Tuesday, June 13, 2017

I love New York (when the weather is good and I can do stuff)

 
A quick look at my trip in words and pictures.

Was in Gotham for four days and it didn’t rain once. At the moment it’s 95 degrees and thunderstorms are expected (or snow), but for my long weekend, you could walk everywhere except Fifth Avenue because of the Puerto Rican Day parade.

There are still long lines for CATS. I swear, I must live in an alternate universe.
Okay, I have an excuse. I’m not the most oblivious person on the planet. I was sneezing. My wife and I were crossing Lexington Avenue at 50th at about 11:00 pm one night. Granted, it was a warm evening, but my wife said, “Did you just see that?” “What? No” I said. “The guy who just passed us, crossing the street – you didn’t notice him?” “No, “ I said, “I was sneezing.” Well, it seems a guy crossed right by me that was completely naked except for a handkerchief over his genitals. And this did not get my attention. That must’ve been some sneeze.

You’ve heard of the spotting the first robin of spring. Perhaps for NY, that guy is the first sign of summer.

One area of Manhattan that is now off limits to me is anywhere in the vicinity of the Trump Tower. I didn’t want to even look in its direction.

What the hell are Jewish mashed potatoes? This was from the menu at the Redeye Grill.
Happy to say the Shake Shack burger in God-knows-where Long Island tastes every bit as good as the one in West Hollywood.

I’m sorry, this will always be the Pan Am building to me.
Took the Long Island Railroad out to Westbury to see my daughter and her husband. (They’re now in New York co-producing KEVIN CAN WAIT, which films in glamorous Bethpage, Long Island). On the track going the opposite direction there was an incident. Apparently the train hit a guy on the tracks. So that train was stopped, passengers were filing out as we went by. I asked our conductor if he had ever heard of this kind of thing happening before and he said, matter-of-factly, “Oh yeah. We got three last week.” Last WEEK? It’s one thing to not see a naked guy, but a train??

Could this mean another sequel – SILVERFINGER?
How many Mets fans are going to eat here? I bet Rusty Staub’s had better food.
And finally, who is this? A Disney princess from a movie I’ve missed? Ivanka? 

21 comments :

Anonymous said...

Was Annie the one who decided to hire Leah Remini?

Mike McCann said...

Ahh, Food Glorious Food.... Having lived in the NY area all but 10 years of my life, I had never heard of Jewish Mashed Potatoes until now.

Haven't tried NYY Steakhouse yet, but Rusty's set the gold standard for ribs in New York!!

Eduardo Jencarelli said...

I never really understood Shake Shack's popularity. It's not that tasty and it feels as if I'm eating more processed fat than actual meat, which means I usually get queasy afterwards.

In terms of premium quality burgers, I'll take Burger Joint any day. It's tasty and it leaves me satisfied without going overboard. Plus their fries are much better.

VP81955 said...

I feel bad for New Yorkers -- I just discovered that last October, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shut down all 12 of its NYC locations (it reportedly plans to return soon). I hope my fellow tea drinkers who enjoy wi-fi can find a good alternative to the dreadful Starbucks and its mediocre teas...and that Ken isn't going through sudden CB&TL withdrawal.

kent said...

Too bad you didn't see the naked guy when you sneezed, you could have used that handkerchief.

Tom said...

I noticed that the Jewish mashed potatoes included gribbines. Not being Jewish, I had to look that up. Turns out gribenes are the kosher version of pork rinds, made from chicken-skin cracklings.

Pete Grossman said...

Ah, the Redeye Grill, a long standing fave near where I used to live. Jewish mashed potatoes? Perhaps they were infused with a bit of schmaltz?

Douglas Trapasso said...

Very happy for your daughter; wishing her much success on her new gig. But, wow. Replacing the female lead with the woman who played the wife on the male lead's previous show? That's cold.

Dan said...

Maybe Jewish mashed potatoes are dairy free? - A Gentile in Michigan

Pete said...

So your daughter is working with Rob Long. . . who you used to work with. Nice symmetry!

Wendy M. Grossman said...

Douglas Trapasso: Not as cold as it would be if they'd cast her as his mother! (Which is the sort of thing that happens sometimes to Hollywood actresses.)

I'm just surprised Leah Remini has time, given the effort she's putting into kicking Scientology's ass.

wg

Dixon Steele said...

Had a very good Shake Shack breakfast sandwich last week at JFK, although I think their burgers are overrated.

I grew up near Bethpage and I believe that studio is the old Grumman Aerospace, where my father worked as an engineer. Mindblowing that's it's a TV/movie studio now.

John said...

For a Friday Question -- What's your feeling now on new fans having a chance to discover M*A*S*H. It was on Netflix for a period of time but not for a year or so. I don't really see it on cable channels much anymore. Do you have some idea what its streaming future it?

thirteen said...

I'm a native New Yorker who left 27 years ago at the age of 37. It'll always be the Pan Am Building to me, too.

Rusty's was great. Rusty himself would come out during dinner and say hi to everybody. I had an irrational fear that he would realize that I was the guy who kept yelling "Move them old bones, Russ!" at him when I went to see the Mets play the Braves in Atlanta during the summer of '82.

Never heard of Jewish mashed potatoes, so I looked it up. You boil the potatoes in their skins, and then you peel them and cut them into chunks. Salt, pepper, butter, milk; you can sub chicken fat for butter. Broth instead of milk, too, if you like.

Cat said...

I've seen MASH on Sundance channel and on TV Land, so it is definitely still on TV. Over Memorial Day both those channels played MASH at the same time!

John said...

Yeah, after I asked the question I check the listings and it is on a few cable channels. I imagine those are edit/hacked for length. Viewing M*A*S*H on DVD or streaming would is far better. As far as I can tell there is no currently legit streaming out let for the show.

Todd Everett said...

MASH is on METV and TVland. Tonight (Tuesday) on ME and tomorrow on TVland, one of the episodes is "Goodbye, Radar."

Twintone said...

Hey Ken! Saw this article about multicam comedy being rejected by networks. It has some interesting theories.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/more-tv-news/masked-scheduler-why-are-networks-reluctant-to-make-more-multi-camera-comedies/

The masked scheduler might be a cool interview for your podcast (which I enjoy).

LouOCNY said...

I see you survived the Hell otherwise known as Penn Station...or did you?

Cap'n Bob said...

You called handkerchief guy he and her. Is this some kind of new gender identity? I'll never understand this modern world.

purplepenquin said...

"You called handkerchief guy he and her. Is this some kind of new gender identity?"

Welcome to NYC (NTTAWWT, of course!)