Mind the What Now?

Reminders abound that the subway certainly is a dangerous place. This one of a Gumby-man slipping between track and train is an arresting one. It's even more disturbing upside down. Just don't stand on your head trying to read it:

(BTW: The Polish for upside down is do góry nogami, literally "to the (head) top with the legs.")

Love Your Wall

Behind the Staten Island Mall. The fading advert reads: "Amour Estates - Real Family Homes" The neo-Bicentennial flag is a nice touch. Walk to Starbucks.

Ends in "00"

Two noughts

A quaint tradition that has outlasted Burma Shave signs is employing the sides of houses along the highway as virtual billboard space. This one peaks out from behind a tree in Sunset Park. Can't quite make out what's being advertised? Here's a hint: It begins with "Interstate..."

Gumka

In Polish, the word guma means "rubber." In Brooklyn it means an approved construction and demolition company. When you use the diminutive gumka ("little rubber') you are talking about an eraser, like the one on the end of a number two pencil or one of those bubble-gum pink blocks we used to use in school. Remember erasers?

Deal With It!

It's forge or flee...

On the stump, high on post-debate testosterone, President Obama teased the crowd: "You've heard of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the Square Deal.... Well, Mitt Romney wants to give you..." Here it comes, I thought. Would it be the "Bum Deal"? "Sucker's Deal"? "Let's Make a Deal"? None of these, as it turns out. "Well Mitt Romney wants to give you the Sketchy Deal." Huh? Where's the allusive power in "sketchy deal"? Then it hit me, he's rhyming, at a distance, and some what clunkily, with the famous Romney "Etch-a-Sketch" moment. Mario Cuomo once said, "We campaign in poetry; we govern in prose." If this is the poetry, I'm afraid what the prose will sound like.

Homecoming

(Photo: Dave Beckerman)

The New York Times reports that former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was taken from temporary custody in Lower Manhattan yesterday to testify at the State Supreme Court in the Bronx in a perjury case against two former cronies. Their perjury involved lying to the Feds about low-cost no-cost renovations to Kerik's apartment. While the Times did not specify the exact location, there's a good chance Bernie was staying at the Manhattan Detention Center, aka, "The Tombs," and briefly, the Bernard B. Kerik Complex. Yup, Mayor Giuliani had the buildings dedicated to his protege in 2001. Mayor Bloomberg changed the name in 2006 immediately after Kerik pleaded guilty to accepting $165,000 in home renovation work and another $28,000 in a loan from a real estate developer.

I wonder if Rudy dropped by to pay Bernie a visit?

A Case for The Cardvaark?

(Photo: The New York Times)

About a week ago, the MTA introduced MetroCards with advertisements on both sides. Today, we learn about the fare increases proposed for 2012, including the possibility that single rides may jump from $2.25 to $2.50 or the monthly unlimited card from $104 to $129. Looks like they're giving us the old one-two here.

In response to a story on the new advertising scheme, I wrote this letter to the New York Times. They didn't publish it--probably a case of professional jealousy--so I am presenting it here. Was there ever a time the MTA needed The Cardvaark more than now?

To the Editor:
The M.T.A.'s introduction this week of MetroCards with advertising on
front and back reminds us of how taken for granted the card itself has
become. When the M.T.A. first rolled out the MetroCard in 1993, it
worried that riders would not give up their beloved tokens and might
even quit the system altogether. They commissioned a Metropolitan
Marketing Plan, now buried in the M.T.A. archives in Brooklyn, which
envisioned all kinds of public events for the kick-off. The planners
even created a mascot for the new card, The Cardvaark, described in
the plan as a " high-tech, yet lovable creature who can 'sell' the
card." When Newsday's subway reporter ridiculed the creature as "a
dumb-looking, snout-nosed, big-eared, bug-eyed, round-cheeked,
pot-bellied, card-pitching mascot," M.T.A. chairman Peter Stangl
killed off The Cardvaark for good. As it turned out, the M.T.A. didn't
need to "sell" the MetroCard after all, and now the card is selling us
on health insurance and the Gap.


PS. Attached image is the sketch from the Metropolitan Marketing Plan.