Nick's

The first in a (very) occasional series on garages on Staten Island. Nick's on Richmond Terrace and Elizabeth Street, on the stretch of faded but still active marine glory between Port Richmond and Snug Harbor.

Check out the red, white, and blue color scheme. Even the fuel tank!

Putinocracy

I took this back in late November. A brave soul on Staten Island (North Shore). Recent revelations from the CIA just make him or her appear more prescient.

Wishing You an EZ Christmas

Santa takes the EZPass lane.

Goethals Bridge, S.I. (Photos: F. Someki)

Blue Boat

Under Silver Lake Cemetery, Victory Blvd., S.I.

BQE in Autumn

The onramp to the BQE from the Grand Central Parkway West provides an autumnal prelude to the ride.

Bayonne Bridge Open

The lanes are narrow, and you need to time it right, but when the Bayonne Bridge is open during its long roadway-raising construction, the views can be beautiful.

Red Truck Coming

Can a painting go viral, especially one from 1935? One of the pleasures of Michiko Kakutani's (the NYT book reviewer's) Twitter feed is that she often posts reproductions of paintings or photographs with no accompanying message. Yesterday, she tweeted Grant Wood's "Death on the Ridge Road." Joyce Carol Oates promptly retweeted that the painting had been used on the cover of her book, Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers.

Is the painting telling a story? Or is it an allegory for what's about to happen to our domestic order as a big red T comes piling over the ridge? All I know is that America's most prolific writer and most prolific reader both have time to tweet a lot.