The Laundry (Reading) List

~ Image: Bookcase in basement of Washington Heights apartment

It is my understanding that most, if not all apartment blocks in New York City have shared laundry facilities located in their basements, and the apartment block I am staying in is no exception. However, I don’t know if all basement laundries have a shared bookcase stuffed with books for apartment residents to read, and contribute to.

The image on the left is of the bookcase in the laundry of the apartment I am staying in, where I estimate there are probably 200+ books.

In amongst the usual suspects (Mary Higgins Clark, V.C. Andrews, John Grisham), you will also find outdated text books and computer manuals (Windows 2000, anyone?); and discarded travel guides for San Francisco, Arizona and Savannah, Georgia. Then there are books representing the abandoned hopes of dreams of budding actors and thespians, as indicated by the grandly named Actor’s Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues, and The Actor’s Scenebook, along with a copy of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot (I wonder if every New York apartment laundry has a copy of that one?).

Of course, you will also find a selection of ‘bringing up baby’ books, starting with books on pregnancy, before moving on to baby’s first year, and so on up the age range.

But just in case you think the bookshelf is filled with such fare, be assured that amongst the dross there are also some great titles, including The Pesthouse by one of my favourite authors, Jim Crace. Here is a partial list of some other great reads: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness; Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman; and Beneath The Wheel by Herman Hesse (Wot? No Siddhartha?). Sorry, no, maybe someone has borrowed it. There is a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast; a couple by Tom Wolfe, I Am Charlotte Simmons, and Bonfire of The Vanities; The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Bernard Lewis, and Arundharti Roy’s The God of Small Things.

Clearly there are some well-read residents here.

But the piece de resistance is Kathleen Meyer’s 1989 book (in its 2nd Revised Edition, no less), called How To Shit In The Woods. Seriously. Billed as “An environmentally sound approach to a lost art,” (I think it’s probably safe to assume that few New York apartment laundries have copies of this book), Kathleen outlines the best way to deal with the perennial problem facing hikers, travelers, campers, and road warriors of all types; and that is, How do you dispose of your body’s most precious waste products in a safe, healthy and environmentally friendly way?

Fascinating stuff, this. I don’t know if it ever made it to the top of the New York Times best seller lists, but it certainly deserved to. There’s even a chapter called, For Women Only, How Not to Pee in Your Boots.

Did I read it? Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course, I read it. While her advice to women to practice peeing standing up has some merit, I suspect that if she was writing the book today, she would also recommend women pack a Shenis with them.

What is a Shenis? I’m glad you asked

I think.

The Shenis was invented by a woman (of course) and looks like a 12 inch pe… Well, you don’t need me to describe it when you can visit the Shenis website and check it out for yourself...

Of course, YouTube was not around either in 1989, when the book was published. Today if you search for “Shenis” on YouTube, not only will you find numerous examples of women putting the product to use, but also videos of women successfully peeing standing up!

Who would have thought a trip to the laundry could be so interesting?

NYC Round Up #1

There is so much to observe and absorb, experience and process during any visit to New York City – no matter how long or short your stay – that it is pretty much impossible to write about everything here on this blog. Well, I could, but I would end up spending most of each day writing, and very little time actually doing anything.

Here’s a quick round up of just four recent observations and experiences.

Katz’s Delicatessen

Image: My $14 tuna/tomato/lettuce on Rye with custom labeled mineral water

Yesterday I found myself walking down East Houston Street, and dropped in to New York’s most famous delicatessen, Katz’s Deli at 205, East Houston Street. Even at 3.00pm, the place was busy, but I hear trying to find a seat for breakfast or lunch is all but impossible.

You have to see Katz’s for yourself, but believe me when I say that just about every famous (and infamous) New Yorker and quite a few non New Yorkers have at one time or other eaten at Katz’s Deli. It was almost worth paying $14+ for my humble tuna sandwich just to spend some time looking at the hundreds of photographs lining the walls of this New York institution.

At least four U.S. Presidents are represented including Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. I don’t know if Barak Obama has visited yet, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time before he does. The greatest number of well know visitors are the actors: Jerry Lewis, Elija Wood, Danny DeVito, Ben Stiller, Liev Schreiber, Paul Reiser, and Dom DeLouise among many others, as well as a host of actor/musicians including Madonna, Frank Sinatra, and Tito Puente. New York City Mayors and former mayors Rudolf Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg and Ed Koch have ‘eaten at Katz’s’, and the list goes ever on… and on…

Katz’s Deli is also famous for its slogan: “Send a salami to your boy in the army.” The slogan was coined during World War II after three sons of the owners were all serving in the armed forces, and the family tradition of sending food to their sons became encapsulated in the slogan.

When You Gotta Go…

Image: Not for the shy or fainthearted, but when you gotta go…

Sorry for the photograph but let’s play a little game, shall we? Where do you think a line up of toilet bowls like this might be? Somewhere in Africa maybe? Asia? Some other poverty stricken third world city?

No friends, this parade of bathroom bowls is in the public convenience located in Washington Square Park in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village! Actually, I should point out it is in the Men’s section of the facility. Whether women are faced with a similar lineup, I have no idea, but if any reader knows the answer, maybe they’d like to let us know via the Comments section below.

Personally, to say I was surprised to see such an open public display of Thomas Crapper’s toilet bowls would be a gross understatement! Especially since Washington Square Park is probably one of New York’s most popular parks.

Still, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

So I did!

But hopefully, the next time I get ‘caught short’ I will be able to find a less public place to do so.

191st Street Pedestrian Tunnel

Image: the 191st Street subway tunnel stretching off into the distance

Sometimes the most interesting things present themselves to you when happy ‘accidents’ occur when you least expect them. Take the massive pedestrian tunnel connecting the 191st Street 1 train station with Broadway at the top of Manhattan. The 1 train terminates/begins at the Staten Island Terminal at the foot of Manhattan, and runs all the way through to the Bronx station of 242nd St/Van Courtlandt Park.

I was heading back to the apartment on the 1 train, following my recent afternoon on Staten Island. Normally, I would have found an A train station, as the train passes closer to my accommodations, but the 1 train was right at the Staten Island Terminal door, so I was happy to do a little extra walking rather than go looking for the nearest A train station.

However, I should have left the 1 train at the 181st Street station. But I was tired, and not paying close attention as the train progressed up the island, so when I missed my stop and had to get out ten blocks further up Manhattan I was annoyed but resigned to the extra walking I would need to do.

Following the exit signs pointing towards Broadway, I encountered the pedestrian tunnel you see in the photograph which runs straight as an arrow for some 300+ metres. It might not look like much in the image, but I was taken by surprise at its length and presence. Mind you, I shouldn’t have been. New York City’s subway system is filled with massive pedestrian passages that make the 191st Street passage seem short by comparison. But when you unexpectedly encounter things like this, you have to stop and remind yourself that sometimes happy accidents can reveal things you might not other discover.

New York City Apartment Living

Image: floor plan for a massive New York City apartment

The subject of apartment living deserves its own entry, but for now take a good look at the image above. It shows the floor plan for an apartment that covers the complete floor area of a New York apartment block.

It is not just the fact that the apartment has three bedrooms that caught my attention, but each of the bedrooms has its own en-suite bathroom facilities. Not only that, but there is a fourth bathroom at the end of the Gallery.

That’s four bathrooms – in one apartment!

What are the chances of getting ‘caught short’ there?

In The Know

~ Don’t you hate when you know big things are afoot, but you only have answers to some of life’s most important questions – like who, what, when, where, how and why?

Take today for example. Late this afternoon I was walking up Bleeker Street towards the Bitter End, the last of the great 60s folk venues, when I noticed a line of people stretching from the doors of the Bitter End, around the nearest corner almost a whole block as far as the next corner. Since I had myself visited The Bitter End only last night, I was intrigued to know who or what was happening there on a Monday night that would cause hundreds of people to line up well in advance of opening time.

According to their schedule, The Bitter End tonight is featuring three shows (all with separate start times and entry prices). These are The Moth; Oz Noy; and Richie Cannata’s Monday Night Jam.

I’m putting my money on The Moth as the reason for the line up. According to their website The Moth is “…a not-for-profit storytelling organization, founded in New York in 1997 by poet and novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings on his native St. Simon's Island, Georgia, where he and a small circle of friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales on his friend Wanda's porch.”

After starting the first "Moth" evening in his living room, the storytelling sessions quickly outgrew Green’s apartment to the point where today “…The Moth conducts eight ongoing programs and has brought more than 3,000 live stories to over 100,000 audience members.”

Why "The Moth"?
George Green and his friends found that “…the characters in their best stories would often find themselves drawn to some bright light—of adventure, ambition, knowledge—but then find themselves burned or trapped, leaving them with some essential conflict to face before the story could reach its conclusion. So George and his original group of storytellers called themselves "The Moths". George took the name with him to New York, where he hoped that New Yorkers, too, would find themselves drawn to storytelling as moths to a flame. They did. With no advertising, through sheer word of mouth, every show to date has sold out in 48 hours or less.”

And clearly, hundreds more where lining up around a Greenwich Village block tonight to be part of yet another sold out gathering of ‘Moths’.

Having seen the size of The Bitter End, I had no intention of joining the long queue. Even if I was lucky enough to actually get inside this compact venue, there was no way I was going to be able to find a seat or even find a comfortable place to stand by the time I gained entry. And since I had already been out and about for six or seven hours, my feet were demanding I take them back to the apartment for a well earned rest. Which is exactly what I did.

But somewhere in the back of mind, I have made a mental note to keep an eye open for the return of ‘The Moth’ in hopes that at some future date I may be able to attend a night of storytelling myself.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot happier now that I have a few more answers to my who, what, when, where, how and why questions.

If you are curious to know more, you can listen to a selection of stories via The Moth website…