TheRealTamara

Near the 59th St Bridge

The 59th Street Bridge, renamed for former Mayor Ed Koch these many years, will always be 59th to me.

The tram heading for Roosevelt Island was packed today.

This cinema marquee, boldly marking I know not what now, caught my eye as I passed.

Still not sure what the marquee advertises. [That’s disingenuous, it’s a fitness place. I even looked it up ex-post facto.]

Shots In Twos

This is the cutest ice cream truck I ever saw.

Preparatory stairs, the frame is set for the ascent.

A Jacob Lawrence painting that, I am told, is not his famed work, although he was prodigious and worked in a variety of styles.

A view from the corner of 86th and York, facing East

Doubling up on sunsets.

Pigeon prancing and preening

In addition to these threats or are they warnings, to bus passengers, there was a recurring message on a screen. We were told that Fares are Required. MTA officials and the NYPD would make sure we paid up.

We have come to shrug off the Transit Watch alert.

The reminder that assault on a bus driver might be a felony seems superfluous. I believe any assault is considered felonious.

I assume the security cameras are there to enforce the warnings.

There, that covers that!

Introduction

There is a gallery off the main drag at the Guggenheim which is displaying a variety of artists. You will find Picassos you had never expected.

The Jacob Lawrence was also a surprise to me. In fact, I had not seen his work before. Thanks, S, for sending me the link to Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration: An American Story.

Madison walk

I think GENTILE’s [which is now on 84th] was somewhere on 67th **years ago**. When Burt and I bought pears, the *patrone* helped us pick the ripest.

Torn up roadways waiting for tar. Interesting frieze on this building.

UES

Automat

There was an Automat left in New York within living memory.

That’s an expression, I have not used ever before but I do like it.

My living memory, as around the 1970s or perhaps 1980s, when it could be found on 3rd Avenue and 42nd Street. Circa that same era, the Horn and Hardart chain was still on or around Broadway in the 40s.

I enjoyed a cream cheese on a dark pumpernickel raisin bread.

That was the signature Horn and Hardart sandwich.

There were other beloved dishes on their menu. The offerings at the Automat were simpler and also complicated by those little compartments.

I have no recollection of dining at any Automat. The sign, above, is a cry for nostalgia at my new, local dumpling shop on 78th. It mimics the Automat delivery system.

It’s not too late to get in on that Automat experience, I guess.