Monday, September 13, 2010

New York Oddities




It's entirely possible that few of us have ever seen one of the above in real life. It's a pull-down fire alarm and it's on a corner on Staten Island, NY.


Huntington Township rules do not allow you to fill your own gas tank. Instead, an attendant sits on a little stool between the pumps, waiting for you to drive up.


On the way to JFK, a breathless radio annoucer said that New York State has abolished lever voting! Yes! In this year of our Lord 2010, they now have paper ballots!


An undercover police car, lights flashing and siren roaring flew by behind us. In addition to the wail of the siren, a new affect had been added -- it sounded like machine gun bullets being fired. WAHHH rat-a-tat-a-tat.


In Montauk, we were having a before-dinner drink at Fishbar, 467 E. Lake Drive, which faces out across the water toward the other side of the land. We noticed an enormous yacht at anchor and asked the bartender, "Who owns that one?" (nod.) The bartender told us that it belongs to the CEO of Enterprise rent-a-cars. He served on the USS Enterprise during World War 2 and is such a patriot that he named his car company "Enterprise" and his yacht bears the name of the squadron in which he served.


We should have stayed for dinner -- their motto, printed on the bottom of the drink check, is: Drink like a fish! How could you go wrong in a place like that?

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