11-11-11: The most important date in history, EVER (for Corduroy, that is)

Today, November 11, 2011, is significant in a few ways. It's Veterans Day, the U.S. presidential election is less than a year away, and it's Calista Flockhart's 47th birthday. But for the Corduroy Appreciation Club of New York City, this day is the most sacred day ever. Formed several years ago, the Club "wishes to cultivate good fellowship by the advancement of Corduroy awareness, as well as, understanding, celebration, and commemoration of the fabric and all related items. Club events are held on dates which incorporate, resemble or refer to Corduroy," according to their mission statement. These dates would be January 11 (1-11) and November 11 (11-11), and this year being 2011, well, you just can't get a more Corduroy-resembling date than 11-11-11. Today, the Club will convene at the Desmond Tutu Center refectory on 10th Avenue (what, no 11th Avenue locations available?) where the following activities will occur, according to their website:

• Dark Secret Rituals (No photography please)
• Presentation of Awards for Exemplary Usage of Corduroy
• Awards for Best Dressed
• A person (to be determined, and of some gravitas) to deliver a keynote address
• Installation of Corduroy Messiah (child – still at large! – that shall turn 11 on 111111)
• Singing, Dancing and Poetry inspired by Corduroy
• An open bar with Beer and Wines
• Additional epic and historic things

The 3 Item Rule (3 items of Corduroy must be worn to be admitted) will be strictly enforced and the meeting will adjourn, auspiciously, at 11:11 pm (natch).

We would like to wish the Club a "cord"-ual congratulations and hope they will celebrate a-"cord"-ingly and re-"cord" their ceremony for posterity.

Here's a video that the great Bill Geist of CBS Sunday Morning did last year:

Pools of sorrow, waves of joy: New York City's Strawberry Fields and The Dakota

The Dakota's most famous residents in 1980 (photo by Allen Tannenbaum)...

...and the building as it looks today.

At one time, the Lennons owned the top floor with the iron balconies (at least that's what one of the natives told me).

The Lennons were first introduced to the Dakota through an apartment they sublet from tough-guy actor Robert Ryan.

Its exteriors were also used in the 1968 horror movie "Rosemary's Baby".

Strawberry Fields is across the street from The Dakota and has this lovely mosaic which was donated by the city of Naples, Italy.

A crowd of people stood and stared.

Lennon's activist spirit lives on in this political button kiosk at the entrance to Strawberry Fields.

Photographer Bob Gruen bought this now famous t-shirt for $5 at a souvenir stand, cut the sleeves off and asked Lennon to put it on for this iconographic 1974 photo.

Gruen also shot this famous photo. Kinda nice to see John acting like a tourist. Also love the ironic "Keep off grass" sign, since the U.S. Government tried to deport him for marijuana procession.

John Lennon loved New York City. His residence for the last seven years of his life was the famous 1880s co-op apartment building on New York's Upper West Side called The Dakota. It is believed that the building got its name because its original owner, a Mr. Edward Clark, had a fondness for the new western territories of the United States at that time. Many famous people have lived there, including Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Leonard Bernstein, Jack Palance and Boris Karloff. Just being famous isn't enough to get you in these days, though, as Billy Joel, Gene Simmons and Antonio Banderas have all been turned down by the board. Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, got into the building through an apartment they sublet from actor Robert Ryan ("The Wild Bunch") and eventually bought a floor of apartments in the building. Sadly, the building got worldwide notoriety when Lennon was shot and killed by a crazed fan in the Dakota's entry way in 1980. To honor Lennon, and with the financial help of Yoko, the city created a memorial area out of 2.5 acres of Central Park directly across from the Dakota. The centerpiece is a mosaic with the word "Imagine" inlaid that fans and tourists can visit and remember Lennon by. It's a nice place and was surprisingly crowded on the April Sunday when we visited. Nothing to get hungabout, though.

The horns of a dilemma: New York City's Duke Ellington Blvd.

The legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington made New York City his home for many years and when he died, the city renamed West 106th Street Duke Ellington Boulevard in his honor (he lived in a townhouse on the corner of 106th and Riverside Drive). Having said that, it seems rather ironic that a "No horn blowing" sign sits right below his street marker. Duke Ellington without horn blowing is like New York City without the A train (although we actually rode up on the number 1). Kind of puts you in a mood indigo, but then again I don't get around much anymore.

Bang, zoom! New York City's Ralph Kramden statue

Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden: Bus Driver, Raccoon Lodge Treasurer, Dreamer

How sweet it is that the folks at the TV Land network would erect an 8-foot statue of the great Jackie Gleason as lovable loser Ralph Kramden from "The Honeymooners" in front of New York City's Port Authority bus station, where 7000 buses arrive and depart every day. Kramden drove the Madison Avenue bus for the Gotham Bus Company and he was always coming up with get rich schemes that would ultimately fail, usually in concert with his dimwitted pal Norton (Art Carney) and much to the chagrin of his long-suffering practical wife Alice (Audrey Meadows). The "classic 39" half-hour black and white episodes are from 1955-56, but "The Honeymooners" existed in sketch form on Gleason's variety show before this and they continued on Gleason's other shows and specials on into the 1970s. At the statue, I was a little annoyed with one fellow who appeared to be in no mood to move off his perch in order to let an out of town eccentric roadside attraction fan snap a few unfettered portraits, but I didn't say anything, fearing all that would come out would be a Gleasonesque "homina, homina. homina." I would have liked to have debated which is the better "Honeymooners" episode -- "The Chef of the Future" or "The Man from Space" -- but he just didn't seem that approachable. Oh well. So, here's to you, Ralph...baby, you're the greatest.

Tripping the lights fantastic: New York City neon

The trend these days in well-lit places like Times Square and the Las Vegas Strip seems to be toward big screen projection signs and less about old-fashioned neon, but give me the bent gaseous tubes any day. Luckily, there's still plenty of neon to be admired and gawked at in the Big Apple. We were in New York for a couple of days and I couldn't get enough of the bright lights just within a block or two of our mid-Manhattan hotel. They barely scratch the surface of all the great neon New York has to offer that you could spend weeks photographing. To me there are no bad neon signs. I love them all... the perfectly maintained ones, all bright and glowy; the older ones beginning to fade with age; and the sad ones with letters burned out pining for their glory days. Start spreading the news.

Dog Day Afternoon: Three Wienermobiles in Times Square, New York

George Molchan as Little Oscar in the 1950s.

The first Wienermobile, 1936.

New York City's Times Square is a too-much-is-never-enough kind of place and one of the few places where an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile seems small. What's a luncheon meat marketing department to do? Park three of them there! Among the towering neon and hustle and bustle of tourists and grifters, we spotted "Our Dog" and "Big Bun," two traditional Wienermobiles, and "Lil Link," a Mini Cooper adapted into a much smaller version of the classic hot dog vehicle. They were a little hard to photograph because the place is so thick with Wienermobile-loving people flocking to get their photo opportunity with an oversized motorized frankfurter. Oscar Mayer premiered the Wiernermobile in 1936 and has updated the design several times since then, although today's models still have a certain swoopy Jetsons design quality about them. For three decades, they employed height-challenged actor George Molchan, dressed as a chef, to portray Little Oscar, the company mascot, and travel the country in the Wienermobile spreading company recognition and bologna-friendly goodwill (when he died, 50 mourners sang a chorus of the Oscar Mayer jingle at his burial as the Wienermobile was parked nearby). I'll be frank with you, it was a thrill to see those Wienermobiles, and that's no baloney.

Ernest Borgnine: Hamden, Connecticut's hometown hero

Ernie's Hamden park is in the Stop & Shop parking lot.

I grew up in the town of Hamden, Connecticut, a suburb to the north of New Haven. It was a nice place to be a kid and has a lot going for it as a town. A few famous people are from Hamden, including Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, and Thornton Wilder, author of Our Town. And Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson went to elementary and junior high school in Hamden. But I'd like to focus on my favorite Hamden native, Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine. Ernie, as his friends know him and who isn't a friend of Ernest Borgnine, was born in 1917 and lived in Hamden, North Haven and New Haven, Connecticut before serving in the Navy for 10 years and then hitting it big in show biz, first with a supporting role in From Here To Eternity and then starring in Marty, his Academy Award winning performance. He's played hundreds of parts but is perhaps best known as lovable Commander Quentin McHale in TV's McHale's Navy. Ernie never forgot where he came from and makes frequent trips back to his home town. He's 92 but looks and acts like he's in his 60s. Hamden honored him in 2005 with a small piece of land in the corner of a shopping plaza parking lot. Ernest Borgnine Park sits at the intersection of busy Dixwell and Putnam Avenues, and while it's nice, it would be even nicer if they had a statue or some sort of explanation as to who Ernie is (although, I suppose, if you're Ernest Borgnine, you don't need an introduction). I read that there was a path somewhere in town with a sign calling it Ernest Borgnine Way but it was later replaced with a sign that says "Please clean up after your dog."

The Borgnine Wall of Fame at New York City's Tortilla Flats

The Borgnine Booth

Patron artwork of Ernie

It's a nice place to get a burrito, too.

They're crazy about Ernie at a Mexican restaurant in New York City, too. Tortilla Flats, on Washington Street near West 12th, has a shrine to Ernie around the fabled Borgnine booth, where Ernie has sat. Once a year they have an Ernie festival, where contestants compete in a Marty line-reading contest (a pair of English twins won one year). Why they are so wild about Ernie isn't exactly clear except, well, why not? Ernie is a living legend and a real nice guy. Check out this segment CBS Sunday Morning did about it:



Also, check out the Tortilla Flats website: http://www.tortillaflatsnyc.com/index_home.html and always remember the importance of being Ernest.

New York City's Rice To Riches: You're pudding me on!

A nice compliment to New York City's Peanut Butter & Co. (see below) is Rice To Riches, a dessert emporium in Manhattan's SoHo district at 37 Spring Street between Mott and Mulberry Streets, that sells rice pudding and only rice pudding. And why not? Rice pudding, that venerable childhood treat, is a gift from God (or some really nice person if you're a non-believer). It's creamy, it's smooth, it's vanilla, it's rice. Four great things that go great together. But this being New York City, epicurean capital of the solar system, they couldn't possibly offer just vanilla pudding on the menu. On any given day, they've got twenty or more gourmet flavors, including Almond Shmalmond, The Milk Chocolate Only Rings Twice, Don Cappucino, and Coconut Coma. And since no self-respecting rice pudding connoisseur takes his Sex Drugs and Rocky Road naked, they also offer a bevy of gourmet toppings including oatmeal coconut crumble, buttery graham cracker blanket, and "tender loving" jelly. The place has an ultra-chic interior, in keeping with the SoHo it's-so-expensive-art-galleries-can't-afford-the-rents-here-anymore location. Leave it to The Big Apple to make a humble thing like rice pudding a can't-miss event. Here's their website: http://www.ricetoriches.com/frameset.php?content=/startpage.php