31 December 2016. Another Gotham Institution Bites the Dust… Carnegie Deli is No More… Owner Mum on How Much Developer Gave Them to Sell-Out

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Read this. Let’s cut to the chase… it seems that the place was still making money… a lot of it. However, it seems that the owner wanted to kick back and not work as much. There’s more to this than is immediately apparent. It seems to me that the owner wants to franchise the name and sit back and enjoy the profits. Yet, who outside of NYC knows or cares about a deli knockoff that isn’t the original real deal? Let’s face it… one reason that they could charge 20 bucks a pastrami sandwich was that Woody Allen ate there, along with other B’way notables. That’s not going to to be the case elsewhere. The concept might fly in Vegas… or LA … or at the Garden. Anyplace else? It wouldn’t fly in Peoria (certainly not in Indy, where you can get an awesome pastrami at Shapiro’s for 13 bucks)!

This smells like a big-money deal for the building that it’s in and the owner wanted the bucks more than the business. This wasn’t a death… it was a suicide…

BMD

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Sputnik International Presents… Happy New Year 2015: Highlights from Around the World

Revellers engulfed by confetti in Times Square just after midnight during New Year’s Eve festivities in New York (Borough of Manhattan. New York County) NY USA.

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Revellers play in spent confetti along a street after midnight in Times Square in New York.

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People gather on the Champs Élysées in Paris (Département de Paris. Région Île-de-France) FRANCE before celebrating the New Year.

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In wishing their relatives and friends a good year and good health, the French say, “Bonne année et bonne santé”.

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An old-fashioned Chinese junk sails in Victoria Harbour before the New Year fireworks in Hong Kong PRC on 31 December 2014.

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People gather to celebrate the New Year at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju (Gyeonggi Province), north of Seoul (Special City of Seoul) ROK.

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On New Year’s Day in Korea, believers try to recall their past lives and go to temples to pray for happiness. They also light candles which symbolise enlightened souls.

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The Japanese pay special attention to New Year food traditions. They prepare dishes of seaweed, sweet potato, soybeans, and fish cakes. Another cherished custom is giving money to children in special envelopes, known as otoshidama.

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Men ride on a portable Shinto shrine (mikoshi) as local people carry it into the sea during a festival to wish for calm waters in the ocean and good fortune in the New Year in Oiso (Naka District. Kanagawa Prefecture. Greater Tokyo Area. Kantō Region) JAPAN, west of Tokyo proper.

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Icelanders celebrate the holiday with their families and set off fireworks at midnight, ushering in the New Year. Musical shows, bonfires, and feasting are also very popular.

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Skating rink on Palace Square, St Petersburg (Federal City of St Petersburg. Northwestern Federal District) RF.

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The main character of Russian New Year is Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost), a wizard who brings presents to children.

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Brazil celebrates New Year with parties and music festivals on the famous Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State. Southeast Region); oceans of people dressed in flashy and colourful clothes flood city streets.

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Brazilian fishermen try to entice the Mother of Waters by going out in their boats with gifts of rice, flowers and even jewellery… which they throw into the sea.

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Italians observe an interesting food custom on New Year. When midnight comes, they eat lentil stew, one spoonful for each stroke of the bell. They believe that brings good fortune.

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Scarcely has New Year arrived, than the English rush to open their back doors to see the old year off. Next, they ask the first dark-haired man they encounter to come in through the front door. Guests should bring salt, coal, and bread, symbolising having enough food, money, and warmth for the next year.

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New Year Celebrations have just taken place all over the globe, engulfing the seven billion people of our planet in a spirit of joy and pleasure, granting them hope for a better year ahead, and leaving behind bad memories and misfortune from the last one. Let’s cast a glance on New Year celebrations from the sun-kissed beaches of Brazil to the shining skies of Iceland. “May your days be as glittery as diamond, may your friends be as good as gold, may your heart stay as green as emerald, and may your soul remain as pure as pearl”. The French celebrate the New Year with a traditional feast that includes crepes, foie gras, and, of course, champagne. When the clock strikes midnight, the French exchange kisses. New Year is clearly the most adored festival of the Chinese calendar, with Hong Kong residents heading to temples to pray for good fortune, followed by pyrotechnic shows and mythological spectacles which light up the city. Koreans celebrate the New Year twice… on 1 January, like the rest of the world, and on the first day of the Korean lunar calendar. In both cases, it’s a major traditional family holiday when Koreans visit their parents and remember their ancestors. In Russia, New Year is the happiest and most cherished family holiday. Ice skating is one of the main activities during the winter holidays.

1 January 2015

Sputnik International

http://sputniknews.com/photo/20150101/1016453014.html

23 November 2014. Veteran’s Day in the Big Apple… Fr Dan from PA is a Vet, Too!

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Hug a vet today! They weren’t responsible for any gnarly political shit. They were blameless… they put their lives on the line. This is what honour is all about. Therefore… how can those who avoided service know the meaning of honour and character? Good question, ain’t it? Honour those who “did the right thing”… as for the others… we needn’t go on, do we? Pour ’em all a slug of the GOOD stuff…

THANK YOU…

BMD

The Secret History of the Anthora Coffee Cup… It Ain’t as Greek as You Thought!

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Fifty years ago, in an attempt to sell more paper cups to the plethora of Greek-owned diners in New York City, the marketing director for the startup Sherri Cup Company created the “Anthora” coffee cup. The cup’s creator, Leslie Buck, was born Laszlo Büch to a Ukranian Jewish family. The Nazis killed his parents, and Leslie himself was a survivor of both Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Featuring the blue and white of the Greek flag, with a classic key pattern, a drawing of an amphora (the Greek vase for which the cup, courtesy of Buck’s thick accent, is named), The New York Times called this cup, “a pop-cultural totem” that was “as vivid an emblem of New York City as the Statue of Liberty”. For many New Yorkers, this simple cup can evoke Proustian memories of streets travelled, early work mornings, and Sunday dog walks. For Buck, it was a long journey from “Work Makes You Free” to “We Are Happy to Serve You”. At our Seder, we lift each cup in remembrance of our journey from slavery to freedom. However, it isn’t freedom from work that we desire… we want the freedom to approach each (caffeine-fuelled) day with the discipline, generosity, and patience necessary to immerse ourselves in work that really matters… to our lives, our communities, and our world. As Marge Piercy wrote, in her poem, To Be of Use:

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along…
…The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

10 April 2014

Eric Schulmiller

Forward

http://forward.com/articles/196060/the-secret-jewish-history-of-the-coffee-cup-starbu/?p=all

Editor:

Who woulda thunk it? That one of the most iconic things in the City doesn’t come from where we think that it did… everybody (including me) thought that the “Greek cup” was just that… say it ain’t so, Joe! However, I did check this out with a Greek friend, and she was just as surprised as I was (she asked an Old School Greek coffee shop owner from Sparta and she got the real deal from him).

Live and learn!

BMD