Mr. Kaplan wasn't a champion chess player, as I assumed; he was actually a grandmaster of a much more obscure game: pool checkers.

Katz and cats

Unlike, say, Woodlawn, Washington Cemetery doesn't have any truly enormous mausoleums, but this one — the largest of the bunch — isn't too shabby.

9/11 victim

Between my photo and this one, you can get a good sense of how unusual this house is.

Loaded down

Zoom out for the full effect.

As we learned last year, Park is named after , founder of The .

In 2008 (the most recent information I could find), this 260-foot tower on the grounds of Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School was being used by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to broadcast The Clyde Frog Show, Religions of the World, Visualizing Cell Processes, and many other educational shows, as well as various programs for the 24-hour Prayer Channel.

over the Prospect Expressway

Close-up here

Lining the eastern side of Prospect Park West between Prospect Avenue and Windsor Place are several memorial trees with plaques identical to those we've seen previously.

Or both?

The tracks of the Q train pass by right on the other side of the building.

A sukkah on stilts

This "Moorish-inspired" synagogue was built between 1925 and 1929.

Kaporos (Kapparot) fliers — closer look here

This is one of many similar gated sections of Washington Cemetery, each belonging to a Jewish burial society.

Graves are crammed into every nook and cranny of Washington Cemetery.

Sukkot balconies in action

You can get a better look in Street View.

Take a look inside and around back.

I guess I wasn't the only one wondering.

UPDATE: They don't actually rock!

Also known as the Barkaloo (or Barkuloo) Cemetery, this is Brooklyn's smallest cemetery, and it's also the last remaining standalone family graveyard in the borough. There are supposedly three Revolutionary War veterans buried here, including the wonderfully named Harmonius Barkaloo. (I later discovered that his first name, to my great dismay, is probably more faithfully rendered in English as Harmanus, which just doesn't have the same harmonious ring to it. Nonetheless, I wanted to share with you the fleeting moment of pure joy that comes with imagining the existence of a man named Harmonius Barkaloo.)

Sometimes when wandering around cemeteries, I'm reminded of this passage from John McPhee's Oranges:

Grierson is a trim and well-groomed man in his late forties, with brown hair and a modest mustache. He is in the habit, rare in Florida, of working right through the lunch hour every day, pausing only, while eating a sandwich at his desk, to leaf through the telephone directory in search of unusual names, a daily amusement. The day I met him, he was beside himself with pleasure after discovering Verbal Funderburk.

(Outside Xaverian High School)

of the 69th Street Pier

That's the Verrazano off in the distance.

In case you couldn't tell, the 69th Street Pier is quite popular with the angling crowd. Out in the water at the end of the pier is an under-construction "Eco Dock".

WITH THE VISION OF UNIVERSAL FREEDOM
FOR ALL MANKIND
THIS TREE IS DEDICATED TO
RICHARD COCHEO
AND ALL
PRISONERS OF WAR
AND
MISSING IN ACTION
1973

(There are a few other Freedom Trees dedicated to other POW/MIAs in this little section of Shore Road Park.)

A series of educational signs posted along the Bay Ridge waterfront

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, with the longest bridge span in the Americas

with a retroreflective stripe to reduce bridge strikes. Looks like this crossing might be about to get seriously snazzed up.

Another zap shack