

our favorite hourglass



photo by The Clock



meanwhile, on the UpperEastSide



and in SoBro







two and one half miles away

Sunday, February 26, 2012