Al Jazeera be praised:
Watching the Irene coverage in Nyons, France, former Jane St. resident Patricia Fieldsteel deemed Al Jazeera English’s among the best.
Blowin’ (and bikin’) in the wind: Time’s Up! did a “Hurricane Bike Ride” last Friday night before the storm hit town. They had their sound bike all charged up, and it was playing “C’mon Irene” and other hurricaney tunes during their jaunt. It was also the seventh anniversary of the massive Critical Mass ride before the 2004 Republican National Convention when 5,000 cyclists rode and 260 were arrested.
Quake(r) notes: Last week’s article on the earthquake failed to mention a key point of artist Theresa Byrne’s quake experience: When she returned to her place after going to the art-supply store, she made a painting — with earth pigments. Among others we queried about “their quake,” N.Y.U. journalism professor Jessica Siegel e-mailed, “I was climbing Mt. St. Helens and knew nothing of this! Count me communing with another natural force — VOLCANO. Thanks for thinking of me and catch you at the next tremblor.” West Village writer Michael Karp reported: “I was actually in Brooklyn when the tremors hit, talking on the phone with the man who is now the new Captain Kangaroo. My first response was typical of hypochondriacs: I figured that I was shaking for some medical reason — although I’m in perfect health, I’m always alert for some symptom or other. I was actually reassured to see the chairs shaking and objects moving. ‘Thank God, it’s only an earthquake,’ I thought, ‘and not me.’” Cartoonist Fly said she didn’t feel anything unusual as she was walking past the courts Downtown, but something definitely seemed to be going on because suddenly there were a lot of people everywhere. “Everyone was pouring out and I thought it was just all about the French rapist,” she said. A vivid dreamer, she later dreamed that two buildings across from hers had collapsed. She was relieved to wake up and realize — it was all just a dream.
Bang! Bang! Bang! It looks like pile driving has recommenced at the Department of Sanitation’s three-district megagarage site at Spring and West Sts. As of press time, we don’t know if the project is still going to have 800 piles — or more — but they’re banging away again.
Ray Romance: Ray (or Asghar, if you prefer) of Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A has been doing great lately. After years of frustration, his Social Security benefits finally started rolling in last summer, and he just recently got his U.S. citizenship. Now, he wants to get hitched — to his new lady love, Kathy. “She’s 58, I’m 78,” a beaming Ray said last week. “I want to marry her.” Ray is also planning to get a long-overdue hernia operation. “It’s not easy having this — it’s like a pit bull in my pants,” he lamented. He recently got the problem checked out by a local doctor, who told him he already knew all about his condition, having read about it before in Scoopy’s. Surgery is set for Sept. 26 at New York Downtown Hospital. Ray said it’s recommended that someone be there when he comes out of anesthesia, so he’s looking for someone to assist him. Finally, congrats to Ray on upgrading to an “A” on his store’s Sanitary Inspection Grade. The Health Department gave him a “B” last November. As to how he did, he said, “I hired a guy just to do the cleaning, nothing else — vacuuming over and over again. And he threw out my waffle iron, too. He thought it was a piece of junk!”
Corrections: In last week’s issue of the East Villager, the last line of the article on the Bialystoker nursing home was cut off. It should have read: “When was the last time that a member of the [Bialystoker] board of directors came down and looked a resident in the eye and said what was happening?” Also, in a belated correction, a PEOP cartoon by Fly earlier this summer in the East Villager didn’t include the name of its subject: Chris Ryan. (Sorry, Chris!) The Villager versions of both of the above were O.K.
