Newsletter 1 - September 1999
We're sorry to say that after June 2000,
because of changes in our service provider's operations and a host
of other circumstances, we were forced to discontinue publication of
what -- we thought -- was a information packed digest. We hope to be
able to resume sometime in the future
I. Bits and Pieces
II. Grand Improvement at Grand Central
III. Broadway Openings, Closings and Relocations
IV. From JFK by Subway
V. Hotel News
VI. Life in New York City
I. Bits and Pieces
Restaurants You no longer need to cross
picket lines to get to the Rainbow Room. An end to the long-running
feud between the Cipriani organization and the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees Local 6 has been negotiated. Picketing also
ended at Cipriani SoHo and Cipriani 42nd Street
Hurley's, the circa 1870 saloon that has
withstood time and the construction of Rockefeller Center, closed
its doors permanently Friday 3rd
Central Park
Sheryl Crow and Friends (Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks, David Bowie and
more) will appear in and East Meadow concert Saturday, Sep 14th.
Free tickets will be distributed to 25,000 lucky fans by American
Express 'Blue Crews' wandering the City starting Sep 8th
Lincoln Center When the house lights glide
up to the ceiling at the Metropolitan Opera House Sep 16th it won't
be for I Pagliacci or Il Traviata, but Chris Rock hosting the 16th
annual MTV music awards
Carnegie Hall by way of Broadway Nathan
Lane, Faith Prince and Elaine Stritch are part of the lineup paying
tribute to the show-writing, song-writing team of Betty Comden and
Adolph Green Sep 16th and 17th
II. Grand Improvement at Grand Central
Somehow you wind up in the last car on the 7:15A
from Croton-on-the Hudson. The train arrives at Grand Central
Terminal, you exit the car and 49th Street is just overhead. You
walk the length of the platform to the main Terminal, about 44th
Street, exit and turn uptown to your office on 50th and Lex. What a
hike!
No longer. Metro-North has poured $112 million
into Grand Central North, a 3-level terminal extension that reaches
as far north as 48th Street. New exits are at Madison Avenue and
47th Street, Park Avenue and 48th Street and one each in the
Helmsley East and West arcades, between 45th and 46th Streets. The
project has been underway for more than 2 years and hit many snags
as workers cut through years of undocumented construction. The
payoff? Metro North estimates many commuters can save 10 to 15
minutes each way because they no longer have to backtrack. And if
you're not a commuter you can walk covered all the way from 42nd
Street to 48th Street on those rainy New York City days.
Does it work? After writing the last paragraph
we took a walk on over to find out. It works! In a nutshell what
they did was:
— Extend a north-south corridor running along
the northern edge of 47th Street from just south of Park Avenue to
Madison Avenue. This corridor runs just under the upper level-tracks
and has access to all upper-level tracks
— Extend another north-south corridor
connecting the lower-level tracks. This corridor runs between 45th
and 46th Streets from just south of Park Avenue to Vanderbilt Avenue
and is a level below the lower-level tracks
— Modify two upper-level platforms to serve as
east-west corridors connecting both of the north-south corridors
— Install elevators everywhere. Couldn't count
'em, but they were around every corner, literally
We were impressed. The new Grand Central North
doesn't have any of the grandeur of the original Terminal, but the
new corridors are spacious and well lighted. Direction signage is
more than adequate and, as mentioned above, the new addition does
not lack for elevators. Amenities include telephone banks, train
schedule monitors and a couple of beverage carts. If you need to
purchase tickets you must still go to the main Terminal, not a bad
deal since you get to feel its newly-renovated space again
III. Broadway Openings, Closings and
Relocations
We're a bit late getting the first issue of our
newsletter out because we were furiously working on our new Broadway
Theater section for Jim's Deli. We have complete listings of
Broadway shows and fifty years of Tony
Awards. For history buffs we've included notes on active Broadway
landmark theaters; find out who built it, when it was built and
who starred on its stage over the past 100 years!
Voices In The Dark, the John Pielmeier
thriller starring Judith Ivey opened to scathing reviews August 12th
at the Longacre Theater. It's still around, so it must have had
great advance sales
Kat and the Kings, a South African by way of
London musical by David Kramer and Taliep Petersen opened to tepid
reviews at the Cort Theater August 19th. It's the trials and
tribulations of a 1950s South African group who echoed the
street-corner harmonies of US doo-wop groups. The very thin book
echoes that cute, little Tom Hanks' film of a few years ago: the
group is discovered, finds overnight success, greed, jealousy and
confused love result in an overnight drop from the charts. The
Hanks' film is worth a $2.50 rental, you can always turn it off; it
hurts to walk out on a $75 Broadway ticket
Beauty and the Beast's last performances at
the Palace Theatre is September 5th. Performances begin at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre November 12th
Kristin Chenoweth, fresh from her dazzling
reviews in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, returns to
Broadway in the Larry Coen and David Crane comedy Epic
Proportions. Previews begin September 7th at the Helen Hayes
Theater for a September 30th opening. Tickets go for $45 to $65 and
are available through Telecharge 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250
The Scarlet Pimpernel is back for a return
engagement at the Neil Simon Theater beginning September 10th. The
musical features Ron Bohmer, Carolee Carmello and Marc Kudisch.
Tickets for the Frank Wildhorn-Nan Knighton-Robert Longbotom musical
run $45 to $80 and are available through Ticketmaster 212-307-4100
or 800-755-4000
Barry Humphries brings his enticing British
eccentric to Broadway in the comedy Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.
The show is in previews beginning September 15th for an October 17th
opening at the Booth Theater. Tickets are $45 to $65 and available
through Telecharge 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250
Sometime in April Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim
Rice will resurrect the 1969 hit musical that energized their
careers, Jesus Christ Superstar
IV. From JFK by Subway
Yes, you can get here from there for a buck and
a half, but you'd better bring a good book. Jim recently went out to
JFK to meet one of Susie's friends at Terminal 3. The friend's
flight arrived early, Jim missed him and, being out $40 for the taxi
to JFK decided to cut his losses and take the subway back to
Manhattan. He left the terminal at 9:30P and walked across the road
to the bus stop. After waiting 15 minutes the
yellow-and-white-striped bus that serves the long-term parking lot
and the Howard Beach subway station came along. Avoiding a traffic
jam, the bus driver took two spins around the airport and landed his
charges at the subway station at 10:00P. It was a long half-hour
wait for the first 'A' train back to the city
Most of the people boarding the train at 10:30P
were airport workers on the way home after their shifts, about 30 in
all, with a sprinkling of travelers thrown in. The ride back to
Manhattan was uneventful, the local train picking up people on their
way to midnight shifts in the City. (Besides the morning and evening
rush the heaviest subway usage is before and after the midnight
shift change.) Jim changed trains at Atlantic Avenue to pick up the
number 4 train to Grand Central. Almost home, he ran into our friend
Teddy closing up the Flower Drum restaurant. Time 11:59P
There are many other alternatives to get from
JFK to Manhattan: taxi, limousine, van, bus. Jim won't make a habit
of using the subway but recommends it for those on a tight budget
with a manageable amount of luggage
V. Hotel News
The landmark Knickerbocker Hotel, Broadway at
42nd Street, the last of the great turn-of-the-last-century hotels
built in the Times Square area is caught up in the area's rebirth.
Built between 1901 - 1906, the John Jacob Astor IV-financed
Beaux-Arts hotel was one of the City's most lavish. The hotel fell
on hard times during the Depression and was converted to office use
after World War II. A complete renovation is underway with plans to
return the building to hotel use at the end of next year
Our friend Lorraine left New York for the warmer
climes of Miami a couple of years ago but insists on coming back,
and back, and back. Lorraine has stayed in quite a few hotels on her
return trips and is something of an expert on New York City lodging.
For her trip this past July, Susan booked Lorraine into the Hotel
Wales, the Carnegie Hill institution on Madison Avenue between 92nd
& 93rd Streets. Lorraine was very impressed. She especially
liked the second-floor lounge, a quiet, spacious area where a
Continental breakfast ("Very good") and afternoon tea
("Charming") are served and you can spread out with your
newspaper. Lorraine will book the Wales the next time she brings her
mom Dora to town
VI. Life in New York City
I don't know what the problem is. People are
always complaining when they have to do laundry in a New York City
apartment house. Not enough machines, the dryers don't get hot
enough, the dryers get too hot, the laundry room is glum, is hot, is
humid, is noisy. Here it is 12:30 on a Tuesday afternoon and all six
washing machines in the brightly-lit (though oppressively muggy)
laundry room are free. And the six dryers as well. The six washing
machines and six dryers work out to about one apiece for every 30
apartments in the building, one of the higher ratios in the City
What the heck, I plop in the two loads I have,
feed in six quarters each and take the elevator up 16 floors for
more. Might as well get it all done at once. Susie is due back from
Miami tomorrow night and I at least have to make it look like I made
an attempt at keeping the apartment neat, if not spotless. So it's
back up 16 floors, one of the main two elevators is out so I have to
wait for the service lift, usually more reliable, but much slower.
Load up my little cart with the rest of what's in the hamper (I
leave the dainties behind because I'm sure I don't know what the
heck to do with them). Back to the service elevator, down 16 floors,
around the corner (Watch out for the recycling pile!), into the
laundry room. My two machines are still the only ones in use. Load
up two more machines, measure the detergent, insert six more
quarters each and guess when to put the bleach in (Yes, that
lemon-smelling stuff in the unmarked plastic jug is bleach, I can
tell by the streak down the front of my shirt). Fabric softener?
Left that upstairs, and the little plastic balls that you fill with
softener and magically dispense the stuff are a bit beyond me. We
can do without softener one time
Back up 16 floors on the service elevator. Do a
little work on the Jim's Deli website, glancing at the clock every
minute-and-a-half trying to remember when I'm supposed to take the
first loads out of the machines and put them in the dryer. Back down
16 floors on the service elevator. Around the corner, over the
recycling pile. Have a couple of minutes to wait until the first two
loads are done; not much to keep me occupied, the usual old
refrigerators and cannibalized air conditioners, some shelving that
might be of use. Nah! Don't want to ask our super for any favors.
While I wait, one of the cleaning ladies comes down with a very
large load of laundry. She takes the other two machines, and as soon
as I transfer my first two loads into a dryer she pounces (Pounces!)
on my vacated machines. I insert six more quarters, set the dryer on
high (Why get less heat than what you pay for?) and start it up. I
have 28 minutes to go on the two loads of laundry and 33 minutes on
the dryer. Back up 16 floors to put in a little more work
It's about 1:30 now, might as well grab a quick
sandwich. Munch as I read the rest of the New York Times with
my eyes on the clock. Back down 16 floors. Around the corner, over
the recycling pile. The last two loads are done and the stuff in the
dryer is . . . baked! Oops! Of course, Susie's always going up and
down to be sure to pull some things out just before they are totally
parched and the wrinkles cooked in. Oh well, it's mostly my polo
shirts and such so I'll just have to live with it. Load up my little
cart, reload the dryer with the just-finished machines' loads,
insert six more quarters and make my way back up 16 floors. Upend
the cart on the bed and start folding the socks, underwear, tee
shirts and such. Not a bad job, only missing one of Susie's white
socks
I got so caught up in folding that I forgot
about the rest of the laundry in the dryer. Back down 16 floors.
Around the corner, over the recycling pile. Reach for the dryer
door. That's not my stuff, my stuff is strewn all over the table.
"Hope you don't mind. I didn't think you would mind if I took
it out. I like this dryer, think it works the best." Two other
dryers are standing empty. What do you say? Gather up the bits and
pieces, reload my little cart. Back up 16 floors. Dump the load on
the bed. How does one person neatly fold a sheet?
It's 2:30 and I'm done! Not bad, only two hours
and let's see . . . 36 quarters. That's only $9. And two hours. And
160 floors. Ten 'around the corners' and ten 'over the recycling
piles'. Hmmm? If I walked everything over to Henry's dry cleaning
shop he'd send it out and have it back to me by tomorrow morning and
charge about $10. But then I wouldn't have the satisfaction of doing
it myself -- and making sure Susie knows I did it myself
Hope you enjoyed our first newsletter. See you
next month!
Susie and Jim
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