gnomi | The Amazing Adventures of Boychik and Bubbeleh, Part III

In our last exciting adventure, Boychik and Bubbeleh had returned from dinner with a cast of thousands (OK, maybe 10-12 people) and post-dinner shmoozing with a subset of that CoT.

On Wednesday, MAB and I did another of Big Onion's tours, this one of Lower Manhattan and the Financial District. We saw a number of sites, including the unusual (but quite cool) stop at the Bowling Green Post Office, which is in the former headquarters of Cunard and which, therefore, is much more ornately decorated than your average post office. At one point in the tour, our guide told the story of the 16 December 1835 fire that destroyed a large portion of downtown Manhattan. Here's part of what happened: It was amongst the coldest winters New York had seen. Water at the time was mostly collected in street-level cisterns and then pumped as necessary. So fire breaks out and the neighborhood fire companies (the Fire Department wouldn't yet be established for some years yet) come out to fight the fire. The fire is raging, and the cisterns are all frozen over, due to the frigid temperatures. So, no problem, right? It's lower Manhattan. You've got the river right there. The fire companies stick their hoses into the river and start pumping water. No problem. But wait - problem: the water in the river is frigid, too. And the hoses are leather. So as the freezing water goes through, it's freezing the hoses, and the hoses are beginning to crack. So they've got to lower the freezing temperature of the water going into the hoses. Someone gets a brilliant idea: add some alcohol to the water. Great Idea! Until, well, *FOOM!*

In the end, 674 buildings are destroyed. Some of those buildings were destroyed on purpose by the fire fighters to create a rubble wall to block the fire from jumping further uptown. And the water problems eventually led to the creation of the Croton Water System, which brings water from upstate New York into New York City.

The tour finished at Trinity Church, after walking us past the New York Stock Exchange and the former site of JP Morgan's headqarters which, on 16 September 1920, was the site of a bombing. Morgan decreed that the flaws in the facade of the building never be repaired, and they remain there to this day. However, no plaque or sign was erected to remind people of the attack, and most people who walk past the building likely have no idea of the events of that day.

(For the record, the perpetrators of the bombing were never caught. Some blamed anarchists, but nothing was ever actually proven.)

After the tour, MAB and I headed to the New York City Store and from there back to midtown to meet up with our friend David for dinner. We ate at the Wolf and Lamb (which a friend of ours, earlier in the week, had called "Wolfram and Hart") and then the three of us headed to a New Year's party at the home of yet another friend of MAB's from high school. We stayed at the party for a while, then headed back to MAB's mom's house (taking David with us) to watch the ball drop in Times Square. Eventually thereafter, David headed home and MAB and I went to sleep.

On Thursday morning, MAB and I and our luggage headed into Penn Station, where we checked the luggage so that we could go on one last Big Onion walking tour. This one was of Times Square and environs. We saw Bryant Park, the New York Public Library, many, many theaters, and discussed the changes that have occurred in Times Square over the past 20 years and whether this was good or bad, in general, for the city. We talked about the "Disnification" of the area and the fact that while it changed the tenor of the area, it also increased revenue. (Side note to

eal - we passed the Marquis, and the tour guide called it an architectural monstrosity. I told him about the concierge desk on the 8th floor, and he snarked about the hotel some more) The tour ended a little after 3 PM across the street from the Nederlander Theater, where "Rent" is currently playing, at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Ave. This meant that MAB and I had just a short walk back to Penn Station, where we had to still get back our luggage before getting on our train, scheduled to leave at 4:03. No problem - less than 10 blocks, 45 minutes. Of course, on our way, we ran into a friend who just happened to be in Manhattan that day (she and her husband live on Long Island), showing her niece around. So we stood and shmoozed for a couple of minutes, but then MAB and I had to dash off to catch our train. So dash we did, arriving with plenty of time to ransom our luggage, check in, and board our train.

The train trip home was also relatively uneventful, with me knitting away on my sweater (when I wasn't working on the embroidered challah cover I was making) for the majority of the trip (another side note, to

eal and

beths_stanley: I brought The Mists of Avalon down, figuring that between the 2 train trips and more than a week on vacation, I'd make good headway in the book. In the end? I made it to page 20). Again our kosher meals had been successfully loaded onto the train, so again we were happy in terms of nourishment and protein. We arrived safely (and early) at South Station and took a cab home.

On our way into the building, we ran into one of our neighbors, who greeted us and then soon after brought back our plant, which she had been caring for over the time we were away. And, as always seems to be the case when we go away, I was happy to be home and at the same time wished there was still more of the vacation left to experience.

So thus ends our heroes' great journey. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!