Fresh Pearl Window

In the window at Lucoral & Lupearl at 246 W 38th St.

They sell Masami "First Lady Pearls," as advertised on the placard above.  From Michelle Obama, up there with Eleanor, Mamie and Martha, to Nancy Reagan way down there by Queen Elizabeth I, all the First Ladies are wearing Masami pearls!

They also sell "wish pearls," just below, that appear to have been blessed by Pope John Paul II.  The pink gift box is labeled "White for wisdom.  Cream for success.  Peach for health.  Gold for wealth.  Lavender for love."


You could probably sneak anything in to get blessed by the Pope back then -- your cat, a sandwich you were especially fond of -- but I doubt he approved the labeling.

Then there's the big goldfish and turtle tank, below, which features fake turtles to keep the live ones company while they watch the computer screens, waiting for something exciting to appear.

Potter's Red, Park Row

The very red Potter Building at 38 Park Row, across from City Hall.  Even the "plain part," below right, is rich enough to warm the heart and help it survive all the brutal boxes put up since it was built.  More on the Potter Building from
Lost City.

Majestic 8th Ave Scaffolding

Scaffolding on the 36th St. side of 519 8th Ave; the building's unveiled 8th Ave. face is below left.  There's scaffolding on the building just south, too, but I decided it's not up to my majestic standard.

Heads Out on 5th Ave

Figures stick their heads out of 411 5th Ave., at 37th St.

Queens Clutter

Slightly dated photos of Queens I like a lot.  Above, from Greenpoint Ave. where it passes over the LIE.


Above, on Van Dam just west of the LIE.


Not so cluttered above, on Thomson Ave. over the LIRR tracks, looking toward Queens Plaza.  "Gotham Center," on the right, is just about glassed-in now.

NYC Irritation Innovation

Sightseers swing past earth at Columbus Circle
NYC is a hotbed for innovating things that irritate.

Old irritation: Idling sightseeing buses.

New irritation: Idling sightseeing buses with huge ads exhorting people not sitting on their ass on the bus to get in shape, like above.

Old irritation: Door jumpers.  You open a door for yourself and someone a few lengths away jumps through it before you do.  They're parasitic ghosts who slip through space between real people, stealing muscle power, avoiding having to touch the filthy door (probably some of the same people who use a store restroom, don't wash their hands, then fondle merchandise or clamp their polluted hand on the escalator rail on the way out).

New irritation: Door jumpers using cellphones, who consider it only right that others open doors for them because they are busy on the phone.

Old irritation: Spatially oblivious people.  Like spaced-out tourist families that pick the most congested choke point in pedestrian traffic to stand around debating where to go next -- forcing everyone else to churn through their whirlpool of confusion.

New irritation: Spatially oblivious iPeople.  They notice you are about to collide, so they consult their cellphone -- they actually stutter-stop for a half second to study it as you converge -- as though they hope to flee into Cyber Phone Space and avoid your onrushing mass of molecules.

I have seen people do this at the most inappropriate moments -- stepping onto or off a train, in the middle of a busy doorway -- and suspect they really are split between worlds, too lazy to choose one.

And speaking of "inattention to surroundings," the article at the link below is a hoot.  It says that, even before cellphones, national park visitors would put their kids on a wild animal's back for a snapshot.  Now they use technology to extend their idiocy.  One quartet of hikers sent out high tech emergency signals three times -- each time sending a $3400 an hour helicopter into action -- and refused to fly out until forced.  Their second emergency?  They thought the local water "tasted salty."
- Technology Leads More Park Visitors Into Trouble, NYT