Panamerican Gringo

"Ruta 5," Chile's longest

As your correspondent heads to South American (winter) climes for a week or so, new posts are likely to be spare to none. Maybe an Autopista update or two. Or at least a Pisco Sour one.

Rapturous Prose

A postcard from William Gaddis to John B. Aldridge, dated 24 July 1985:

Dear Jack,
Glad and relieved to hear from you, it seems a very long time & we'd hoped you might pass through; glad also that the book did reach you & kept your generous regard for my work unblemished. (I'd wanted this Rapture for the book's jacket, but the folks in Sherman Texas feared the book might have swear words in it & so declined.) Again, let us know if you do pass through.
our best to you both
Bill Gaddis

The book is Gaddis' novel Carpenter's Gothic. The painting on the front of the postcard is "The Coming Rapture" by Texas painter Charles Anderson, which, according to Read, Seen, Heard, has appeared on over 5 Million prints and postcards since 1975.

The Letters of William Gaddis has just been published. It's not quite as good as discovering a lost Gaddis novel, but it's damn close.

(It's a pity Gaddis never took on automobile culture as one of his institutions for parody, along with public art, business, education, law.... He did however invent the "Sosumi" car brand for A Frolic of His Own. It figures in one of the book's legal cases.)

Watch Your Head

One of my favorite features of the design of Lehman High School, which spans the Hutchinson River Parkway, is the sidewalk on the east side of the building. It runs along the offramp from the Hutch at East Tremont Ave. As the street slopes upward, and lines of the building remain level, it just runs out of headroom. Paradoxical design at its best.

Guggenheim, East Bronx

If It Ain't Got That Swing

After an extensive five-borough survey, the BTB Research Bureau presents its candidate for the tree-swing closest to a major traffic artery. That is the off-ramp of the Hutchinson River Parkway by Lehman High School in the Bronx in the background.

Fugheddaboudit

Or leave the median patches at the BQE-LIE exchange the way they are and plant a sign, "Welcome to Queens, Waddadump!"

Field of Dreams

Or Desert of Maspeth? In contrast to many highway verges profiled in earlier posts, Greening the BQE, the large barren patches where the LIE and the BQE split stand out like a sore thumb. In yesterday's post, I proposed an inflatable blue gorilla, like the one that previously adorned the New York Auto Auction in Brooklyn. What about a fountain? Public art? A final resting place for Serra's Tilted Arc? Paging Maya Lin. The Research Bureau is soliciting your suggestions.

Your Art Here

My search for an overhead photo of this blighted terrain was fruitless. A quick Google Maps search for "Maspeth BQE" will easily bring it up on Satellite view. I did discover the "Interchange of the Week" series on the Empire Roads site. Click here for the "Stub of the Week" for 18 June 2001 (hint: the LIE is involved.)

Duck Soup

Quack, Quack (Photo: CNN)

Giant (54') rubber duck in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, the work of artist Florentijn Hofman. The best news is that its next stop will be somewhere in the U.S. Could we hope for the East River (or West River, as we call it in Queens)? Imagine the children of Maspeth and Greenpoint lined up along the Newtown Creek to wave, point, and cry "Ducky, Ducky!"

If we don't get it, how about a 32' inflatable blue gorilla for the no man's land where the LIE peels off the eastbound BQE?