#then took the ferry from connecticut to long island

[rabbitinthemeadow]

Alas, the cradle of my heart waits elsewhere || One

[ellies-cycling-notes]

Day 1: Narragansett to Long Island

Distance Covered: 82.27 miles

Total Time (including rests): 9:54 (7:14am-5:08pm)

Time spent riding: 7:04

Average Speed: 11.6 mph

Apples Eaten: 3 (fuji - 6/10, granny smith - 7/10, fuji - 7/10)

Overview of the ride itself:

Today's ride was split up into 2 parts: I first had to bike down to the Cross Sound Ferry in Connecticut (approx. 43 miles), then I took the ferry to Long Island and had to bike to my campsite (approx. 39 miles). I will refer to these as the pre-ferry and Long Island parts of the ride, respectively.

The pre-ferry component of the ride was more pleasant for 2 reasons:

1) it's the first part of the ride, so I wasn't that tired for it

2) There wasn't much shade in the Long Island portion, and it was HOT today. I almost considered stopping to get cold water when I was only 5 miles away from my campsite.

The pre-ferry part had one large comparative downside, though: it was really hilly. I think it would've made the fact that I was already tired so much worse if it had been the second half of the ride.

During the pre-ferry part, I took a snack/early lunch break around 20 miles in. I then obviously took another break for the ferry ride (it was about an hour long). During the Long Island part of the ride, I didn't take any breaks and just biked all the way to my campsite.

That's it for the bookkeeping, now for the fun part: thoughts, ideas, and things I noticed on the ride!

Bike Roads Terminology

I spent a lot of time thinking about this at the beginning of the ride, because I realized I'm going to be referring to certain types of roads in this blog, it'd be good to have a description of what I mean when I use those terms.

Disclaimers: (1) these are not official terms for types of roads, they're just terms I tend to use (2) my usage of these terms may not be consistent and is subject to change (3) there may be roads that do not fall into one of these categories; that's fine, these categories are neither holistic nor rigorous

Key:

Name/Road Type - Definition - Difficulty Level (# out of 10) (this number represents how much I don't want to ride a road of this type - thus, a lower number is better) - Reason for Difficulty

Road Types:

Highway - Interstate roads, wide lanes, cars going 70+ mph, will sometimes have wide shoulders you can bike on; are usually named something like I90 - DL: 9 - Highways are some of the most unpleasant roads to ride on; cars going way too fast and there's no good place to ride; luckily, bike routes will practically never have you actually riding on a highway

State Road - 2+ lane roads, usually have a speed limit of 30 or 45 mph, or, in rare cases, 60 mph; aren't super busy; will sometimes have rather wide shoulders that can serve as bike lanes; these are often roads that are named things like Route 9 - DL: 4 or 7 - Not the most pleasant, but not hard to ride on; the two different difficulty levels are for whether or not there is a wide enough shoulder that it can be treated as a bike lane

Side Road - These are roads that exist mostly in more rural areas, are usually 1-2 lanes, and are notable for having a lot of connections to driveways of houses. Oftentimes I'll refer to side roads as state roads and vice-versa; this is because they have many overlaps of features; cars usually have a speed limit of 15 or 30 mph, or rarely 45/60 mph. A notable difference between these roads and state roads is that side roads are more likely to be hilly and curvy; and side roads will typically have street names such as Collins Road - DL: 4 - while there are usually much fewer cars on side roads than state roads; the hilly-ness of side roads can make them be much more unpleasant at times; this is issue is amplified by all the baggage loaded onto my bike for this trip

City Street - roads in cities; what more needs to be said? Speed limits can range from 10 mph to 30+ mph - DL: 2-8 - while never as dangerous as highways, city streets can greatly vary in difficulty due to many reasons, including (but not limited to): amount of traffic, smoothness of pavement/number of potholes, rudeness of cars, pedestrian traffic, speed limit, and existence of bike lanes

Main Street - this is a subcategory of city streets. When I refer to city streets, I am usually referring to them in cities or other large urban centers. Main streets specifically refer to a central street of a small town; while they do not have bike lanes, they are usually much more pleasant than city streets. I call them Main streets because that is often what they are actually called - DL: 3 - Main streets are pleasant to ride on, and the cars on them are usually rather nice; the only downside is that they are not built with bikes in mind, so oftentimes the pavement isn't the best

Bike Trail - Paved roads that are specifically there for bicycles (and sometimes runners). These trails are often completely out of the way of cars, and sometimes follow old railroad trails that are no longer in service - DL: 1-2 - these are some of the best roads you can ride on; they sometimes get difficult if there's too much traffic or the pavement isn't well-kept, but the advantage of being able to ride without worry of cars on mostly flat ground more than makes up for the disadvantages

Hiking Trail/Gravel Road/Off-Road - I'm grouping these together, because all that matters is that these are all types of road I would be fine riding a mountain bike on, but because I have a heavily baggage-laden road bike on this trip, I want to avoid them as much as possible. They usually have very little traffic, but very poor pavement, either dirt, gravel, or some other soft or grainy material - DL: 8 - still better than highways, but otherwise the worse (see my initial rant)

Shoulder - This is not a type of road, but rather a part of the road. It mainly exists on highways and state roads, as the space for a shoulder on other car-based roads is often taken up by parking spots. It refers to the section past the white line that defines the border of a road. Sometimes it's miniscule, taking up only a foot, in which case you have to ride in a car lane, and sometimes it's larger than a car and makes a decent bike lane. On highways, the shoulder is often intentionally rough so that if a car accidently drifts onto it, they'll notice and readjust themselves. - DL: N/A

That's all of them for now! For reference, on today's ride, the pre-ferry part was an even split of mostly state roads and side roads, with a small number of bike trails. The Long Island part had a large number of state roads, a smaller number of side roads, and a tiny amount of gravel roads.

Notes on the Ride Itself

Gold Star Memorial Bridge Bike Path is closed - it's the only 1 bridge anywhere near New London (where the ferry to Long Island is), and I couldn't bike across it. Luckily, there was a shuttle that could carry my bike across that comes every 30 minutes, but for the like 10 minutes between learning about the closure and discovering the shuttle, I was really stressed out, because I didn't know if I'd be able to make it to the ferry in time.

I had an opposite feeling not 30 minutes later when I arrived at the Ferry port at 12:05 (my ferry ticket was for 1pm), and the guys at the dock told me I could just get on the 12pm Ferry which hadn't left yet. This didn't really affect my plans much, except for the fact that it meant I didn't have to idle around at the port for an hour, and would instead have an additional hour at my campsite in the evening. This also ended up giving me more time to work on this post :) !

Small things I saw/experienced on my ride:

a deer: it was on the shoulder of the road, maybe 20ft ahead of me. I wanted to take a picture, but it noticed me and ran into the woods before I could

an upside-down construction sign: this was an orange construction sign where the metal pole that served as the base of the sign was standing upright, and then at the top of the pole there was a orange rectangle, on which all the words (which were construction details) were upside down

shakiness: for the first 30 minutes (maybe longer) of my ride, I was still getting used to the balance of my bike with my luggage, so I was rather worried I'd tip over. This shakiness largely contributes to why I do not want to ride on any gravel road/etc. if I can avoid it

the cemetery: for some reason, my Google maps suggested I take a shortcut through a cemetery on Long Island, so I spent a good 5-10 minutes riding through an empty cemetery before getting back on actual roads. The funniest bit of this is that it really wasn't even much of a shortcut, it saved a minute, tops.

Old Main Road: this is another Google maps strange occurrence. In Long Island, there's a long state road called Main Road, which my route followed along for a good portion. However on a part of the Main Road (around here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/cgfphLKsKeJnXKBY8 ), Old Main Road splits off of Main Road and then rejoins less than a quarter mile later. This happens twice in quick succession. The strange occurrence I was referencing is that both times Google Maps suggested I take Old Main Road, even though that route would be slightly longer.

large roadkill: on the ride, there was a rather large roadkill I saw (the size of a large cat). I almost ran over it, and didn't get a good enough view to figure out what animal it was.

private communities/streets: on the ride, I saw a lot of places that were either private communities or private roads for residents only. My favorite, though, was the Oakwood communities. I'm biking along, and up ahead, I see a sign that says "Private Road - North Oakwood Residents". I'm like, fine. But then I turn my head, and on just the other side of the road, a sign says "South Oakwood Private Community". I latched onto those 2 communities and spend the next several minutes of my ride thinking up imaginary feuds that may exist between these 2 near-identical communities across the street from each other.

Post Ride Notes:

I did about 20-30 minutes of yoga after finishing my ride, which seems to have really helped my sore body (especially my back, which was really hurting at the end of the ride).

Camp setup went well (there might be some pictures in another post). My campsite doesn't have a shower, but it does have potable water, so I might soak my head at the very least (I have not yet, as of writing this post).

I have eaten 3 PB&J sandwiches today, and I haven't even had dinner yet (as of writing this, again). I expect I'll probably start getting tired of them in a few days, so I might need to switch up my meal prep (probably after Philadelphia or maybe DC).

Design Notes:

I spent a lot of the ride today thinking about the blog itself, my road classification system, and being stressed out about whether I can actually do this, so this section is rather short. I hope it will be longer in future posts, as it's the part I enjoy thinking about/writing the most.

Why I'm not good at Narrative Design:

I spent some time on my ride today thinking about Narrative Design. I think it was brought forth from the fact that I've been reading a lot of works recently, of which the quality of the narrative varies greatly. I like to think in terms of systems, but I can't create a holistic system that describes a person, which makes it really hard for me to do narrative design on a character level. On the other hand, I don't have the same issues with designing worlds, because I'm able to start by designing the mechanical systems of that world, and then other aspects sprout forth from that. A good example of this is fictional histories. Because these histories can be broad strokes, I don't have many issues designing a general system from a world, and then basically determining how I believe history would play out if that world worked according to that system. That's also probably why I so often have issues with worlds in media that have magic, because they're often just based in some time period of human history "but with magic", without taking into consideration how the existence of magic would have affected the development of that world. The issue I have with doing the narrative design of characters is sometimes similar. I often know one note which I want a character to hit, but everything else is left as a blank slate and never really filled in.

That's all for tonight! Some of this is written as I thought it up on my ride, some of it was revised to make more sense, and some of it probably still doesn't make much sense. Hope y'all enjoyed these random trains of thought!

Today's Pics -- Next

[michaelgogins]

New York City

Today, Heidi and I took the NYC Ferry from Wall Street to Rockaway Beach and back. I spent all of the trip out and most of the trip back on top of the ferry boat, looking at the view.

It was a partly cloudy day, breezy, indeed cool.

What struck me above anything else was the incomprehensible scale of the town. In the decades since I first visited NYC in 1972, the skyline of Manhattan now rises above the Empire State Building both downtown and in midtown, and clusters of high-rises also have appeared in Jersey City and in downtown Brooklyn.

The skyline in my photograph is 15 miles from the ferry, which is just off the neighborhood of Manhattan Beach. The left cluster of buildings is downtown Manhattan plus Jersey City. The right cluster of buildings is midtown Manhattan plus downtown Brooklyn. The visible skyline is about 6 miles across.

But there is more. The business of the city, including the harbor from JFK Airport to Highlands in New Jersey, with the Port of Elizabeth clearly visible, to the ships riding at anchor out in the open ocean off Long Island, to things not visible such as suburbs in Eastern and Central New Jersey, the western part of Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and southern Connecticut, lies within a radius of about 80 miles and is the home of anywhere from 19 to 22 million people, depending on how you count. Just the harbor and rivers are vast.

I know there are bigger cities. I have looked down on Sao Paulo from a jetliner and been similarly flabbergasted by a seemingly endless forest of white high-rises.

But what I am focusing on and trying to explain here is the feeling I had traveling through this landscape and seascape. I felt like an ant who has climbed up from the nest and on to a rock and suddenly can see more than a few inches. I could truly see where I live and I could truly begin to comprehend what it is. This was quite a bit more impressive than the already impressive views from jetliners landing or taking off, or from cars driving along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, because this view from the ferry was long, slow, and uninterrupted.

The entire skyline in the picture was built by the hands of men and a few women in about 120 years.

It is still growing -- fast.

[biillyhargroves]

*hugs you real tight* Tell me your favorite things about New York. I wanna know the sights, scents, sounds. Take me back there with you.

this is so kind and thoughtful and you’re the absolutely sweetest.

the best thing for me was all the nature; I lived on Long Island, and I was never more than ten minutes away from a beach or hiking trails. I used to work for the state park system and I could go out onto the boardwalk on my breaks, or go to beach yoga after a shift. the beach always smelled like salt water and sunscreen and we used to get seals coming up to the shore in the winters and we had plover and tern nests every summer, and we’d get to watch the babies learning to fly over the sand. I lived/worked on the north shore and those beaches are FILLED. WITH. ROCKS. but they were like cool rocks? (fun fact: I have Long Island sand and seashells in jars in my home office, including some from the beach I worked at). 

when I was a kid we used to body surf at the ocean beaches on the south shore. I'd always get my ankles cut up by broken shells but I never cared. I'd go to the beach with friends and we’d get tangled up in seaweed and pretend to be mermaids. I also spent a lot of time in the woods. I used to go hiking in the winters when no one else was around. I'd bring my dog and we’d a trail that overlooked the bluff that my grandpa used to take me fishing at. 

and you can see concert at the beach!!!! jones beach has an open air outdoor venue and I got to see Motley True there and Def Leppard and Poison and KISS and Ozzy and it’s so fun because you can see people on their boats behind the stage listening from the water. when we went to see Five Finger Death Punch we almost got rained out and I remember watching the storm over the water from an overhand by the bathrooms and it was so cool looking??? I mean mildly scary but so cool looking!!!!!

also the old houses. are so. damn. cool. there are lots of preserved homes that have been turned into wildlife centers and museums and they’re so neat to walk through. my ex’s grandmother owned an old farmhouse in my town and we used to hang out there sometimes. it was just so beautiful and was one of those places where you can feel its history, if that makes sense? idk I really love history so that might be a me thing.

the Walt Whitman birthplace is beautiful. I never went to poetry events there but I'm planning to attend some when I visit because I've always wanted to. and there’s soooo much community support for small, local businesses all over Long Island which is awesome and heartwarming and reminds you of how awesome people can be. 

and I lived an hour train ride from the city!!!! which was the best!!!! I got to see my first and last Motley Crue shows at Madison Square Garden, I grew up going to the Museum of Natural History, I framed all my Broadway playbills and have them hanging in my bedroom in my apartment. the summer before my best friend moved for grad school we spent a full day and walked all the way from Battery Park back to Penn Station and it’s still one of my favorite days. when I taught dance, the studio owner once took a group of us to take classes with her at Alvin Ailey where I had the best ballet class of my life. my mom and I went into Manhattan on Christmas Day last year and I really hope we make it a tradition because it’s probably my favorite Christmas memory? we got to see the tree and see the store windows all done up and I just love!!!! New York City!!! so much!!!! like it’s loud and weird but it’s perfect. 

and if you go all the way out east on the island there are amazing wineries and beautiful farms and the air feels so crisp out there. we go apple picking every year and once my friend and I went in an orchard with a corn maze that we had to sword fight (with wooden swords, of course) to get out.  

I also lived near a harbor and sometimes I’d pick up lunch and go down there and read and watch the boards and walk around at all the little shops. there was a sweet little farm animal sanctuary kind of hidden away in a residential neighborhood that I used to volunteer at and it was such a cool place to go say hi to really cool, really sweet little animals. 

also travel is super easy from NY? which is a convenience I miss very much. it’s one of those “you don’t realize how lucky you are” kinds of things. like LI public transport is definitely Not Good, but in general traveling places from New York was really easy. if I wanted to go to Philly or up to Buffalo I could go into the city and hop on Amtrak, I’ve gone to Massachusetts and Connecticut by ferry, and flights were so much easier to get than where I live now, 

New York is just???? the best. I miss it so much. 

[distant-rose]

Seal of Fate Ch. 3 (4/8)

Notes: Alright before anyone of you read this chapter, I feel the need to remind you that Emma Swan is not a bitch. Emma Swan is an amazing character with some flaws and whose life has been filled with all sorts of trauma. She has trust issues and most certainly PTSD. If you think someone with that background is going to have no issue trusting people, especially a magical seal man whom she’s known for like two weeks, without some issue then this story isn’t for you. This is a kind reminder that the canon events of Emma being abandoned, put in foster care and being pregnant with Henry in prison after the bullshit Neal pulled with her when she was 17 years old are canon in the Seal of Fate universe. So, with that being said, this chapter is mainly about Emma’s trauma and how it’s lead to her having a lot of trust issues. Do not come into my comments section and tell me that Emma Swan is a bitch for pushing away a seal man who she met two weeks ago. I will fight you. End of story. With that being said, there will be pay off for all the angst, anger and frustration here in the next chapter. I promise. I’m not pulling the rug out from underneath you. A special thanks to @aerica13​ for being an amazing beta and for pushing me through this difficult chapter. I literally couldn’t have done with this without you. Thank you to @cssns​ and @drowned-dreamer​ for making my event experience so far amazing. Another big thank you to @katie-dub​ and @shireness-says​ for being my cheerleaders. Even though this story isn’t attracting a lot of traffic and it’s been a bit demoralizing, you make every word of this story worth it. Summary: Emma Swan is looking for only one thing - answers. Abandoned outside a police station in Menemsha, Martha’s Vineyard, Emma has dedicated her life to finding out where she comes from and why she was given away. She finds an unlikely partner in Killian, a selkie she inadvertently summons in a fit of frustration over her cold case. Word Count: 4,600+ AO3: [LINK] Chapters: Prologue | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Epilogue Rating: T+

Emma Swan’s life was regulated by series of long, self-imposed rules. She always filled her gas tank whenever she hit the quarter ‘til empty mark. She didn’t trust food that didn’t come prepackaged. She always wore bike shorts under her dresses because of that punk kid in her fifth group home that skirted her. On top of that proverbial list of rules, written in bold red ink and underlined three times, was that Emma Swan did not ever, under any circumstances, sleep with men.

She didn’t sleep with men. Period.

Well, she slept with men but a purely utilitarian fuck-and-run way that satisfied occasional itches and abated the loneliness for awhile. She didn’t spend the night and she absolutely did not cuddle. Those sort of things led to issues. It meant conversations that were best not had. It meant being completely vulnerable with someone who was more likely than not a stranger she picked up in a bar.

Hence why she went into a full meltdown mode when she awoke the next morning still on the beach, sand in her pants and Killian curled around her like a clingy octopus. The very sight of him drooling on her shoulder sent off vaguely Kill Bill sounding sirens in her head.

So Emma did what she did best.

She ran.

And she didn’t look back. Not even for her shoes.

She went back into her house, grabbed her cell phone and keys, then got in the Bug and drove all the way to Oak Bluffs. Never before had Emma been so happy with the lack of a real police force on the island because she was sure to be have been pulled over with how fast she drove. The drive had been tense. She hadn’t been able to relax and no amount of tinkering with the radio assuaged her chaotic thoughts.

Killian was getting under her skin. He had been barely been in her life for more than two weeks but he had already gotten closer to her than anyone had in the past decade. It was something she needed to rectify and fast.

“He’s going to leave,” she mumbled to herself, slapping her hands against the steering wheel. “Once this is over, he’s going to leave and everything is going to go back to normal.”

The switch from West Tisbury to Oak Bluffs was a noticeable one. Where Chilmark blended in the West Tisbury almost seamlessly with the long line of white oak trees and the overgrown shrubbery that guided the poorly paved roads, the boundary leading to Oak Bluffs was noticeably more populated with houses and stores. The Cape Cod style that dominated Menemsha and Chilmark wasn’t so common and Emma was surprised to see some of the buildings actually looked like they had been built after 1970. Where the majority of the houses Emma had previously encountered tended to stick to the gray scale, these buildings were flamboyant shades of flamingo pink, soft orange and lime green. They reminded her of the elaborate gingerbread houses she had seen in the windows of bakeries as a child. It was fresh and new side to the island that she not yet explored and she allowed her curiosity to overtake the anxious energy that had dominated her mind since she had awoke.

As she got further into town, the scenery became more settled and more urban in its demeanor. If it weren’t for the occasional gingerbread house, she wouldn’t have known that she was still stuck in the Vineyard. It felt good be somewhat back in civilisation again.

It wasn’t until she was washing up in the bathroom of the infamous Black Dog bakery that she finally took notice of her unkempt appearance. She had mascara lines running down her cheeks, her hair looked like a rat’s nest and her clothes were rumpled. No wonder the cashier had given her an odd look when she had bought a bear claw. She looked like hell.

After running her fingers through her hair and washing her face, Emma tried to make herself look somewhat presentable. Her attempts were met with limited success but there was only so much that she could do given the circumstances.

As she walked over to the hospital, she couldn’t help but feel bereft. Over the past week and half, she had gotten used to Killian’s persistent commentary and suggestions on how to proceed. His absence sat heavy in her chest, pressing down on her ribs like a stone.

She didn’t want to but Emma couldn’t help how much she missed him. The realisation made her angry. She hated herself for growing so fond and so dependent on his company. He was merely a temporary fixture in her life, just like everyone else.

She didn’t need him and was probably better off without his help anyway.

The thought became a mantra, a mental war cry, as she straightened out her shoulders and walked towards the reception desk with the same dread and determination of a gladiator entering an battle arena.

The receptionist was a surly looking woman who eyed her with an expression that made it clear she was less than impressed with Emma’s appearance.

“This isn’t a recovery center. If you’re looking for one, you’ll have to take the ferry over to Hyannis. There’s a pamphlet for it on your left.”

Emma bristled at the comment, self consciously smoothing over the wrinkles in her shirt.

“My name is Emma Swan, I’m private investigator. I was hoping to look at your birth records.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no,” she repeated, this time with a hint of an edge to voice.

Emma sighed, fishing out her wallet and handing over her identification and investigator’s permit. The woman didn’t even in look at them, merely looked up at her with the same disapproving scowl.

“That’s my private investigator’s licens-” “I know what it is,” the woman cut her off. “If it’s not a court ordered document, I’m not letting you look at our database. I don’t know if you’re aware, Little Miss Investigator, but there is such a thing called HIPAA which means those documents are protected.”

“HIPAA does not cover birth and death certificates,” Emma replied through gritted teeth. “Those are a matter of public record.”

“Oh goody,” the woman replied in a sarcastic tone, “then go bother the Registry of Vital Records like everyone else.”

“I can’t do that. I don’t know exactly the specific person I’m looking for. Only that I’m looking for a female born in October 1983. This is related to a police investigation of an abandoned child out in Memensha.”

“You’re wasting your time,” she snorted. “The police probably looked at it in the 80s. You honestly think you’re better than a bunch of cops?”

“Yes,” Emma replied bluntly, bracing her hands against the desk and staring down at the woman with a look just barely short of contempt. “Because they didn’t investigate it. Now, I would like to look at your October 1983 birth records please.”

“HIPAA says-” “I give zero shits what HIPAA says. Please get me your supervisor.”

“No.”

Emma let out a frustrated sound, yanking her hands off the table and running through her hair. Killian wouldn’t have run into this kind of trouble. He would have just smiled and made a comment about how pretty her disgusting hair looked and that woman would have been willing to hand over her own social security number. The very thought made her even more angry.

She pulled out her phone and immediately looked up the number for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, specifically for the medical records department. When she found the correct number, she punched it and stared the receptionist directly in the eye as she held the phone up to her ear.

“Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Department of Records, this is Astrid speaking,” a woman on the other end of the line stated pleasantly.

“Hello Astrid, my name is Emma Swan, I’m a private investigator who is licensed in the states of Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York and Florida. I’m investigating a cold case involving abandoned child in Menemsha October 1983. I was hoping I could look at your birth record files…”

There was a pause on the other end and Emma could hear the faint sound of conversation on the other end as she continued her staring contest with the nasty receptionist. A few moments passed before Astrid came back on the line.

“You wanted to look at the birth records during October in 1983?”

“Yes.”

There was another long pause. Emma counted the seconds in her head.

“Do you have a court order?”

“No,” she admitted. “But birth certificates are a matter of public record and as stated previously, I’m a licensed private investigator in the state of Massachusetts.”

“When did you plan on looking at the records?”

“Now, if that’s possible.”

There was a loud coughing noise on the other end followed by even more muffled conversation.

“Miss Swan, we need a little more time to get the records prepared for you. Give us a few hours, say after lunch around 2:30 and you can come down to the Records Department and have supervised access to the requested documents. Do you have more specific dates in mind or just the month of October?”

“Let’s keep it at the entire month of October just to be safe…”

“Okay. We will meet you at reception then and bring you down to Records at 2:30 then.”

“Thank you,” Emma replied, smirking at the receptionist. If she was feeling a little more immature, she would have fist pumped in her face. “I will see you then.”

After leaving the hospital, Emma wandered the streets of Oak Bluffs. She couldn’t help but feel that she was Martin Brody walking the streets of Amity Island. Everywhere she looked, it seemed to be tourist shops and ice cream places that had shut down for the winter. The only things that seemed to be open were the few restaurants like Sharky’s Cantina and Nancy’s. A large arcade on Main Street was also open despite the fact that there were only five kids inside, all of them crowding around some obnoxious game that involved loud shooting.

As she reached the docks, her phone buzzed. She frowned as she looked down at the screen, not recognising the number. She hit the ignore button as she began to examine the large yachts and fishing boats that were lined up. Some of them had clever names such as “The Codfather” and “The Aqua-holic.” Though the ship names held some amusement, she was shocked to see how far some were from home. Many of the ships docked were from Florida and South Carolina but there were a few from Jamaica and Bermuda. She couldn’t fathom why anyone from such sunny places would want to be in Martha’s Vineyard, especially in October.

It wasn’t until she was eating lunch at Dockside Marketplace that she realised whoever called her had left a message. Curious, she went to her voicemail and punched in her password.

It was Killian.

“Swan! Where are you! I woke up and you were gone! Your yellow death trap is gone! Are you alri-” Emma didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with him. In a fit of pettiness, she turned off her phone and spent the rest of her lunch in petulant silence, listening to Top 40s pop music as she munched unhappily on her onion rings.

When she returned to the hospital, the receptionist from before was gone and replaced by a young blonde with tired eyes and a kind smile. She was chatting with a brunette in scrubs that was leaning against the desk. They looked up as soon as she came in and gave her cautious smiles.

“Are you Emma Swan?” the brunette asked politely.

“Yes.”

“I’m Astrid Acker, I work in the Records Department. Do you mind showing me your ID and private detective’s license?”

Emma fished them out of her pocket and handed them over. Astrid looked at them both for a moment before nodding satisfaction and handing them back. She motioned for Emma to follow her down a long hallway. They reached a stairwell and descended down into the basement levels. It had a cold industrial feel to it, with exposed pipes lining the walls and sterile colored tiles. Astrid led her down another hallway before taking her into a sparsely decorated office. It was cluttered as hell and it immediately made her feel claustrophobic. There were three oversized desks, two that were covered in sprawling documents and dated computers while the other was completely clear save for a single case box.

Astrid pulled two chairs over to the clear desk. She held the first chair out to Emma before sitting in the other one. She pulled the lid off the box and glanced back at Emma.

“Martha’s Vineyard sees an average of 176 births per year,” she said quietly. “In 1983, there was a total of 216 births. 23 of those were born in the month of October. All of them are in that box.”

“23?”

“23,” she confirmed. “You can look at the records but you cannot take them, make copies or photos of them.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re quite welcome.”

Emma’s hands shook as she pulled the files from the box. Immediately she separated the males from the females, heart hammering in her chest as the number of files dropped from twenty-three to eight.

Six were born in the beginning of October. Only two fell into the potential time period that Emma was looking for. One was named Jennifer Cameron and the other was Julia Wright. She glanced up from the documents and back at Astrid.

“What’s the population size of Martha’s Vineyard?”

“Roughly 15,000 people.”

“Small.”

“I guess you can say that.”

Emma moved the eight files towards Astrid, every single atom of her being vibrating with tension. “Out of these eight files, do you know any of them personally?”

Astrid looked startled by the question. She gave Emma a long inquisitive look before opening each file and rattling off what she knew about each one.

“I don’t know Teresa...I don’t know Kayla either...or Laura….but I know Brenda. She dated my brother. They have two kids named Tony and Alana. Alison….if it’s the Alison I know, she left the Vineyard back in the tenth grade. Jen used to be friends with my brother but something happened and I don’t know what. Julia and Sarah were the mean girls growing up. Julia is married and owns a bed and breakfast in Chilmark and Veronica owns Vineyard Scoops in Edgartown.”

And just like that, all the energy, all the hope that Emma had, died. She felt like a popped balloon, scattered and deflated. Another dead end. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to be sad. She wanted to feel something but all she felt was numb.

“Thank you for your time,” Emma said after a moment before gathering all the strength she had left and standing up.

“I’m sorry.” Astrid was confused.

“None of these women are who I’m looking for.”

It wasn’t until she felt the hospital and was back by the docks that Emma felt something. A powerful and raw rage burned in her veins. She wanted to scream but she settled to for kicking a trash can and startling a small colony of seagulls.

Drawing a heavy breath, she turned her phone back on. She regretted the decision almost instantly. Twenty missed calls and nine messages left for her. All from the same number.

“Jesus Killian,” she mumbled under her breath as she called her voicemail.

“You have nine new messages…first message received today at 12:05pm...Swan! Where are you! I woke up and you were gone! Your yellow death trap is-” Emma deleted the message before it finished.

“Next new message received today at 12:34pm...Swan! Where are you! I’ve been looking everywhere-”  She hit the delete button again.

“Next new message received today at 12:46pm...Swan, it’s me. I’m hoping you just went into town and got Granny’s or something...I’m going to go down and meet you. Call me back when you get this.”

“Next new message received today at 1:13pm...I just stopped by Granny’s...Ruby said she hasn’t seen you...Where are you? Please call me back.”

“Next new message received today at 1:19pm...Swan! I’m worried now! Where are you? I don’t understand what’s going on or why you won’t answer your talking phone.”

“Next new message received today at 1:27pm...Swan...please just answer me...I want to know what’s going on…Just talk to me…”

“Next new message received today at 1:31pm…I don’t know where you are but please just call me. I just want to know you’re okay.”

“Next new message received today at 1:45pm...You left me...”

She dropped her phone. All the emotion she thought she would feel after her latest failure came at the broken and defeated tone of Killian’s voice. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes and she held her hand up to her face in order to stifle the cry that desperately wanted escape her lips. She felt like the world’s biggest asshole.

She took a moment to try and gather herself, wiping at her sniffling nose as she stared out into the marina, watching seagulls dive at the water in search of fresh prey. She almost forgot to listen to the final voice message that Killian had left her.

“...End of new message. To listen to it again...press one...To save it...press two...to erase it...press three…”

She pressed down on the first option, knowing it would be unpleasant and Killian would more than likely be screaming at her but there was a part of her, the self-loathing part, that felt she deserved it.

“New message received today at 2:56pm…Emma…” The way he said her name wasn’t angry. It was strained and filled with an emotion that words could not identify but she knew it on a fundamental level. Her blood went cold in her veins.

Something was wrong.

“Emma…” Killian repeated again and his time his voice wavered a bit. “The pelts...The pelts on Gold’s property...they’re...They’re selkie pelts.”

“Oh shit,” she whispered as the color drained from her face.

She had left Killian alone in Menemsha with a man who more likely than not hunted his kind. And more than that, she had left him without any means to defend himself; her taser and pistol were in the glove compartment of her car. Now, she was officially the world’s biggest asshole.

In the long list of self-imposed rules that Emma Swan had, near the top of the list was that she didn’t push the Bug faster than sixty miles per hour. There were practical reasons for this, mainly because the Bug was nearly two decades old and she didn’t fancy replacing it any time soon. She pressed the pedal to the floor as she raced down State Road and North Road on her way back to Menemsha, the needle on her speedometer jumping between seventy-five and eighty miles per hour.

She may have nearly killed more than a dozen rabbits on her way.

The Bug made its grievances known, sputtering and whining as she came to a grinding halt in front of the beach house. Emma barely acknowledged it over the thundering of her heart ramming against her chest as her eyes scanned the property, hoping against hope to see any sign that Killian was in the house and that he was alright.

There were no lights on in the house, but she didn’t expect any. Killian was practically an old man and had an almost amusing dislike for electricity. He had a habit of leaving the lights off as long as possible until he couldn’t read without them. It made Emma privately question a lot of what happened while he was stuck with Cora and her daughter during his five years stuck on land.

“Killian?” She called almost tentatively when she stepped into the house.

Only silence came to greet her. The stillness of the house unnerved her and she could feel her anxiety skyrocket in response.

“Killian!”

Various scenarios flashed into her mind but at the forefront was seeing his pelt hanging from the blood soaked rack on the front lawn of Gold’s property. Immediately, she scrambled up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. She didn’t bother with any pretenses. She knew exactly what she was looking for and where it was. She made a beeline for the large white dresser and pulled open the third drawer.

The sight of Killian’s pelt caused her to let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Without thinking, she pulled it out of the drawer and brought it to her face. She buried her nose in the thick fur, trying to take comfort in the fact that it was still in the house and not on the rack up the road.

She was almost surprised at how soft it was. Emma didn’t have much experience with fur, let alone seal fur but it felt incredibly silky and all she wanted to do was keep it against her skin.

“Swan?”

Emma froze, her cheek still rubbed against his pelt as she craned her head towards the doorway. He was looking at her with a guarded expression, shoulders tense and hands curled into tight fists. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he was preparing himself for a fight.

“Where the fuck were you?” she hissed. “I got your message and I was scared out of my mind!”

“Got my messages, did you?” he asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest and raising his eyebrows at her. The coolness of his tone nearly made her flinch.

“Yes. I freaked out! You can’t leave messages like that and just run off! You could have been hurt! You could have been killed! I was fucking terrified that I was going to come home and see your pelt out there on that fucking rack!”

“I could say the same to you, love.”

“This isn’t a game, Killian!”

“I never said it was. I’m merely pointing out the hypocrisy as I’m seeing it.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to quell the chaotic squall of emotions that wanted to bubble up to the surface. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to lash out but she couldn’t necessarily deny the truth in his words.

“I should have called you back, I’m so-” “No, it shouldn’t even have gotten to that point,” he cut her off. “You should have woken me up, Emma! We’re supposed to be partners!”

“We’re not supposed to be anything.” The words leapt from her throat before she could stop them.

As soon as she said them, Killian reared back as if her words had hit him with physical force. He stared at her as if he had never seen her before in his life. They stood there for a brief moment in tense silence. The distance between them was only about eight feet but it felt much larger than that. It felt like a canyon that Emma wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to bridge.

“Where were you?” she asked again, this time in a softer tone.

Killian looked somewhat bereft, swallowing his words and looking away from her. For a moment, Emma wasn’t sure he was going to answer her.

“I went into the house.”

She gasped at his explanation, staring at him in disbelief. “You didn’t. Please tell me you didn’t, Killian.”

“Considering all of today’s revelations, I’m shocked you care.”

“Of course I care! You could have been killed!”

“He wasn’t there,” he replied, still not looking at her. “He...I...He doesn’t just keep the pelts, Emma. There was a jar on the mantle...It was full of teeth...”

A cold shiver went down Emma’s spine. Ruby’s warning from her first day in Menemsha echoed in her head and a part of her wished she had given it more thought.

“How many?”

“I didn’t count,” Killian laughed humorously. A brittle smile crossed his lips and it made Emma feel sick. “I didn’t get close enough. I didn’t want to but countless...That whole place reeks of blood.”

“You shouldn’t have gone in there, Killian.”

His eyes cut to her. “And what should I have done, Swan? Waited for you? You cut out of here so swiftly, I wasn’t sure you were even going to come back.”

“Of course I was coming back. Don’t be an idiot. But Killian, think about this. Gold owns this town. No one knows who you are. You technically don’t exist here. He could have gotten to you and no one except me would have known something happened to you.”

“I’m very much aware of that, Swan.”

“Are you?”

“Yes, despite what you think, I’m not just a dumb animal. I’m quite intelligent despite your constant willingness to overlook that fact.”

“I know you’re smart-” “Yet you insist on treating me as I’m nothing more than dumb pet, not even worthy of leaving a note or even communicating with. Are you going to get me a ball to play with next? Make me eat out of a bowl?”

“You’re making a bigger deal of this than it actually it is,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“No. I’m just seeing the clear picture. You don’t trust me, or anyone for that matter! You would rather be alone than let yourself get burned again! Whoever he is, he must have done quite the number on you that you would rather be unhappy and alone than take any risks and let anyone in. Being alone is a bitter existence, take it from someone who knows.”

“Oh! Because you know everything!” Emma jeered.

“When it comes to being alone? Yes! I told you what happened to me. I told you about losing my family, losing Milah. I’m not unsympathetic to your plight, Emma, but you need to get it through your head that you’re not alone.”

She wanted to punch him; wanted nothing more than to break his nose. He was so full of shit and she couldn’t stand the sight of him.

“Oh fuck you,” she snarled. “Stop the bullshit. You don’t actually care. The only reason you’re still standing here is because you’re trapped. As soon as this is over, you’re just going to back. You won’t even blink.”

“If you honestly still believe that then I can’t help you,” he said softly with a disappointed look on his face. He ran his fingers through his hair before looking back at her with a beseeching expression. “Look, I can’t do this right now. Just give me back my pelt.”

Emma froze. Her mind went blank at his request and she stared down at the pelt in her hands. Her fingers were curled into it so tightly that her skin was stretched white over her knuckles. She knew that the appropriate response was to give it back to him and let him go on his merry way but she couldn’t bring herself to let go of it. Without thinking, she instead tightened her own hold on it.

Killian stared at her, absolutely stunned. There was no mistaking the look of betrayal in his eyes. He stretched out his hand and Emma couldn’t help but notice that it was trembling.

“Emma…” He sounded broken.

Reluctantly, she let go of his pelt; depositing it in his hand before she could think more on her hesitation. She practically ran past him and took sanctuary in her room, trying to put as much distance as she could between them.

The tears didn’t come until she closed the door and it was firmly against her back.  

[wazafam]

If Charlotte York-MacDougal-Goldenblatt, (Kristen Davis) mother of Lily and Rose, gallery manager, Smith grad, blue-blooded preppy from Connecticut, horsewoman, dog lover, and all 'round believer in love is your favorite of the four friends, then you should be able to quote her on cue. Throughout the Sex and the City series and two movies, Char, as Anthony used to call her, was the voice of reason, practiced the power of positive thinking, and kept it classy even when she was telling it like is.

RELATED: Sex And The City: Charlotte's 5 Best Pieces Of Advice (& 5 Worst)

In fact, there were times when fans could probably finish her sentences because she said the exact thing that was on their minds.

10 Women Sit Around Obsessing...

"...about what went wrong over and over again." Often to the chagrin of friends who, as much as they want to listen and offer helpful advice, people can go into TMI overload, as was the case when Carrie and Big broke up for the umpteen time and the ladies had a lunchtime intervention, suggesting the columnist speak to a professional because they just couldn't take it anymore.

The wise Charlotte finished her quote by pointing out, "and men just say, alrighty." Their feelings summed up on a Post-It note.

9 Negotiate? I Can't Even Buy Stuff On Sale.

Women have come a long way. Glass ceilings have been shattered, C-suite offices are occupied, and now one has been elected to the second-highest office in the United States, but there is still far to go.

Yet, women have long been socialized to accept what's offered--especially in the workplace--and feel grateful to get it. Women don't always learn to say, "That sounds good, but what if..." then list the things she brings to the table are worthy of recognition and a better deal. And if they do, it's often not welcomed. Charlotte experiences this relatable feeling.

8 Well, At Least You Have A Boyfriend.

Even though Charlotte knows it's not really true, she needs to believe, "People do live happily ever after."

RELATED: Sex And The City: 10 Saddest Things About Charlotte

During the course of the show though, she's made it clear that she is more realistic than to think one can go through life as a Disney Princess when she said things like: “Maybe we can be each other’s soulmates. And then we can let men be just these great, nice guys to have fun with.”

7 This Is An Awfully Long Way To Go To Watch Some Firemen Take Their Shirts Off.

The creators of SATC made of point of having Manhattan portrayed as the fifth friend. Carrie & Co. hit all the hot spots as well landmarks, and even the more mundane, yet so New York-y parks and diners, and fans got to live vicariously.

Sure Carrie and Samantha went to Aidan's place upstate, all four ladies vacationed out in the Hamptons, and they placated Miranda by attending a Yankees game in the Bronx (which resulted in Carrie getting a date with the team's newest player), but when they got on The Staten Island Ferry so Carrie could judge a calendar boy contest, Charlotte was not wrong to question why.

6 You're Trying To Pretend We Live In A Classless Society And We Don't.

Who would have thought that the character who lives in the most sheltered "love, marriage, baby carriage" bubble would be the most aware?

Carrie, Samantha, and Miranda all move in pretty impressive New York circles, but they needed Charlotte to point out their privilege and the inequities in society in general. The show was actually chastised for its lack of diversity and insensitivity towards the LBGTQ+ community and other marginalized groups. But in this line Charlotte calls attention to the disparity.

5 Orgasms Don't Send You Valentine's Day Cards.

Charlotte continued with her explanation: "And they don't hold your hand during a sad movie." She was explaining to her three jaded pals, Samantha in particular, that their many casual relationships based on the physical alone are not enough.

Her philosophy: "Well, I think that having it all really means having someone special to share it with." How does she know when she's found the one: "Sometimes you just know, it's like, magic, it's fate. I don't know what it is, I'm strangely drawn to him."

4 I Hate It When You're The Only Single Person At A Dinner Party...

"...and they look at you like you're a..." Loser! Leper! Wh*re! chimed in Carrie, Miranda, and Samantha, respectively. Going anywhere when everyone else has a plus-one can be uncomfortable. Remember when Miranda's male friend returns to the states from London, stays on couch for a few days, falls in love with her decorator after the three go out for drinks, and the red-headed lawyer leaves when she realizes the other two are on the road to getting married?

Being the third or fifth or even seventh wheel, gets one's insecurities going.

3 If I See Christy Turlington I Just Want To Give Up.

The top part of that quote was, "I just know that no matter how good I feel about myself..."

RELATED: Sex and the City: Charlotte's Slow Transformation Over The Years (In Pictures)

Like a lot of woman, Harry's wife is beautiful, accomplished, and well-off, yet can be cowed by someone usually introduced with the title of supermodel. Not irrational, but unwarranted. Just because someone doesn't spend their life in front of a camera or on a red carpet does not mean they're not attractive or should feel not enough. In fact, Charlotte is one of those New York woman who other New York women want to be.

2 It Takes Half The Total Time You Went Out With Someone To Get Over Them.

Charlotte has dating down to a science (“I suggested he have a tomato salad, then I suggested we get married,”) so it's no surprise she threw a little math in their too.

Does her formula ever not work out. Well, after Big left Carrie at the altar, and she finally got out of bed, the bride-to-almost-be wasn't quite the same. Time took extra-long to heal, hence when a pregnant Charlotte was at lunch and saw the errant groom, true to her word, she yelled at him: "I curse the day you were born!"

1 I'm Nice. I'm Pretty And Smart! I'm A Catch!

This sounds like a mantra that one should recite in front of a mirror each morning before leaving the house. Regardless of the fact that Charlotte indeed is nice, pretty, smart, and a catch, she also acknowledges: “I’ve been dating since I was fifteen! I’m exhausted! Where is he?”

Even though it's common knowledge that meeting and getting into a serious relationship isn't always easy, it's hard to believe that all four attractive, interesting and successful women had to kiss so many frogs before they found their Prince Charmings.

NEXT: Sex And The City Revival: 10 Things We Hope To See For Charlotte

Sex And The City: 10 Times Charlotte Said Everything Fans Were Thinking from https://ift.tt/39Bn2bz

[papermoonloveslucy]

MR. & MRS. aka THE LUCILLE BALL COMEDY HOUR

April 19, 1964

Directed by Jack Donohue ~ Written by Richard Powell, based on the play by Sherwood Schwartz, with special material by Arthur Julian

Synopsis

Lucille Ball plays the head of a studio trying to track down Bob Hope to star in a TV special about husband and wife television stars. The first half concerns Lucy's tracking the elusive Hope all around the world. The second half presents the special that they eventually do together.

Cast

Lucille Ball (’Herself’ / Bonnie Blakely) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

‘Lucille Ball’ is the president of Consolidated Pictures. Bonnie Blakely is a television star. 

Bob Hope (’Himself’ / Bill Blakely) was born Lesley Townes Hope in England in 1903. During his extensive career in virtually all forms of media he received five honorary Academy Awards. In 1945, Desi Arnaz was the orchestra leader on Bob Hope’s radio show. Ball and Hope did four films together. He appeared as himself on the season 6 opener of “I Love Lucy.” He did a brief cameo in a 1964 episode of “The Lucy Show.”  He died in 2003 at age 100.

Bill Blakely is a television star. 

Gale Gordon (Elliott Harvey) was said to be the highest paid radio artist of the 1930’s and was in such demand that he often did two or more radio shows a day. His professional collaboration with Lucille Ball started in 1938 as the announcer of Jack Haley’s “The Wonder Show” (Wonder Bread was their sponsor). He played Mr. Atterbury on Lucy’s “My Favorite Husband” and was a front-runner for the part of Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy.” When scheduling prevented his participation, he appeared as Mr. Littlefield, the Tropicana’s owner in two episodes of the show. In addition to Mr. Littlefield, he played a Judge in “Lucy Makes Room for Danny,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.” “The Lucy Show” solidified his partnership with Lucille Ball for the rest of their careers. He went on to play Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy” and Curtis McGibbon in “Life with Lucy.” He died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Mr. Harvey is the Chairman of the Board of Consolidated Pictures.

John Dehner (Mr. Henderson, below right) was seen alongside Ball and Hope in Critic's Choice, released the year before this special. Dehner's career started in 1941 and lasted until 1989, amassing nearly three hundred screen credits. He died in 1992 at age 76.  

Mr. Henderson is a full partner in the ad agency Henderson Grisby Beane and Smith.

William Lanteau (Mr. Potter, above left) first appeared with Lucille Ball in The Facts of Life (1960). In addition to an episode of “The Lucy Show,” Lanteau did four episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” He is best remembered for playing Charlie the Mailman in the play and the film On Golden Pond (1981).

Mr. Potter works for Henderson Grisby Beane and Smith.

Jack Weston (Cash) started acting on television one month after the premiere of “I Love Lucy” in 1951. He made three appearances on “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse” from 1958 to 1960. Weston's final screen credit was Short Circuit 2 in 1988. He died in 1996 at age 71.

Cash is Bonnie and Bill's agent and manager. 

Max Showalter (Walter Creighton) was born in Kansas in 1917. He got the acting bug as a toddler when mother took him to the local theater where she played piano for silent movies. He acted in 92 shows at the Pasadena Playhouse between 1935 and 1938 and made his Broadway debut in Knights of Song. On Broadway he played the role of Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly! more than 3,000 times opposite such luminaries as Carol Channing, Betty Grable, and Ginger Rogers. Showalter made more than a thousand TV and film appearances. He was seen on two episodes of “The Lucy Show.” Toward the end of his life he lived in Connecticut and died there in 2000.  

Walter is Bonnie's fiancee, masquerading as her brother.

Joseph Mell (Sam) played Bailiffs in “Lucy the Meter Maid” (TLS S3;E7) and “Lucy is Her Own Lawyer” (TLS S2;E23). His first role on “The Lucy Show” was as a Butcher in “Together for Christmas” (S1;E13). Mell also appeared in a 1969 episode of “Here’s Lucy.” In 1971, he was a Taxi Driver on “Lucy and the Lecher,” a cross-over episode of Danny Thomas’s “Make Room for Granddaddy” in which Lucille Ball played Lucy Carter, her character from “Here’s Lucy.”

Sam is a tailor working for Lucille Ball.

Sid Gould (Sid) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also did nearly 50 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. He was married to Vanda Barra, who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” and “Here’s Lucy.” 

Sid is a composer working for Lucille Ball.

Eddie Ryder (Mike) appeared as Bones Snodgrass on the “Our Miss Brooks” (also starring Gale Gordon) from 1953-54 under the name Eddie Riley. He was also seen in “Lucy and the Submarine” (TLS S5;E22) in 1966. From 1961 to 1966 Ryder played Dr. Simon Agurski in 22 episodes of “Dr. Kildare.” He died in 1997 at age 74.

Mike is an executive at Consolidated Pictures. Ryder is the only actor who gets a final credit using his character name (“Eddie Ryder as Mike”), but the name is never spoken aloud in the show.

Danny Klega (Russian Translator) was a Czech-born actor who was often cast as German. His first screen credit was 1962's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and his last was 1970's Which Way to the Front? He died in 2015 at age 91. 

John Banner (Lieutenant Gitterman, German Border Guard, below left) was born in Vienna in 1910. He achieved television immortality for his portrayal of the POW camp guard Sergeant Schultz in the TV series “Hogan’s Heroes.” Ironically, Banner was a Jew and had been in a German concentration camp himself. He was in all 168 episodes of the series, the only actor aside from leading man Bob Crane to have that distinction. His catchphrase as Schultz was “I know nothing!” which he repeated in a cameo as Schultz on “Lucy and Bob Crane” (TLS S4;E22) in 1966. He died in his home city of Vienna in 1973.  

Gitterman was also the name used for Hans Conreid's acting and music professor character on “The Lucy Show.”

Rudy Dolan (German Border Guard #2, above right) was active from 1957 to 1964, often cast as policemen and other officials.

Sally Mills (TWA Flight Attendant) played small roles on television from 1961 to 1971, appearing on Desilu's “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Gomer Pyle: USMC.” For eight years, Mills was a spokesperson for Safeway Supermarkets.

Stanley Farrar (Consolidated Board Member) was seen on “I Love Lucy” in “Home Movies” (ILL S3;E20) where he played a character named Bennett Green, who actually appears with him on this special and “Staten Island Ferry” (ILL S5;E12). He was seen in two celebrity-themed episodes of “The Lucy Show” in 1964 and 1965, one of which also starred Max Showalter, who appears in this special.  

Bennett Green (Consolidated Board Member, uncredited) was Desi Arnaz’s camera and lighting stand-in during “I Love Lucy.” He did frequent background work on “The Lucy Show.”

Joan Swift (Consolidated Board Secretary, uncredited) made six appearances on the “The Lucy Show” as well as two episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Her final screen credit was in “Lucy's  Gets Lucky” in 1975.  

Charles Field

Roy Rowan (Announcer, uncredited) was the announcer for all of Lucille Ball's sitcoms. He even made a a couple of on camera appearances on “The Lucy Show.”

During contractual negotiations with CBS for a second season of “The Lucy Show,” Lucille Ball signed for $30,000 to co-star in “The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour” to be aired in the spring of 1964.

This special was broadcast in color, one of Lucy's first major appearances in color on television. Although “The Lucy Show” had started filming in color in the fall of 1963, CBS declined to air the series in color until September 1965.

On ABC, the second half hour of “Mr. and Mrs.” was up against an episode of “Arrest and Trial” that also starred Jack Weston. Meanwhile, NBC ran a show starring another funny redhead, Imogene Coca, in “Grindl.” The special's lead-in was another Sherwood Schwartz show, “My Favorite Martian.”  

Director Jack Donohue also served in the same capacity for 107 episodes of “The Lucy Show,” and 35 of “Here’s Lucy.” His final screen credit was “Lucy Gets Lucky” in 1980.

The day after this special premiered, CBS aired “Lucy Is a Process Server” (TLS S2;E27), also directed by Jack Donohue and co-starring Gale Gordon.

“Mr. and Mrs.” is based on an un-produced full-length stage play of the same name by Sherwood Schwartz. It was boiled down to 30 minutes by Richard Powell (teleplay) with special material by Arthur Julian, who were both writers for Red Skelton during the 1950s. Sherwood Schwartz won his only Primetime Emmy Award in 1961 as the head writer for “The Red Skelton Hour.” Schwartz was the creative genius behind “The Brady Bunch” (1969-74) and “Gilligan's Island,” which would start airing in the fall of 1964. “The Brady Bunch” was based in part on Lucille Ball's film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Ball declined to make the TV version, opting instead to do “Here's Lucy.” At age 90, after his TV successes, Schwartz returned to writing for the theatre with Rockers, a play about a retirement home.

Lucille Ball's gowns for the special were by the Oscar-winning Edith Head. Head had dressed Lucille Ball in both of her film collaborations with Bob Hope, Critic's Choice (1963) and The Facts of Life (1960). Della Fox was the costumer and Kenneth Westcott was the props master, both of whom also worked on “The Lucy Show.” Lucille Ball's usual hairstylist Irma Kusely and make-up artist Hal King were also involved in this special. Jess Oppenheimer, creator and longtime producer/head-writer of “I Love Lucy,” served as Executive Producer.  

Once, during rehearsal, Bob Hope got too close to the camera, a fact promptly noted by director Jack Donohue. Ball roughly shoved Hope to his proper mark. “Lucy,” said Donohue soothingly, “Please don't touch the actors. You never know where they've been.”  A little later, when Ball had her way with the handling of a scene, Hope said, “That's what I like to work with—pliable producers and flexible direc­tors.”  This story appeared in the 1993 book Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz by Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert. 

Bob Hope and Lucille Ball rehearsed three full days, just as she would have her regular half-hour television series. The show was then filmed before a live studio audience with three cameras recording the action and a laugh track added later to 'sweeten' the comedy. The next day, Hope returned to film the single jungle scene in which Ball finally locates him. The wrap-around story was true-to-life, not only because it depicted Lucy as the president of a major studio (albeit not named Desilu), but because it featured Bob as a world-traveler. Known in show-business circles as "Rapid Robert," Hope was famous for dashing from a movie set to a benefit to a television special – all in different cities. The day before Hope reported to Desilu for rehearsals, he was in Washington on behalf of the 1964 Easter Seals campaign. He had flown there after finishing a one-hour segment of his own Chrysler TV series. As soon as he finished his stint with Lucy, he was off to promote his latest movie. "While I'm flying across the country," Hope quipped at the time, "Lucy will be talking about me. That's why it's a coveted role."  Lucy had her say in the matter: "All those scenes showing me trying to catch up with Bob is from real life. If the world only knew what I went through to get him on this stage to work with me in this project!"

In the special Lucille Ball is the President of Consolidated Studios. Mr. Harvey (Gale Gordon) is the chairman of the board and represents a bank that has extended a significant loan to the studio. Gale Gordon was also playing a banker named Mr. Mooney on “The Lucy Show” when the special was filmed.

Lucy: “Just because I'm an actress does not mean I'm not a good president!”

The wardrobe designer in Lucy's busy office is holding the actual Edith Head costume renderings for Lucille Ball's outfits in the special.

After doing some checking behind Lucy's back, Mr. Harvey discovers that Bob Hope is not available until the week of July 4, 1976, after he emcees the 200th Anniversary of America's Independence. Twelve years later, the writers were proved absolutely right when Bob Hope hosted the NBC TV special “Bob Hope's Bicentennial Star Spangled Spectacular” on July 4, 1976.

SAN FRANCISCO

Mr. Harvey and Lucy fly to San Francisco to track down Bob Hope. Footage of a jet landing was supplied courtesy of TWA, a carrier that went out of business in 2001.

Lucy: “This is not business, it's show business.” Mr. Harvey: “Business is business.”

In San Francisco, the TWA flight attendant mistakes Mr. Harvey for Gary Morton, Lucy's real-life husband. She says she saw him on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Morton made two appearances on “Ed Sullivan,” in 1961 and 1962, but it is hard to fathom how anyone could visually mistake Gale Gordon for Gary Morton. The Flight Attendant informs them that Bob Hope was in first class, while they were in coach, but he was rushed aboard an Army bomber across the tarmac headed for...

ALASKA

Lucy and Mr. Harvey travel to Alaska to track him down using a dog sled. This is not the first time Lucille Ball has done scenes set in the 50th state. In “Lucy Goes To Alaska,” a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” when the Ricardos and Mertzes flew there to perform with Red Skelton (coincidentally) in honor of their recent statehood. In Alaska, Lucy and Mr. Harvey find out Bob Hope has already gone to...

MOSCOW

In a Kremlin office, a translator tells a man with his back to us that Lucy and Mr. Harvey are looking for Bob Hope. The unseen man laughs and pounds a shoe on his desk. During a 1960 meeting at the United Nations, Soviet Leader Khrushchev pounded his shoe on his desk in protest of a speech by Philippine delegate Lorenzo Sumulong. 

The translator shows off an autographed copy of Bob Hope's new book. This is a plug for Hope's 1963 book I Owe Russia $1,200, which Hope wrote with ghostwriter Mort Lachman after his trip to Russia. Lucy and Mr. Harvey learn that Bob Hope just left Moscow headed to...   

GERMANY

Lucy and Mr. Harvey cross the border into Germany driving a single scooter. The two other vehicles in the studio-filmed scene are Volkswagens, naturally. The guards (one of them “Hogan's Heroes” star John Banner, who did a cameo as Sergeant Schultz on a 1966 “The Lucy Show”) tell them that Bob Hope has already been through and gone on to the airport to... 

THE PHILIPPINES 

In a jungle clearing, holding a golf club, Bob Hope is finally found singing “Thanks for the Memory” to a group of American GIs in camouflage gear. The song was written in 1938 by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin for the film The Big Broadcast of 1938 starring Hope and Dorothy Lamour. It became associated with Bob Hope, who used it as his theme song. He sang it at the end of his guest-appearance on “I Love Lucy” in 1956 and during his cameo in “Lucy Moves to NBC” in 1980.  

As Lucy explains the script of the special to Hope amid a downpour, the show cross-fades to the first scene of... 

“MR. & MRS.” 

starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope as Bonnie and Bill Blakely, the stars of America's number one television show.

Fighting off autograph seekers to get through their front door of their swanky Manhattan apartment, Bill says “I signed mine 'Ringo'.” He is referring to Ringo Starr, one of the Beatles. In 1964 they became an international success when they made their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The same date this special aired in the USA, “Around the Beatles” was taped at Wembley Stadium for ITV in England. It was aired in America on November 15, 1964.

Bill brags that a Cleveland newspaper compared him with Cary Grant. Grant’s name was often mentioned on “I Love Lucy” during their stay in Hollywood. 

Walter tells Cash he works at Peerless Department Store in Newark. His father owns the store. (This implies that “Mr. and Mrs.” takes place in New York City, not Hollywood, where most TV shows are shot today.) They are opening a branch of their store in Japan, which will keep Walter out of the country for several months.  

To boost ratings the ad agency wants Bonnie and Bill to have a baby as their characters and in real life.

Bonnie (indignant): “Having a child happens to be an act of God.” Mr. Henderson: “We cleared this with the sponsor.”

Bonnie and Walter head for the door to go to the opera.

Mr. Henderson: “Bonnie, please. The sponsor is expecting a baby.” Bonnie: “I'll throw him a shower.”

When Lucy Ricardo was to give birth on “I Love Lucy” in 1953, the story line had to be approved by the sponsor and the network. Lucy Ricardo and Lucille Ball gave birth at the same time – with the episode timed to coincide with Ball's Cesarean. Lucy and Ethel also threw a 'daddy shower' for Ricky, to make him feel more a part of her pregnancy. 

Eight months later, Bonnie comes waddling into the living room extremely pregnant. The underscoring plays "Funeral March of a Marionette” written by Charles Gounod around 1879. It is probably more familiar as the theme tune of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (1955). Ball makes sure she stands in profile so the joke visually pays off. The tune was also used during “Little Ricky's Pageant” (ILL S6;E10) in 1956 during the entrance of the gnomes. 

Lucille Ball does the same physical comedy business to lower herself into a chair that she did as pregnant Lucy Ricardo. The Blakely apartment is a mess with baby items and various gifts from fans. Bonnie claims they've received 300 pair of baby socks.

Walter thinks Bill is the father and Bill thinks Walter is the father. They realize that Bonnie is not really pregnant after all. Lucy Carter will also fake her pregnancy (using a well-placed pillow) in “Lucy, the Part-Time Wife” (HL S3;E14, above) in 1970. While filming “Mr. and Mrs.” Lucille Ball was 52 years old.

Thinking Bonnie is actually with child, Henderson's agency runs a contest to name the baby. The winning names are Gunther and Pandora.

Oops! John Dehner (Mr. Henderson) says that name of his firm is “Henderson Beane Grisby and Smith” instead of what Lucy previously said, “Henderson Grisby Beane and Smith.”  When Bob Hope mentions the firm, he gets the names in the same order as Dehner, so likely Lucy is the one who jumbled the list.

A couple of times, it is apparent that Bob Hope is looking at cue cards, not unusual for “rapid Robert” who had little time for memorizing lines. 

As Bonnie and Bill kiss, the scene becomes the Consolidated Board of Directors watching the special in a screening room. Lucy enters dressed like a tramp, something she also did with Red Skelton in “Lucy Goes To Alaska” in 1959. The flower in her lapel squirts water in Mr. Harvey's face and the credits roll.  

This Date in Lucy History – April 19th

"The Black Wig" (ILL S3;E26) – April 19, 1954

The first half of this rarely seen special is oddly different from the second.  Lucy and Gale Gordon’s comic travelogue on ‘the search for Hope’ is clever and often laugh out loud funny.  But the second half, boiled down from Sherwood Schwartz’s play, is a bit less engaging.  The half hour starts well enough, but fizzles and feels very stage-bound.  Still, lots of fun and an interesting footnote to “The Lucy Show” years.

[aidengeorg]

Avenue south residences condo

Defined by, and developed because of, the Long Island Railroad, the slender, almost fish-profiled tract of land originally called Paumanok by indigenous Indians and now bridge- and tunnel-appendaged to New York, owes much of its existence to it.

Earthly distances require means, speed, and sometimes intermodal connections to traverse so that miles, as measurements, can be reduced to hours and minutes. Untethered to the continental Untied States, and thus surrounded by water, Long Island itself sought solutions for the population which grew after the farmers were attracted there by the promise of sprouting crops. But not immediately.

"The century year of 1800 found Long Island to be a largely rural region of remote villages located along the shores," according to Robert C. Sturm in his book, "The Long Island Rail Road Company: A History, 1834-1965" (Long Island-Sunrise Trail Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. 2014, p. 3). "The principle means of transpiration and communication were carriages and sailing vessels. The fact that travel was slow, arduous, and sometimes perilous meant that the average person rarely, if ever, traveled further than 20 miles from his or her place of birth."

Integral to the seed that evolved into the Long Island Railroad and ultimately resolved this dilemma was the ten-mile Avenue south residences condo  Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad Company, whose April 25, 1832 incorporation was envisioned as the first step in a land-and-sea link to Boston, essentially bypassing Long Island itself, but reducing the primitive, three-day horse-drawn coach and 16-hour all-steamer methods to 11 hours.

The second segment of the intermodal journey became reality on April 24, 1834, when the Long Island Rail Road Company was chartered to operate from Brooklyn to Greenport on the North Fork. The third was the cross-sound ferry voyage to Stonington, Connecticut, whose hilly and river-interspersed southern shore otherwise eclipsed technological, track-laying capabilities, and the fourth was the continued and final rail link to Boston on the Norwich and Worcester.

Two years later, on April 18, or the very day that the Brooklyn and Jamaica was completed, the barren island began sprouting tracks, along with its crops, reaching Farmingdale in Suffolk County in 1841, Deer Park the following year, and Medford two years after that, and met the North Fork-originating, westward-laid rails by summer, although a shortage necessitated a temporary, two-mile, heavy timber and strap iron crowned insertion until the final section was delivered from Britain.

Inaugurating service on July 27, 1844, the fledgling, steam-powered railroad immediately demonstrated its capability, covering the 94 miles from Brooklyn to Greenport in three-and-a-half hours.

But the ground which supported it began to crumble after only a few years of operation, since the previously considered "impossible" southern Connecticut rail route was conquered by 1850, eliminating the need for the Long Island Railroad's intermodal and inter-state purpose and leaving it to serve a sparsely populated farm community. Now, more than ever, it needed to grow branches that would cater to developing towns, after its initial, cross-island line spurred their development.

Today, tunnel-connected, beneath the East River, to Manhattan, the Long Island Railroad operates nine branches to 124 stations, covering more than 700 miles of track, and is both North America's busiest commuter railroad, feeding and fielding the daily workforce, and the oldest one still operating under its original name. In 2009, it celebrated its 175th anniversary and six years later carried 87.6 million annual passengers.

Its rich history can be gleaned through Long Island's many railroad-related sights.

2. Hicksville and the John Bull Locomotive:

Located on the flat, barren, 60,000-acre Hempstead Plains--the largest such prairie in the eastern United States-Hicksville was first claimed by Welsh settler, Robert Williams, in 1648. But, despite the promise of population, it remained just as virgin for another two centuries, until Valentine Hicks, a Jericho businessman, acquired the site and formed a land association to establish a town on it in 1834.

Because the first 15 miles of track had reached the area three years later, in March, its then terminus status transformed it into a destination or, in the reverse direction, a gateway to Manhattan in the west, establishing a tether to a major city.

Not coincidentally, Hicks himself became a Long Island Railroad board member and its second president, while the station, ultimately located at the crossroads of the Main Line and the Port Jefferson branch, evolved into a hub.

But financial panic at the time of its inception ensured that it remained the terminus for four years, until the intermodal connection could regain its momentum and ever eastward-laid track could imprint the ground. In the meantime, however, the railroad transported people, who, in sedentary form, translated into population, and the once barren farmland took root as a town comprised of stores, businesses, residences, and hotels. Its "Hicksville" name, again not coincidentally, reflected its Valentine Hicks founder.

The Long Island Railroad's first locomotive, the "Ariel" and the 19th constructed by Matthias W. Baldwin, was delivered in November of 1835 and, aside from providing motive power for the inaugural Hicksville service, was employed for some two decades.

"The original locomotives were of simple construction, comprising a five-tube boiler mounted on a frame that also accommodated a two-cylinder engine," wrote Sturm in "The Long Island Rail Road Company: A History, 1834-1965" (p. 10). "Hand-cut pine, which was conveniently harvested from the Pine Barrens, was the fuel. Water was carried on the tender car, either in casks or (in) an iron tank. There were no brakes; coasting to the station and finally 'plugging' the engine (running it in reverse) was the only method used to stop the trains."

[sciencespies]

For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a Rethinking of How We Celebrate American History

https://sciencespies.com/history/for-indigenous-peoples-day-a-rethinking-of-how-we-celebrate-american-history/

For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a Rethinking of How We Celebrate American History

Smithsonian Voices National Museum of the American Indian

Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Rethinking How We Celebrate American History

October 11th, 2019, 4:00PM / BY Dennis W. Zotigh and Renee Gokey

Johns Hopkins University observed Indigenous Peoples’ Day for the first time in 2018. “The culture around Columbus and how Natives are viewed is slowly changing,” Indigenous Students at Hopkins (ISH) president Tyra Andrews said that day. “It’s really important, especially for the younger generations.” Organized by ISH and the university’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, the commemoration included a campus powwow and an evening presentation by Victoria O’Keefe (Cherokee and Seminole of Oklahoma), assistant professor in the Center for American Indian Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. (Photo courtesy of Tom Jefferson Jr.)

More

“The most American thing about America is American Indians.” —Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche)

The first documented observance of Columbus Day in the United States took place in New York City in 1792, on the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s landfall in the Western Hemisphere. The holiday originated as an annual celebration of Italian–American heritage in San Francisco in 1869. In 1934, at the request of the Knights of Columbus and New York City’s Italian community, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared the first national observance of Columbus Day. President Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress made October 12 a national holiday three years later. In 1972 President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making the official date of the holiday the second Monday in October.

Generations of Native people, however, throughout the Western Hemisphere have protested Columbus Day. In the forefront of their minds is the fact the colonial takeovers of the Americas, starting with Columbus, led to the deaths of millions of Native people and the forced assimilation of survivors.

In 1977 participants at the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in the Americas proposed that Indigenous Peoples’ Day replace Columbus Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes that Native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas, including the lands that later became the United States of America. And it urges Americans to rethink history.

The movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day or Native American Day has gained momentum and spread to states, cities, and towns across the United States. The first state to rename Columbus Day was South Dakota in 1990. Hawai’i has also changed the name of its October 12 holiday to Discovers’ Day, in honor of the Polynesian navigators who peopled the islands. Berkeley, California, became the first city to make the change in 1992, when the city council renamed Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 2015 an estimated 6,000 Native people and their supporters gathered at Randall’s Island, New York, to recognize the survival of the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The demonstration’s success and the worldwide media attention it attracted planted the seeds for creating an Indigenous Peoples’ Day in New York City. This year the nation’s capital passed a resolution to change the holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Universities and schools across the country are also observing the new commemoration.

The following states and the District of Columbia now observe Native American or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in place of or in addition to Columbus Day:

▪︎ Alabama ▪︎ Alaska ▪︎ District of Columbia ▪︎ Hawai’i ▪︎ Idaho ▪︎ Maine ▪︎ Minnesota ▪︎ New Mexico ▪︎ North Carolina ▪︎ Oklahoma ▪︎ Oregon ▪︎ South Dakota ▪︎ Vermont ▪︎ Wisconsin

Smaller jurisdictions have often led the way, including:

▪︎ Anchorage, Alaska ▪︎ Flagstaff and Phoenix, Arizona ▪︎ Eureka Springs, Arkansas ▪︎ Berkeley, Burbank, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Fernando, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, South Lake Tahoe, and Watsonville, California ▪︎ Aspen, Boulder, Denver, and Durango, Colorado ▪︎ Bridgeport and West Hartford, Connecticut ▪︎ South Fulton, Georgia ▪︎ Boise and Moscow, Idaho ▪︎ Evanston and Oak Park, Illinois ▪︎ Bloomington, Indiana ▪︎ Davenport, Iowa City, Tama, and Toledo, Iowa ▪︎ Lawrence and Wichita, Kansas ▪︎ Berea, Brodhead, Burnside, Corbin, Crab Orchard, Frankfort, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, Junction City, Lancaster, Liberty, Livingston, London, Louisville, Mt. Vernon, Perryville, Prestonsburg, Richmond, Russell Springs, Science Hill, Somerset, Springfield, Stanford, and Taylorsville, Kentucky ▪︎ Bangor, Bar Harbor, Belfast, Brunswick, Gouldsboro, Orono, Portland, and Starks, Maine ▪︎ Amherst, Brookline, Cambridge, Great Barrington, Northampton, and Somerville, Massachusetts ▪︎ Alpena, Ann Arbor, Detroit, East Lansing, Ferndale, Traverse City, and Ypsilanti, Michigan ▪︎ Bemidji, Cook County, Grand Marais, Grand Rapids, Mankato, Minneapolis, Moorehead, St. Paul, and Red Wing, Minnesota ▪︎ Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri ▪︎ Bozeman and Helena, Montana ▪︎ Lincoln, Nebraska ▪︎ Reno, Nevada ▪︎ Durham, New Hampshire ▪︎ Newark and Princeton, New Jersey ▪︎ Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico ▪︎ Akron, Ithaca, Newstead, Rochester, the Village of Lewiston, and Woodstock, New York ▪︎ Asheville, Burlington, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Kernersville, North Carolina ▪︎ Fargo, Grand Forks, North Dakota ▪︎ Columbus, Cincinnati, and Oberlin, Ohio ▪︎ Anadarko, El Reno, Lawton, Norman, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee, Tahlequah, and Tulsa, Oklahoma ▪︎ Corvallis, Eugene, and Portland, Oregon ▪︎ Lancaster and Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania ▪︎ Austin, Bexar County, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas ▪︎ Nashville, Tennessee ▪︎ Salt Lake City, Utah ▪︎ Alexandria, Charlottesville, Falls Church, and Richmond, Virginia ▪︎ Bainbridge Island, Olympia, Pullman, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Yakima, Washington ▪︎ Harpers Ferry, West Virginia ▪︎ Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Marathon Country, and Wasau, Wisconsin

Even so, mythology about Columbus and the “discovery” of the Americas continues to be many American children’s first classroom lesson about encountering different cultures, ethnicities, and peoples. Teaching more accurate and complete narratives and differing perspectives is key to our society’s rethinking its history. Recently, the museum has hosted Indigenous Peoples’ Curriculum Days and Teach-Ins at the beginning of the school year in Washington and New York. Teaching for Change, a Washington-based national education organization, and the museum’s Education Office work with teachers of students from kindergarten through 12th grade in sessions that range from student activism to defend the environment or abolish Columbus Day; to skills such as critical literacy, art, and facilitated dialogue; to inquiry-based lessons available through the museum’s online education initiative Native Knowledge 360°.

In 2018 Sarah Shear, assistant professor of Social Studies Education at Penn State University–Altoona, gave the keynote presentation, based on research on U.S. history standards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2015, Dr. Shear and her collaborators Ryan T. Knowles, Gregory J. Soden, and Antonio J. Castro published data showing that 87 percent of the references to Native Americans in U.S. curricula are in the context of American history before 1900. “The narrative presented in U.S. history standards,” they write, “when analyzed with a critical eye, directed students to see Indigenous Peoples as a long since forgotten episode in the country’s development.” Shear and her colleaguse see serious implications in the way the United States teaches its history:

When one looks at the larger picture painted by the quantitative data, it is easy to argue that the narrative of U.S. history is painfully one sided in its telling of the American narrative, especially with regard to Indigenous Peoples’ experiences. . . .

The qualitative findings further illuminate a Euro-American narrative that reinstitutes the marginalization of Indigenous cultures and knowledge. Indigenous Peoples are left in the shadows of Euro-America’s destiny, while the cooperation and conflict model provides justification for the eventual termination of Indigenous Peoples from the American landscape and historical narrative. Finally, a tone of detachment, especially with long lists of legal and political terms, dismisses the humanity of Indigenous cultures and experiences in the United States.

This year, the co-editors of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States—librarian and educator Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambé Owingeh) and historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz—headlined workshops in Washington and New York. Reese, founder of the highly respected resource American Indians in Children’s Literature, describe their work on An Indigenous People’s History as shining bright lights on historic episodes that are left out of most books. “As much as we could,” Reese says, “we wanted to give readers the kind of information that’s known within Native families, communities, and nations. We believe that it is vital that all citizens of the United States know more about the people whom we regard, as a society, as being heroic. There are different points of view.”

Things are changing. On Monday, October 14, states, cities, towns, counties, community groups, churches, universities, schools, and other institutions will observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day or Native American Day with activities that raise awareness of the rich history, culture, and traditions of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. They will do so thanks to Native people, their supporters, and others who have gathered for decades and continue to gather now at prayer vigils, powwows, symposiums, concerts, lectures, rallies, and classrooms to help America rethink American history.

Renee Gokey (Eastern Shawnee/Sac and Fox/Miami) is an education specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/San Juan Pueblo/Santee Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

This post was originally published on October 7, 2018. It has been updated for Indigenous People’s Day 2019.

#History

[jacewilliams1]

Six things I know about flying in New York

This is the latest article in our series about flying in different states and countries. You can read other articles in the series here. If you’d like to write an article on your state, email us: editor@airfactsjournal.com

Not just New York City!

1. New York and Long Island have some of the busiest airspace in the world.

Everyone knows that JFK and LGA are in New York and with some of the busiest, and often the most delayed, airspace in the world. The Class Bravo airspace surrounding the tri-state area is what a friend of mine from the Midwest calls “varsity” airspace, and requires pilots to always pay close attention to it, as well as the many TFRs that pop up around there. What most outsiders do not realize is that both airports are actually on Long Island and located in the borough of Queens, which itself is technically on Long Island, but is part of New York City.

If, like me, you fly from Long Island and want to fly west or south, you will inevitably have to deal with the New York Class Bravo. Flying below it along the south shore of Long Island, you are limited to 500 ft. MSL. A pilot can take off from a Long Island airport and climb to a VFR altitude, say 8500 ft. MSL, and head west and over the Bravo. One interesting fact of the New York Class Bravo is that it only goes to 7000 ft. MSL – not the traditional 10,000 ft. MSL seen in most Bravos.

As busy as the airspace is around JFK and LGA, Long Island has some very busy general aviation airports as well. Farmingdale (FRG) and MacArthur in Islip (KISP) are the two busiest, with Farmingdale falling under the Bravo. However, if you fly eastbound on the south shore of Long Island, you can fly from Jones Beach to Montauk and the route is almost 100 miles of sandy beaches. If you choose to fly the north shore of Long Island you will fly over a rocky coastline and a unique landscape that is dotted with farms and wineries.

2. The birth place of aviation? Okay, international air travel!

Long Island has a rich aviation history, including the most famous flight ever made.

Hey, John Zimmerman: Long Island is the birthplace of aviation! Okay, how about international air travel? On the morning of May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field airport and pointed his airplane towards Paris, making a successful transatlantic flight. Flying for 33 1/2 hours and covering approximately 3,600 miles, Lindbergh was the first person to fly nonstop from the United States to France. His feat opened up future international air travel between the US and Europe, and now millions of people enjoy the same transatlantic air service Lindbergh did: cramped, hungry, and tired!

Roosevelt Field also hosted Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post, the latter using the airport to start an around-the-world flight in 1931. Roosevelt Field was located about 10 miles from JFK’s present location and unfortunately closed in 1951 to be replaced with a shopping mall, businesses and a college. For aviation buffs, The Cradle of Aviation Museum is located not too far from where Lindbergh started his flight, with a few old hangars still standing, and is worth visiting if in the Long Island or New York City area.

3. New York provides flying diversity.

Look at a New York sectional and you will see that once you get outside the New York City area, much of the state has mountains and wide-open airspace. One of the things I love about flying in New York is that I can leave my home airport (ISP) and head northwest to beautiful Saratoga, New York, or the Finger Lakes, or the border of Canada. Massena International airport (MSS) is right across the border from Canada and has easy access to Ottawa and Montreal if you want to drive, or fly.

Want to fly to Vermont? Fly to Plattsburgh, New York (PBG) and take a ferry over to Vermont. How about lunch on Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard? New York borders so many great places to fly – Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont – that one can spend years picking and choosing places to fly to for that $100 hamburger or other day flying trips.

Niagara Falls International Airport is another outstanding place to fly to, especially if you do not have a border sticker or the required documentation to fly into Canada. I believe the American side is easier, faster and just as nice as the Canadian side (sorry, my Canadian friends), and if you really want to, you can walk across the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side for a quick visit.

New York is one of the few places in the United States where you can fly from airports located near ocean beaches, such as Long Island, and fly to mountains, the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, another country (Canada), and back to the original airport on day trips. Airplanes are the best way to get around and see the true beauty of New York.

4. Fly to Cooperstown or the Finger Lakes and fly a glider.

Most people think of New York as New York City, our pizza (better than Chicago pizza) and our thick New York accents, but head to what we in the New York City and Long Island regions call upstate New York and you will find many place to fly gliders. Cooperstown is accessible by the nice GA airport, Oneonta (N66), and Cooperstown’s own small airport provides gliding opportunities.

The mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks and Catskills provide some very good glider flying weather and winds, places like Wurtsboro (N82), in the southern region of the state and Elmira on the Finger Lakes are great places to fly and visit.

New York means more than just Manhattan – there are stunning views like this as well.

5. It is hot, it is cold, it snows, and it gets hot.

Want to ski in the winter? Fly to Lake Placid Airport and ski the famous mountain. There are literally dozens of places to ski in New York and many are accessible by GA. New York sees its fair share of snow in the winter, especially in the western part of the state, so proper planning and caution is required. The same airport in the winter that will leave you stranded, freezing and iced in will have higher density altitudes, afternoon build-ups and lots of bumps because of the terrain in the summer. There is not much flat land flying in the State of New York.

One October a few years ago, I flew into Lake Placid for a business meeting. The day I flew up was a typical clear fall day. Smooth flying and great visibility made the day a joy to fly. On the day of my return back to Long Island, the weather changed dramatically. It was cold and brisk, the airport had low ceilings; there was no on-site clearance. The airport is also surrounded by mountains and terrain. To this flatland Long Island pilot, this presented a host of issues that I do not normally deal with and I decided to wait until later in the day for better weather to depart.

6. New York controllers are the best, period.

Yes, they talk fast and have funny accents (if y’all aren’t from these parts), but if you show a modicum of ability to communicate, listen and follow instructions, they are fantastic. I routinely fly IFR from Long Island to Virginia and other points south from FRG/ISP and almost always get routed directly over JFK. Over the years I have always been treated with the same professional demeanor and attention by a departure controller who is also handling a British Airways 777 and me at the same time. I understand the unique requirements of the New York airspace and sometimes there is a re-route and change, but I cannot think of a time where the controllers weren’t cognizant of my airplane’s abilities and the best way to get me on my way and on my route down V16 or V1.

As long as I have been flying in the New York region, I find the controllers at all levels – tower to approach and departure – to be excellent. Full disclosure: I have found all controllers wherever I fly to be the same. We enjoy the best ATC system in the world and every time I fly it shows. I just have an affinity for my fellow New Yorkers, funny accents and all.

The post Six things I know about flying in New York appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/08/six-things-i-know-about-flying-in-new-york/

[worldfootprints]

Benjamin Franklin gestured dramatically toward the moldering gravestone of the Revolutionary War soldier. “And then,” he proclaimed, pausing for effect, “He killed ‘im dead!” Twelve adults and a handful of children stared at him wide-eyed as he finished the dramatic account of the Yankee soldier’s death. “Follow me, I will take you to Old North Church and the site of the Boston Massacre.” He whipped Paul Revere’s woodcutting of the Boston Massacre out of a pocket and displayed it with a flourish. A camera flashed. Benjamin Franklin posed for a second photo.

Obviously, our downtown Boston tour guide was not actually Benjamin Franklin. To be honest, he wasn’t even pretending to be—although I thought the tour company was missing out by not taking advantage of the fact that this man was the spitting image of the famous figure. Eleven-year-old me soaked in every aspect of the spooky graveyard tour, trying to pretend I was fending off the October chill with a deerskin coat rather than a windbreaker and imagining what life might have been like long before Boston became characterized by skyscrapers of chrome and glass. Even after a decade and a half, the memory of this adventure in Boston is clear in my mind.

History Road Trips

Boston was the first stop on our family’s history tour of the East Coast, our annual family “field trip.” Instead of the summer vacations to the beach, we took autumn trips to historical or geological sites around the United States. One thing my sister and I loved about the trips is that they counted as school days. This was one of the many perks of being homeschooled, although it didn’t mean we got to skip out on finishing our math workbooks! Just because the trips were considered “school” didn’t mean they were boring. My mom, a teacher, and my dad, a geology aficionado, built up our expectations of the trip through a semester of historical fiction, vivid storytelling, period-accurate toys, movie nights, and projects both recreational and educational. By the time we arrived on the East Coast from Arizona, we felt like we were old friends with George Washington and Paul Revere. We were excited to see everything, and the opportunity to spend money we earned by memorizing geography facts certainly didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.

Statue of Paul Revere in Boston.

There are many benefits to taking an educational East Coast vacation. First, it’s fun! Both my sister and I were voracious readers, and my love of history mixed with her interest in photography set the stage for fun on our East Coast road trip. However, touring the history of the East Coast can be a blast even if you or your kids aren’t particularly enamored with books or dusty artifacts. Creepy graveyard tours will excite Ghostbusters wannabes, art lovers will revel in the many museums, foodies will find Heaven on Earth in fine New England eateries, movie buffs will enjoy the many film settings, and the mischievous among us will get a kick out of trying to make Plimoth Plantation actors break character. There’s so much to see and do!

Secondly, of course, a tour of the United States’ roots provides a rich educational opportunity. Experience this region’s history, government, art, geography, marine life, architecture, music and more in real life, and you’ll never see them the same way again. Take your kids on a trip like this, and they’ll have to try to fail social studies tests in the future. There’s just nothing like reading original documents or seeing historical sites in person.

Points of Interest on an East Coast History Tour

When touring the East Coast, why not start where the Revolutionary War began? Boston is not only the birthplace of the American Revolution, but it’s also a great northerly point to start at so you can work your way south. You can see pretty much all of Boston’s history if you take the Freedom Trail. Squint your eyes a bit, and you can almost block out the rush of traffic to imagine 18th Century crowds moving through the cobbled streets. The urban path leads past nearly twenty historic sites, including Boston Common, Granary Burying Ground, old North Church, and the USS Constitution. Don’t forget to see where the Boston Tea Party took place at Boston Harbor. If you want to enjoy some scientific excursions, the MIT Museum and Boston Aquarium are rather impressive. Of course, you can’t leave Massachusetts without a visit to the settlers and Natives at Plimoth Plantation.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Heading south from Boston, you can stop in Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park in Connecticut on your way to New York City. Once in NYC, you’ll have to pick your favorite attractions! I recommend bypassing the Statue of Liberty to tour Ellis Island, although if you’re short on time, you can view both from a distance by taking the Statin Island Ferry across the harbor. If your heart is set on seeing a Broadway play while you’re in Manhattan, you can keep with your historic theme by getting tickets to Hamilton. Of course, you can’t miss the chance to get a glimpse of the Chrysler Building, the Flatiron Building, or the Brooklyn Bridge, but don’t forget to have some fun on the century-old Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster.

View of Ellis Island

Philadelphia, Delaware and D.C. Sites

Emerge from the lightning-speed pace of New York City life into the antique air of historic Philadelphia. Thanks to National Treasure, you might already be pretty familiar with the major attractions: The Liberty Bell, Washington Square, Old City Hall, and Independence Hall. Depending on your interests, you might also like Battleship New Jersey or Morris Arboretum.

Delaware, as the nation’s first state, certainly deserves a quick visit, which can be achieved with a visit to Fort Delaware. From there, head to Washington, D.C., where you’ll wish you had more time to explore, no matter how long you stay. Where do you even begin? Well, the National Mall is a good place to start. You can burn a lot of calories walking from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Capitol, and the various Smithsonian Museums. You might not have time for all the Smithsonian Museums, but you can pick your favorites. I was a fan of the Air and Space Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. After all that walking, you can try to spot senators while refueling at some of the fancier restaurants, like 1789, a popular institution named for the year the Constitution was adopted and offering an 18th-Century experience. If you can plan ahead, book a tour of the White House or your representative’s office. Finally, end your road trip with a jaunt down to George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon in Virginia.

When you walk the streets of the historic East Coast, the past comes alive! Next time you open an American history book or watch a documentary, you’ll be able to say that you were there. From the centuries-old brick of Boston to the sprawling countryside of Virginia, there’s no better way to learn about the roots of American culture.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

East Coast History Road Trip Benjamin Franklin gestured dramatically toward the moldering gravestone of the Revolutionary War soldier. “And then,” he proclaimed, pausing for effect, “He killed ‘im dead!” Twelve adults and a handful of children stared at him wide-eyed as he finished the dramatic account of the Yankee soldier’s death.

[cathrynstreich]

A House to Build a Dream On

Bob and Laura Keane’s Nantucket Getaway Delivers a Promise for Generations to Come

For Bob and Laura Keane, it’s all about family; cookouts on the beach with happy kids splashing in the surf, the annual family tennis tournament and generations of extended family simply spending time together.

It’s why the Connecticut-based Keanes have vacationed in Nantucket, the popular island south of Cape Cod, Mass., for nearly 20 summers, and it’s the rock-solid reason they made the decision to build their dream home there now.

“We fell in love with Nantucket from the first moment we saw it in 1992,” says Laura. “We vacationed there every summer for years, and our kids—Maxx, Chelsea and Sam—were still living at home when we had the opportunity to buy our first vacation home there back in 2009.”

The kids grew up on the island’s beaches and still work in its lively tourist trade. For years, their five-bedroom, mid-island summer home seemed like second-to-heaven. But with the three Keane children and their large circle of friends, plus Laura’s nine siblings and their families, and a close-knit clan of extended family who have open invitations to join them, the Nantucket getaway was soon creating memories for more people than it could comfortably hold.

“Then, two years ago, we found a two-acre lot that seemed to have our name on it,” Bob explains. “It’s on a private road, fairly secluded, about a mile from the ocean, and it seemed like the ideal spot to build the dream home we wanted—our legacy for the generations to come.”

Keane, a reinsurance broker, and his wife Laura envisioned multi-functional open living spaces and an oversized eat-in kitchen, with a master bedroom on the main floor, three en-suite bedrooms in an upstairs wing, a finished basement with a bunkroom and a separate two-bedroom cottage equipped to host an ever-growing guest list.

Determined to get the plans right, they interviewed several architects. Ultimately, they placed their faith in Nantucket architect Ethan Griffin.

Griffin, a senior architect at Chip Webster Architecture, has been custom designing Nantucket homes for years, and is well-acquainted with the needs and restrictions of building in the historic island district. More than that, Griffin connected instantly with the Keanes’ decisive vision.

“I saw right away that for this family,” says Griffin, “it was more about lifestyle than luxury—about hanging out in comfortable spaces and enjoying nature and one another.”

It was also a whole lot of fun.

“The Keanes’ lot sits among wooded pines, surrounded by conservation land and winding walking trails, and it was clear from the outset that the family wanted to maximize the area’s natural grace and serenity,” Griffin says. “They have a lively, energetic vibe, and they are open to new ideas. Very quickly, we meshed as a team and we set about designing their dream home.”

Ideas took shape and initial designs were examined, evaluated and improved. Amazingly, in just under three months, the final plans were approved—a contemporary casual family compound featuring a sprawling, 6,000-square-foot main house with an adjoining cottage, a tennis court and a gym, and plenty of lawn space with lots of seating and a massive barbecue and fire pit.

“Our annual fishing trip is a long-standing family tradition,” notes Bob. “We want to be able to cook up the catch and enjoy it together outdoors in a comfortable, private setting.”

As with any project, there was a budget in place, and Griffin wondered, for a time, if he could manage to stay within the Keanes’ budget and still deliver the desired custom woodwork and other high-end amenities.

Enter Nantucket builder Frank Daily.

A true labor of love, Bob and Laura Keane’s Nantucket getaway blends easily into its natural island setting.

A leader in island renovations and home construction since 1997, Daily and his crew of craftsmen are committed to meeting the most meticulous specifications while preserving the area’s culture and integrity—and to doing it while staying on budget. Like Griffin, he tuned in early to the contagious Keane vibe and quickly became a part of the team.

“The Keanes wanted the sand in their feet. They envisioned an indoor/outdoor flow built for comfort and convenience, where people can feel at home,” Daily says. “They’re into beautiful but functional, a low-key lifestyle with high-end touches, and that’s exactly what we built.”

It helped that the Keanes’ initial Nantucket home sold within the first two weeks on market.

“It’s a unique property even on this island full of lovely homes—four stories of living space including a finished basement, and lovingly decorated in the fun, beachy style that Laura appreciates,” says Bernadette Meyer who, with partner Craig Hawkins of Maury People Sotheby’s International Realty, was selected to represent the sale.

The home sold, fully furnished and at top dollar for the market, to a family as eager to enjoy its amenities as the Keanes had been for years.

Friends and family can hang out in comfort while enjoying nature—and one another.

“It was as smooth a transaction as I’ve ever seen,” says co-agent Hawkins. “Bernadette and I are proud and happy to have been part of the Keane dream team.”

The Keanes’ new home blends easily into its natural setting on the island. Its cohesive, traditional farmhouse design, complete with porch and dormer windows, features unique elements like a practical “beach room”—the Nantucket equivalent of an inland mud room—and a casual, welcoming vibe.

Laura, whose discerning eye helped to make the family’s former getaway such a highly prized commodity, worked with interior designer Julie Furey, owner of Julians Interiors in Madison, Conn., to ensure the new home carries the same unerring style and ambience.

Furey, who has worked with the Keanes before in both Nantucket and Connecticut, is familiar with the family’s taste and lifestyle, and is happily in tune with their vision.

“We went for clean lines, light, beachy colors, and a contemporary, nautical ambience that reflects the Nantucket environment,” she says. “We wanted a cool palette and a light, airy feel that inspires relaxation and leisure.”

One of the challenges of working on an island, Furey explains, is getting furnishings that have been selected on the mainland delivered in a timely manner. “Nantucket is a three-hour trek from the mainland, including a one-hour ferry ride out of Hyannis,” she notes.  “It’s hard to create an ‘instant house’ when pieces of your design are still missing.”

Neither was it easy to manage a huge project from 200 miles away. But the Keanes were both pleased and patient.

“We’ve been lucky to be working with an amazing team,” says Laura. “I can’t think of a thing we would have done differently.”

The family, she says, built much more than a home. “It’s a special place where all the members of our extended family and friends will continue to gather for generations to come.”

And this past summer, the Keanes put the design and quality of the home to the test, comfortably hosting up to 19 people at once. According to the couple, “We are very happy with the decisions we made throughout the process, and the various people we worked with to help make our dream come true.”

For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.

The post A House to Build a Dream On appeared first on RISMedia.

A House to Build a Dream On published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

[goldeagleprice]

Letters to the Editor (August 14, 2018)

No trouble ordering 2018 reverse proof silver set

I just ordered one of the reverse proof sets from the U.S. Mint. I waited until they were on sale for a couple of hours to avoid the initial rush. I had no trouble at all in placing my order. So if this is going to be a sell out, it hasn’t happened yet.

Peter Glassman Address withheld

  Saved by telephone when ordering reverse proof

I had written before, and you counseled I’d do better to try to order the reverse proof set today online. I’m not great online. Just offering feedback, because I know everyone writes in with their gripes about the Mint.

I had prepared for today, setting up an online Mint account on Saturday with a new password or setting up one, who knows. They had my credit card number, too. Went through my dress rehearsal for the sale today.

There were times before noon where the Mint’s Live chat wasn’t available. All hands on deck. This may sound simplistic, but when I was able to get through on the chat before noon, a rep wrote to click the blue button to get the red button or wish list to something.

Once noon hit, I think it was all red like “order.”

I was proud of myself to get to their Step 4 and kept clicking and clicking and clicking. That wheel goes around and around to no avail.

What’s interesting is somewhere in that process I had clicked so many times, I was up to the maximum quantity of 10 when I really didn’t want (them). I was able to lower the quantity, but the dollar amount never changed. It was up to over $500. Many may think this funny, but a good thing there was a max of 10 because I would have maxxed out my credit card or worse.

I went up to the librarian reference desk, and it turns out this library has a courtesy phone. After going up and down between the floors from the computer to the phone, I finally got through to the Mint on the phone and ordered at 1 p.m.

Don’t ask me. I’m not great with computers. Process is insane. There are more important things in life than a reverse proof set!

Name withheld

  Roll searching rewarded by Indian Head cent find

So true to keep checking change and rolls of coins from the bank.

I was checking rolls of pennies I got from the bank. Looking at the third roll I received from the bank, and there it was, a 1904 Indian Head penny in Fine condition. I could not believe it!

So keep checking change and rolls of coins!

Name withheld Connecticut

  Apostle Islands quarter shows up in change

Today (July 3) at Walgreens I received my first 2018-D Apostle Islands quarter. My other coins were a 2018-D cent, a 2017-D dime and a 2016-D Harpers Ferry quarter. All new coins.

Name withheld Yucca Valley, Calif.

  Received three new quarters at restaurants

Today (July 3) at lunch I recieved three Voyageur quarters, Philly Mint, in change. I chatted with the manager about the possibility of buying a roll from the resturaunt, but he wasn’t keen on that idea and said his change came from Brinks. Oh well, I’m happy with my three new shinies!

Happy Independence Day! Thank God for our continued Liberty and Prosperity!

Jay Woodin Address withheld

  Nice collectible 2017-P cent prompts thoughts of future

I recently bought a 2017 one-cent coin with the “P” mintmark. I thought it would be a nice collectible due to it being the first time the Philadelphia mint has stamped the “P” mintmark on a coin, and I think the U.S. government will and should stop making the one-cent (penny) coin. It makes no sense (pun intended) to keep making it. It cost the government 1.8 cents to make a one-cent coin.

Canada has already stopped making their one-cent coin because it is too expensive to make.

What are your thoughts?

Jeff Dougan Pinole, Calif.

  Would Ben Franklin appreciate it?

Our hobby has few literary items that bring a chortle let alone a guffaw when money is involved. When I was a child collector in the early 1950s, I was told the following imaginary story by a playmate’s father. It took me a few moments to “get” the non-literal meaning of coin-saving wisdom.

Find The Pecuniary Proverb

Ben, a boy of 11 or 12, was looking through old things stored in the attic by his parents and came upon a large assemblage of very tall hollowware in the form of pitchers, vases, ewers, flasks, flagons, jugs and crocks in an amazing assortment of shapes.

He went to his mother for an explanation of their source and purpose. She confided to her son that they were the product of the family curse and that the time has come to alert him of a crockery future if he did not heed her warning.

Ben was taken aback, as his mother said that those ceramic containers are transformed male members of his family who did not believe the admonition that if they ever removed their beard when they reached manhood, they would be converted into pottery, as when Odysseus’ men were turned to stone when they looked at the face of the Gorgon Medusa.

Ben was too young to understand the literary reference but feared its threat.

Not much later he did grow a beard and let it expand. He tucked it into his shirt, and then around his girth, finally down each leg of his pants until he could stand it no longer and went to his mom to be consoled.​ After all, dating was impossible. His mom reiterated the warning and again advised abstinence, to Ben’s great dismay.

Foreseeing an unconsummated future, he,​ ​in a panic, ran to the bathroom medicine cabinet, withdrew the electric razor and cleared his face and neck of hair with a sense of emancipation.

POOF, there was now standing in his place a magnificent amphora, resplendent with images of figures and achievements that would never be his.

The moral of this tale: A Benny shaved is a Benny urned.

Jack Rosenfeld San Francisco

  Salute to late California coin collector

Frank J. Strazzarino (1921-2018) recently passed away. While not among the towering greats of our hobby, Frank for over 70 years was a passionate collector, an old-school one, who along with coins ran model trains, enjoyed other collectibles, and had a dedication for the Golden Gate International Exposition, the famous Treasure Island 1939 and 1940 fair on an artificial island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

Frank and I twice shared our GGIE passion in two presentations, first in Vallejo, Calif., at the esteemed rare book assemblage, The McCune Collection, and then during the August 2005 America Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in San Francisco. Of course, while we battled and bantered back and forth, the attendees know, in the end, Frank would win: he as a 17-year-old attended GGIE. One of his treasured keepsakes was a black-and-white Kodak snapshot of him and his mother with the Exposition’s Tower of Sun in the background.

His devotion to organized numismatics was his long membership and service in most all positions for the august Pacific Coast Numismatic Society. RIP, Frank.

Michael S. Turrini Vallejo, Calif.

  This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

  More Collecting Resources

• Are you a U.S. coin collector? Check out the 2019 U.S. Coin Digest for the most recent coin prices.

• Order the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues to learn about circulating paper money from 14th century China to the mid 20th century.

The post Letters to the Editor (August 14, 2018) appeared first on Numismatic News.

[newingtonnow]

Savin Rock Park: “Connecticut’s Coney Island”

Savin Rock Park was a seaside resort constructed in the late 19th century in the modern-day town of West Haven. Known as “Connecticut’s Coney Island,” Savin Rock Park brought together peoples of all classes and ethnicities in the name of fun and entertainment. The park’s long-lasting success made it a model for many of the state’s current amusement attractions. Credit for its development belongs primarily to one man, Colonel George Kelsey.

Civil War Veteran Makes Fun on the Waterfront

Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Brown and friends at Savin Rock, West Haven, 1906 – Connecticut Historical Society and Connecticut Historical Society

Kelsey served with the 6th Regiment of the Connecticut Volunteers during the Civil War. An entrepreneur at heart, Kelsey spent his postwar years buying a controlling interest in a horse-drawn trolley system located in the current town of West Haven. He supplemented his transportation interests by building a 1,500-foot pier out into Long Island Sound that was capable of accommodating ferry service regardless of the height of the tides. With his transportation infrastructure in place, Kelsey began developing attractions to bring visitors to the area.

The attractions started with the construction of the Sea View Hotel, a Victorian mansion capable of housing 150 wealthy guests. Kelsey then built a park alongside the hotel and encouraged local businessmen to use his property for providing amusements for his guests. Soon there was a small zoo, museum, and a dance hall on the property. As his operation grew, Kelsey added gardens, a fountain, a bandstand, and numerous small food and souvenir stands.

World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago Provides Added Inspiration

Postcard of the Electric Tower, White City, Savin Rock – Connecticut Historical Society

As was the case with other parks of this era, the Connecticut amusement also drew inspiration from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Exposition’s Court of Honor, popularly known as the “White City” for its Classical-style, white-stuccoed structures, served as the model for a section of Savin Rock. Like its Chicago counterpart, Savin Rock’s White City featured a tower adorned with electric lights that lit up the night and a miniature train that took visitors on a short tour of the park.

Word rapidly spread about the attractions at Savin Rock and it was not long before the park drew in visitors from all over New York and New England. In addition, the factory workers who poured into New Haven in the early 20th century helped expand the park’s clientele to members of all classes. By this time, Savin Rock treated visitors to bumper cars, a miniature golf course, a roller coaster, and automobile stunt shows.

Problems at the Park

Operating the park was not without its challenges, however. In 1932, police raided Savin Rock Park, confiscating games and arresting 30 men for gambling. In 1938, a hurricane destroyed the giant pier that reached out into Long Island Sound. By far the biggest threat to the park, however, came from fire.

Fire victimized Savin Rock Park on a regular basis. A grease fire destroyed three buildings on the grounds in 1914. On June 11, 1932, an electrical fire caused over $100,000 in damages. Additional fires destroyed Savin Rock’s White City and, in 1951, its wax museum.

The End of an Era

In the 1960s, the era of Savin Rock Park came to an end. The growth of television and automobile travel helped facilitate its demise. In addition, urban redevelopment initiatives, like the building of General Electric’s Gold Medallion Village apartments nearby, signaled a change in American business practices. Developers saw the valuable land at Savin Rock as a potential source for year-round revenue, instead of the seasonally-limited business generated by the park. Ultimately the park’s carved flying horses and penny arcade machines made way for apartment buildings and shopping centers.

from Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project https://connecticuthistory.org/savin-rock-park-connecticuts-coney-island/

[bryanthatcher]

That time I took the Cross Sound Ferry #tbt

Long Island to Connecticut at sunset, This is the Peck Ledge Light that sits surrounded by water. The shot is from September 2007.

[dellabellaphotography]

Seaside Branford House Groton, Ct. Wedding Photography

Mandy & Mark contacted me in July 2016 for their Spring wedding at Branford House in Groton,Ct. Mandy lives in Rhode Island and Mark in Long Island, so they took quite a few ferry rides across the sound to see each other. These two we’re such a delight to work for and I would like to thank you both for including me on your wedding day!

The Branford house ins located in Groton, Connecticut on the campus of Uconn Avery Point, which rents it out for events. Branford House was built in 1902 for Morton Freeman Plant, a local financier and philanthropist, as his summer home; he named it after his hometown of Branford,Connecticut.

When built in 1902, Branford House cost $3 million – an incredible sum of money at the time. Plant shunned the high society of Newport and chose instead the wide views of Long Island Sound available at Avery Point. Here are some samples from Mandy and Mar’s wedding day at this gorgeous location!

  Candids Flower Girls

Candids

Maids of Honor

Maids of Honor

Candid Wedding Photography

Candid Wedding Photography

Candid Wedding Photography