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Posts Tagged ‘Manhattan’

Why Travel to India IF You Live in New York City?

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2011| 3 Comments »

They don’t call New York City the Capital of the World for nothing…Diversity is Manhattan.  When I first moved to the City, I was amazed at the foreign faces I saw and the myriad languages spoken everywhere.   Now, well I don’t even notice except when a foreign tourist is holding a guide-book or map.  After a while you come to know that (and these are somewhat generalized), most nail salons are run by Koreans, the news stands are manned by Pakistanis or Bangledehis,  the dry cleaners  seem to be Korean and tailors are often Chinese, not to mention the numerous coffee shops throughout the City owned by Greeks and Deli’s owned and run by Indians.  You can also visit the enclave neighborhoods of Jamaicans, Haitians, Italians, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Polish, German, Irish, Hispanic, Romanian, Russian, Thai, Indians and dine on the best  culinary offerings from those countries!

BUT what brings all the countries together in the City are the PARADES! There’s always a parade somewhere.  Today I’m featuring photos from an Indian Festival Parade.  The festival is HOLI;

Holi and the following day, Dhuleti, are known as the Indian Festival of Color. Playing Holi or sharing colors is a highlight of this holiday. Gifts of sweets or Holi colors are common and greeting cards are often sent.

The holiday is observed all over India and celebrates the harvest of the winter crops as it welcomes the beginning of Spring. Holi is called Dol Jatra or Dol Purnima in Bengal, Rangapanchami in Maharashtra, Kamavilas, Kaman Pandugai or Kaman-dahanam in South India.

In Northern India, the Raas-Lila dances celebrate love in the Spring and honor Radha and Krishna. In Southern India, Kamdev, the Love God, and his wife Rati are the focus of the stories and songs.

No matter which part of India the festivals are in or which gods are involved, they are feasts of color and usually involve sprinkling colored waters and gulal, brightly colored powders, on the gods and on the other revellers. Balloons filled with colored waters are splashed on friends and anyone else who happens to be near.

Holi Festival of colors, New York City, parade

Ready to Celebrate

HOLI, Festival of colors, Indian holiday, Indian parade, New York city

Even the drums are colorful

Holi,Dhuleti, New york city, parades in NY, Indian festival of colors

Incredible India

new york city, Indian parade, HOLI, Dhuleti, festival of colors

Celebrate

HOLI, Dhuleti, festival of colors, new york city, Indian parade

Colorful HOLI Dancers

Dhuleti, HOLI, festival of colors, New York city parade, Indian festival

Just Do What I Do

Festival of Colors

Dhuleti, Indian fesstival of colors, new york city

Jumping for Joy

All photos by Murray Head

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Going Green? Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted in BY THE WAY, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Postcard: "St. Patrick's Day Souvenir&quo...

1912 St. Patrick's Day Souvenir

The twelflth reason to celebrate this year is connected to last week’s when I suggested we should celebrate going on a diet  so we could all eat and drink like it was our last meal.  Today’s suggested reason(s) for a celebration are two-fold; Breaking the Diet – we eat and drink like it’s our first meal in a week!  Silly I know, but if you really need a reason to celebrate this is as good as any.   Personally one of my main dieting issues is that I often fantasize about the meal that I’m going to have once I’m off the diet. And that is exactly how you lose 10 pounds and then gain 10 pounds and the yo-yo merry-go-round continues!

Ahhh, but wait this week is a double-barreled opportunity to enjoy yourself;  celebrate with friends, family, and even with strangers as this holiday brings us all  together in the spirit of Erin Go Braugh.


St.Patrick’s Day – Celebration begins around sunrise in Manhattan –  I swear that’s when I hear the first mournful sounds of a bagpipe.  New York City with its 5 boroughs is heavily populated with Irish residents as well as a lot of wannbe Irish (at least for one day a year).  Many of them converge upon Manhattan to march in one of the nation’s most well-attended and colorful parades.   The parade goes on all day and as it ends in the Upper East Side, that particular neighborhood is replete with New York’s Bravest, New York’s Finest, and New York’s Strongest;  bagpipers and marchers – celebrating Erin in a well-lubricated style.

This is the day of the “wearin o’ the green”; Shamrocks and  Sheleighleigh pins, Irish wool cable-knit sweaters, Tam o’ Shanters (originally a Scottish style cap but not when knit in Irish wool),  Tartans, honorary green sashes and the ubiquitous Kiss Me I’m Irish buttons!

It’s a night for partying hard well into the night and of course indulging in a great meal of Irish Stew or Corned Beef and Cabbage, Shepherd’s or Cottage Pie washed down with a pint or two of Guiness or Harp’s

This year I’m not going to be in the City on St. Patrick’s Day and will miss the glorious parade – I LOVE the bagpipes.  But Faith and Begorrah I’m sure I’ll find an Irish bar where I can raise a mug and toast the motherland and eat some corned beef and cabbage.

2010 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City.


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Finley Ray-Mini Manhattan Missy Gets a Mani

Posted in Finley Ray, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , on December 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

How long does it take a two year old to acclimate to her new surroundings? Not very, it seems!! Miss Fin saw the nail salon and wanted to get her nails painted!! YES she did, how outrageous is that?  I love it, she is soooo cute. Definitely her mother’s daughter.

manicure in Manhattan, Finny, Finley Ray Clark, lovie-dovie polish
Her choice? “Lovie-Dovie” of course!

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“What we have here is the failure to communicate”

Posted in BY THE WAY, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , on November 21, 2010| 4 Comments »

Garden State Parkway shield

Image via Wikipedia

I’m living in a world where I am omnipresent-everywhere at all times.  If you can’t reach me on my phone a/k/a house phone now a/k/a my land-line, then you can call me on my cell phone OR you can send me an email on at least two of my three email addresses OR you can text me and I will get it on my blackberry…SO why is there a problem communicating?

That was a rather loosely-connected (sorry for the pun) prologue to what really happened today.  There was a break down in communication BUT not really because I couldn’t be reached.  However, I liked writing that blurb about the absurdity of how connected we all are.

I had to make an overnight food and turkey run to New Jersey so I could pick up my turkey that I am paying $2.65 per lb for in a town that is “kinda” on the way home to New York City while my friend is paying $2.39 per lb for the same brand turkey AND if I had bought it where she did and where I did shop today I would have not had to “race” back to try and get to the City before my daughter did.  She was driving in from Boston with a baby, a baby nurse and a 2 yr. old in tow and I HAD HER KEYS! Not good!!

Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving turkey,

I'd Walk a Mile for this turkey

Here’s the break down in communication – I told my daughter that I needed to use her refrigerator on Sunday when I brought the turkey home and her freezer.  Here’s what I said, ” Will you be home on Sunday or will the key be with the doorman“?  At which point she turns around and gives me the key.  Did I think it was her only key? NO!  Today as we are trading semi-hysterical phone calls while each of us is speeding to Manhattan, she says, “You said the afternoon” – did anything I say sound like afternoon.  Someone doesn’t always listen to whole sentences.   The baby will have to be nursed, Finley will have to be fed and they will be locked out.  Ever the fixer and over-giver I come up with a plan; first I call my friend who has a key to my apartment and ask her to leave it with the  doorman – that will work.  I call Chiara back and suggest she send the car to Queens with her baby nurse so she doesn’t have to park it or park it in her garage and take a cab to my apartment with the kids.  I don’t think she appreciated my suggestion at all because she said she would just have to go to a restaurant and wait for me. Needless to say I asked at least 3 times if she thought the doorman would have a key to the apartment since it was a corporate rental.  “NO” says she and “we’ve been through this before, he doesn’t have a key”!!!

The next glitch came when we left the Orchard and because time was really of the essence, I suggested that we drive north on Rte 18 or Rte 9 and my driver thinks we should stay on Rte 34 till we hit the Garden State Parkway or the NY Thruway. Welllllll as we headed home on Rte 34 we saw a sign for the GSP and so we turned right…right into some beautiful countryside, looked like horse country BUT no Parkway.  About 20 minutes later we finally saw the entrance to the Parkway and I just knew we would never get into the City before she did. Damn it anyway!!!

I said I would call her once I was thru the tunnel and I did and guess what?? She was in her apartment – seems the doorman had a key after all (which I said I thought he would since IT WAS a corporate apartment).  But what do I know?

The other break down occurred when I tried to dash into a beauty supply store to pick up a few things and my card was declined – WHAT??!!!  I’m not even going to go into that issue – I run out of the store and to the car to get another card.  Did I mention there had been a line of people behind me in the store, oh they were thrilled. Back in the store, thrust my American Express at the girl who says, “oh we don’t take American Express”. Well, that’s that – I leave the stuff and as I run out the door, I hear the cashier calling out that she has a void!!!

 

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What’s the Most NON-TRADITIONAL Dish on Your Thanksgiving Dinner Table?

Posted in BY THE WAY, tagged , , , , , , on November 17, 2010| 1 Comment »

Traditional Thanksgiving meal in New England

Image via Wikipedia

It’s time to get you guys more involved in what goes on here…I mean it’s hard sometimes for me to come up with the whole post, it’s holiday time, I have to plan, shop and cook, I have a job and that means I have to be at the office and also out showing apartments…and I’ve been babysitting Finley a lot lately because Mommy and Daddy are running around Manhattan checking out schools and getting checked out themselves.  Soooo now you see why I need to you to participate, contribute and literally help me out.

I’m going to start this off but I’m warning you I don’t think I’ve had too many NON-TRADITIONAL dishes at Thanksgiving over the years.  On the other hand since  I was born as a third generation American of Italian and German heritage, ethnicity did play a role in any holiday meal. Let me think….well when I was a little girl and we would go to my Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, what I remember was not eating any turkey. It’s not that there wasn’t a turkey, at least I think there was, but I don’t remember eating because by the time Grandma served it I was too full.  Why? Because Grandma always served Ravioli first!!! I don’t remember if there were Meatballs and Sausages too, but I wouldn’t be surprised!

Then when I used to spend Thanksgiving dinner with my first husband’s family, there were definitely some traditional to them – NON-TRADITIONAL dishes on that table.  There were a lot of things stuffed besides the turkey;  We had Stuffed Artichokes and Stuffed Mushrooms which were stuffed with basically the same bread stuffing that was in the bird!  Now I can see some of you trying to picture this because in your house the stuffing was probably made with cubes of crouton-like bread and how do you get a cube into an artichoke leaf?  Physics dictate you can’t and you can’t!  But my mother-in-law’s stuffing basically  consisted of grated Italian bread crumbs, grated Parmesan cheese and chicken broth.  She did add a small amount of sauteed onion and celery but not enough to alter the consistency of the dressing which was pretty much porridge-like – now you see how you could mush it into the artichokes and plop it on top of the mushrooms?

Then there were several years when I spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Marian and my cousins in New Jersey.  Dinner was fairly traditional  in  that there were Mashed Potatoes, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Creamed Onions, Turnips…and Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage. My uncle was German and hence the cabbage.

Over the last several years I’ve kept a pretty traditional Thanksgiving table with tweaking the standards and adding other vegetable sides, keeping the desserts traditional-well traditional for my family anyway.  I’m saying that because as I’m typing I realize that I often make a Pumpkin Cheesecake as well as a Pumpkin Pie. That’s a tradition I kept from my mother-in-law and it is dee-lish-us!

And now it’s your turn.  Let’s hear what NON-TRADITIONAL dishes have become a tradition at your Thanksgiving Dinner table.  You can comment or feel free to email me at pbenjaytoo@gmail.com

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New York City – Urban Aviary???

Posted in BY THE WAY, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2010| 1 Comment »

I’ve been living in New York City for a long time and I admit that I don’t spend a lot of time in Central Park. So when I heard a beautiful bird song the other day, I stopped dead in my tracks.  It was a clear sweet sound and then it abruptly changed.  A lyrical trilling followed and then a distinct chirping… I couldn’t believe my ears but it sure sounded like a Mockingbird. Further investigation into a bush-like tree along the sidewalk and sure enough it was a Mockingbird; Peter and I saw the long tail and watched the little throat pulsate and the beak move as this lovely bird sang out.

What a great thrill it was and a surprise too!  Of course I know there are birds in New York City and those that read this blog steadily know I have posted many photos of birds taken by my friend Murray Head. He has shot photos of all kinds of birds from Egrets to Warblers, from Hawks (probably Pale Male) to Herons and Buntings to Thrushes. BUT those pictures are taken in Central Park where wildlife abounds and this was outside an office!

Anyway, this little ornithological treat got me to thinking about birds in Manhattan and I remembered something very, very interesting.

Several years ago, I was waiting on a corner  to cross the street when I heard a bird chirping and it sounded like it was right above me and it was.  I looked up and there sat a bird on the crosspiece pipe of a street lamp.  As I watched, the bird hopped to the end of the pipe and then disappeared inside the hole at the end.  What??? Yes! The bird went into the pipe.  I waited and soon the bird reappeared and took off but there were still chirps coming out of the pipe.  Amazing I thought.  A bird had built a nest inside the pipe where it was really safe from marauders and other dangers.  Wow, Mother Nature and the little sparrow’s survival skills were pretty impressive.

I mentioned it to Peter and he told me that he had seen this urban phenomena many times.  After that incident, I kept my ears open for the sound of birds on street corners and over and over again I did see birds housing themselves on City property.  Bird squatters I guess.  These spunky little Sparrows found a home in urban New York City.  It’s not that we don’t have lots and lots of tree-lined side streets because we do and I would guess there are bird’s nests in them but I’ve never seen one  and we have a LOT of street lights!!

Manhattan street light, New York City, sparrow nest

Home Sweet Home

Think about this; not only is the bird really protected from the elements in his little pipe house, there’s usually a trash can on every corner so I’m sure there is fairly endless supply of food crumbs for the picking as well as nest-building materials.  Just goes to show you how adaptable living creatures can be to their environment.  You do what you gotta do to survive wherever you are and whoever you are…reminds of the Country Mouse and the City Mouse.

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Is this Mayor Bloomberg’s Idea?

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , on October 1, 2010| 2 Comments »

FAB FOTO FRIDAY

If you don’t live in New York , maybe you’ve read about how our Mayor Bloomberg is cleaning up the City, we don’t smoke, we don’t eat transfats…he has pedestrian malls in two of Manhattan’s busiest squares; Times Square and Union Square and he would like to eliminate most of the cars.  Take away the cars, the MTA keeps increasing their fares and what’s left?

Take a look at the Signs of the Time.

bicycle rental, New York Athletic Club

Taking a break at 1927

photo by Murray Head

Manhattan bike rentals

Wheels in the Wheels

photo by Murray Head

red high tops,

RED High Tops

photo by Murray Head

Manhattan, bike rental

Flower Power bermuda shorts

photo by Murray Head

Manhattan bike rentals

Please Rent a Bike

photo by Murray Head

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FIVE on FIFTH on FRIDAY

Posted in Fab Fotos, New York Speaks, Only in New York, tagged , , , , , on September 4, 2010| 3 Comments »

FAB FOTO FRIDAY

Of all the streets in Manhattan, none is more famous than Fifth Avenue.  Why half the parades in town march up this beautiful avenue!  There are stores, museums, Rockefeller Center and one of the world’s great parks-Central Park.  A stroll down the Avenue with a good camera and an even better eye and this is what you might see in one Friday afternoon.

Lego land, Lego store, Lego
Fifth Avenue is for kids and Legos

photo by Murray Head

Fifth Ave
Fifth Avenue is for Trying to Make It!

photo by Murray Head

tourists in nyc, Tiffany's,Tiffany & Co
Fifth is Home to Tiffany’s

photo by Murray Head

Fifth Avenue is for Art and Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center

photo by Murray Head

Fifth Avenue, tourists

Fifth Avenue is for Shopping

photo by Murray Head

food vendor, El Reydel Sabor,

Fifth Avenue is for eating Tacos

photo by Murray Head



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And Just Where Would They Park Their Cars Anyway?

Posted in BY THE WAY, Ha-P 2 B in OG, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The title of this blog is just one more rationale to think about while you are reading this excellent blog from Blogfinger. http://blogfinger.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/blogfinger-editorial-sleeping-watchdogs-in-ocean-grove/feed/ The Manchester Inn wants to sell out to a Developer of condominiums. Precedent is being set and if not kept in check, you will be astounded how quickly quaint Ocean Grove is no longer.

Where once many neighborhoods of Manhattan were populated with numerous Mom and Pop stores; the local dry cleaner, news stand, coffee shop, drug store, toy store, candy store, pet shop, pizza place, dress shops, bakeries and more – now there are large chain pharmacies such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid,  national brand clothing stores; Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy.  We have Petco, Home Depot but most of all – where some of those stores stood, the footprint of a 20 story apartment building stands.  And it is really simple math to go from there; the more people – the more services required.  Soon the need for more commercial space will be necessary and then????

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