With apologies to M.C. Escher
Outside Caridad & Louie's Restaurant ("The finest Latin & Italian Cuisine"). Each star has someone's name on it, but it's not clear what these people have done to earn this honor. I like to imagine that you have to successfully conquer some eating challenge (bucket of pigs' feet, gallon of goat stew) to win your place on the sidewalk.
That's a number 5 train barreling down the Dyre Avenue Line.
This grotto, built in 1939 at St. Lucy’s Church in the Bronx, was inspired by the famous 1858 Marian apparition near Lourdes, France. The spring waters flowing from the French cave are widely claimed to have special healing powers, and many people believe the artificial spring here in the Bronx, whose source is NYC tap water (which is something of a miracle in its own right, flowing into the city from distant mountain reservoirs, powered only by gravity), possesses those powers as well. It's not unusual to see people, like the gentleman on the right, filling up several large jugs of water (yes, the one currently under the stream is an old kitty litter container) to take home with them.
LoJack is a tracking system that allows police to locate a stolen vehicle by following the radio transmissions from a small transceiver hidden somewhere in the vehicle. If you're interested in such things, I'd recommend reading this analysis of some of LoJack's societal impacts. Here's a summary:
Most measures that people take to protect their property are highly visible, and that's intentional — if the potential thief sees that you have an alarm system, he's less likely to break in. But that also means he's more likely to break into someone else's car instead; this is what economists call a negative externality. LoJack, on the other hand, is not advertised on the vehicle at all — you don't want the thief to know it's present, or he might try to remove it. Since he doesn't know which cars are equipped with LoJack and which aren't, he becomes more hesitant to steal any cars. This results in a positive externality: your purchase of a LoJack system brings benefits to all car owners, whether they have LoJack or not.
This is one of several tricked-out cars lining the periphery of Personal Touch Auto Body. Mike, the owner, told me to make sure I check out the video portion of his website.
The aforementioned Mike (the guy with the ponytail standing to the left) rated this burnout a "solid 2" out of 10.
After getting into an accident, always remember to take injured passengers to the hospital before dropping your car off at the body shop.
Life has gotten much better for this awning since we last visited, although you can deduce the absence of spikes on a certain portion of the sign.
This is one of the more professional call box abandonments I've come across. Usually the guts are just ripped out and the box is left open to the elements, gradually accumulating garbage from passersby.
Cars may be deterred by the fencing and lack of pavement on this section of Waring Avenue, but we pedestrians are unstoppable!
Better make those reservations soon — there's hardly a table available!
People like to jokingly tell me that I have to pay them to photograph whatever it is that I'm photographing on their property. Here's today's variation on that interaction:
Guy who works at garage: You take a picture, you buy it.
Me: Sure, I'll buy 600 tires.
Guy: Hey, it's possible. It's a number.
Visiting this house is a Christmastime tradition on Pelham Parkway. Fortunately for me, the Garabedians leave most of the decorations (though none of the celebrities) on display year-round. Here are some images of the full-blown festivities.
