AFTER WATCHING ANDREW HASWELL GREEN PARK BE FINISHED, TODAY WAS THE DAY FOR THE GRAND OPENING OF THE PARK AND THE EAST MIDTOWN GREENWAY. THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM RECENT TRAM RIDES.
THE ALYCE AYCOCK SCULPTURE PAVILION HAS BEEN CLEANED AND REPLANTED
THE GREENWAY IS WIDE ENOUGH FOR A PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY AND A LANE FOR EMERGENCY VEHICLES.
THE FINISHES ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM NYC PARKS USUAL DESIGNS
AS YOU WALK UNDER THE STRUCTURE FROM THE PARK TO THE PROMENADE, THE VASTNESS OF THE STRUCTURE IS EVIDENT.
THE GUESTS STARTED WALKING SOUTH AND ADMIRING THE VIEW OF A CERTAIN ISLAND.
A FIREBOAT JOINED IN THE CELEBRATION
PLUMES OF WATER SPRAYED HIGH INTO THE SKY
BOBBIE SLONEVSKY JOINED ME ON THIS OPENING DAY, WITH ITS FRIGID TEMPERATURES.
THE PAVING HAS AREAS OF DECORATIVE TILES INTERSPERSED ALONG WITH MARKERS FOR EACH STREET YOU ARE PASSING.
THE FDR DRIVE PASSES BELOW
YOU MUST STILL CONTEND WITH BIKES, RUNNERS AND DOGS. WE NOTICED THE BIKERS HAVE A CHALLENGE DOWN THE WINDING PATH AT THE END OF THE BRIDGE.
EDITORIAL The walkway is so much better than Parks Department projects. Luckily, NYC EDC is more creative and imaginative. The views are spectacular and the materials used are bright and the whites add a reflection to the river views.
Unfortunately there are no restrooms or facilities on either the Walkway or on the northern portion. There may be facilities in the future, but what other city in the world would permit a park with no facilities.
Also, with our City budget cuts, the Parks Department would have to expand vast sums to maintain the Walkway. Who will fund, police and install cameras here? Will the walkway be open 24/7 or be a giant homeless shelter? These questions have been asked and not answered.
Let’s hope for the best and walk down 60th Street from the tram and up the Park entrance by the Tram Tower on 60th and York!!!!
SHOP LOCALLY!!!
STOP BY THE RIHS KIOSK TO
SMALL BUSINESS.
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NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT, NYC EDC JUDITH BERDY
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Despite officials telling Community Board 8 a month ago that the opening would be closer to January or February of next year, the opening date is now back on track for its long-held December deadline. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Under promise and over deliver.
While a classic maxim for guaranteeing customer satisfaction, it could have been also been the motivation behind a decision to tell a Community Board 8 Parks Committee last month that the wait for the much anticipated opening of the $100 million East Midtown Greenway would be suddenly extend until early next year.
Now, an official from the New York City Economic Development Corporation tells Patch that the opening is back on its long-held December opening date, with a confirmed grand opening on Dec. 19.
“We’re getting a really beautiful park and greenway and I think the community is going to love it,” said Community Board 8 Park Committee co-chair Judith Schneider at the meeting.
But when pressed by committee members about an opening date, EDC officials were reluctant to commit to one, except to say that they would most likely blow past their December estimated opening, a deadline long listed on the project’s timeline, and anticipate the opening to be sometime after the new year.
“It could be earlier,” said NYC Parks project administrator Michael Bradley at the meeting, “but we can’t promise it today.”
A tram’s-eye view of the Alice Aycock Pavilion in July — the final phase of the project. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
Work on the $100 million project began in 2019 and it extends the East River Esplanade 1.1 miles from Andrew Haswell Green to Clara Coffey Park on East 54th Street in Sutton Place began in 2019.
In 2020, the pandemic put the project on pause for several months, and in 2022, NYCEDC first announced their December 2023 opening date, a delay from a previously announce fall 2023 opening.
And after Dec. 19, more work will be on the way — once the project can find about $38 million.
That’s how much it’s going to cost to enact any of the ideas Community Board 8 had for the space under Andrew Haswell Green Park, according to Bradley.
Those ideas pitched in 2018 included a bathroom or a cafe as well as a new ADA compliant ramp.
1070’S VIEW OF TRAM WITH ORIGINAL LONG STAIRCASE AND ALEXANDER’S DEPARTMENT STORE IN BACKGROUND. GLORIA HERMAN, NINA LUBLIN AND SHARON BERMON GOT IT RIGHT!
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UPPER EAST SIDE PATCH
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
One was planted on Park Avenue. Another bloomed on the grounds of the magnificent Schwab mansion on Riverside Drive. A third sprouted in Midtown in the shadow of the Chrysler Building.
Others were tended to in empty lots on Ludlow Street (above), on Upper East Side apartment terraces, and in the open spaces of Brooklyn and Queens.
These victory gardens, as they were called, grew out of a national push during World War II to help ease food shortages in the states, as so much food from America was going to soldiers abroad and our allies.
New Yorkers answered the call. After the program began in 1943, the city had approximately 400,000 victory gardens, which sprouted up on 600 acres of private land.
The biggest crop: tomatoes, followed by beans, beets, carrots, lettuce, and Swiss chard.
Victory gardens were mostly about food. But they had a civic function as well, rallying communities to work together to aid the war effort.
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia even announcing that one would be started on Rikers Island.
“We have a lot of space there and a lot of guests too, and we won’t need machinery, because we can make them work,” he cheekily told the New York Times.
Experienced gardeners lent a hand showing urban green thumbs the ropes. “New York University, Columbia University, and the New School all offered courses on Victory Gardening, wrote Bentley and Simon.
Department stores like Macy’s opened gardening centers that held lectures, sold seeds, and even offered war bonds to gardeners who produced bumper crops.
When the war ended, the mini-farms appeared to have been left untended. Of course, they weren’t the last urban gardens to pop up in the city.
But with real estate values sky-high, it might be a long time before we ever see vegetables growing on Manhattan avenues again.
Javier Sanchez, manager of the Continental Towers parking garage on East 79th Street, stands next to this year’s hand-crafted holiday display, which he calls “Frosty’s Village.” (John Seley)
Sanchez’s co-workers help fund his trips to Home Depot, where he stocks up on supplies for the display. (John Seley)
It took him at least 100 hours to build, dealing with setbacks like hot-glue burns to his fingers and an ankle sprain that sidelined him for two months. As in past years, Sanchez and his half dozen coworkers paid for the display out of their own pockets, with each man contributing around $20 to cover Sanchez’s frequent trips to Home Depot.
Find out what’s happening in Upper East Sidewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The tradition began in Sanchez’s first year at Continental, when a coworker suggested building “a little train around the garage,” he recalled. Snaking the tracks around the garage lobby proved infeasible, but Sanchez managed to set up a battery-operated train and run it along a sheet of plywood, feeling pleased with the result.
“We said, ‘Wow, this looks great,'” he said.
The following year, inspired by the wintry Alps, Sanchez built a mountain with a tunnel for the train to pass through. Visits to the animatronic displays at the New York Botanical Garden, Stew Leonard’s supermarkets and Yankee Candle shops influenced other aspects, he said.
Sanchez has worked for 12 years at the Continental Towers parking garage, on East 79th Street between First and Second avenues. (Google Maps)
“We like to try to make it different every year so it doesn’t look the same,” Sanchez said. This year’s display is both taller and deeper than ever before, with “100-percent new” elements inside, he said.
Also new this year is a special challenge: kids age 12 or under can search for a sasquatch hidden somewhere within the display, and will receive a lollipop if they win.
“I had a kid here for 40 minutes looking for it,” he laughed. “Just to see those guys’ faces — it has no price to see the happiness and joy of those kids.”
Sanchez takes pride in the fact that the display is interactive, allowing kids to push its toy cars and manipulate the human figurines.
“I have no restrictions,” he said. “Nothing has ever been broken there.”
Sanchez’s fans include State Sen. Liz Krueger, who lives nearby. (John Seley)
The garage at 301 East 79th St. is open 24-7, but Sanchez keeps the display lit up from around 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m. each day. It will be on view until Dec. 31 — and “ideas are always welcome,” he says.
To reach the display, visitors must walk down a ramp from the garage entrance between First and Second avenues. But Sanchez wants to give people a taste of what’s to come: before reaching the Christmas array, you’ll encounter a menorah display for Hanukkah, a mini fireplace, and a nativity village that Sanchez hand-crafted.
Sanchez’s fans include State Sen. Liz Krueger, who lives nearby and praised the “incredible work” that goes into his annual displays.
“The kids go crazy for it – just like the windows on 5th Avenue,” Krueger told Patch. “It’s a wonderful holiday tradition, and I definitely encourage families to go over and take a look. Thank you to Mr. Sanchez for working so hard to bring this bit of holiday cheer to the Upper East Side.”
Sanchez was born in Los Angeles but raised mostly in Colombia, then returned to the U.S. as a young man, serving for years in the Army Reserves.
Kids who find the sasquatch in this year’s display will be rewarded with lollipops. (John Seley)
Kids may be his primary audience, but adults benefit from the displays too, he said — by regaining a bit of childlike wonder, and breaking up the monotony of their daily routines.
“Life is not just work, work, and work, to be like a little machine every day,” he said. “There’s things out there that make a difference.”
To visit the display, stop by the Continental Towers garage at 301 East 79th St.
I’m not sure I’d feel safe traveling in an airship. I’ve heard that recording of the 1937 Hindenburg disaster too many times.
But I can’t stop gazing at these photos of airships floating through the skies of early 1930s Manhattan, with the modern machine-age cityscape spread out and on display, building by building.
Both of these photos show the US Navy’s USS Akron. In the first photo, we see downtown Manhattan: the Woolworth Building, the Singer Tower (RIP), a smaller Battery Park—or at least it seems smaller. What’s the green space in the center, what look like treetops?
Manhattan is more slender in this photo. Without the landfill from the digging of the World Trade Center, there’s no Battery Park City on the Hudson side. Ship traffic ruled.
In the second photo, the USS Akron is hovering closer to Central Park. The contours of the East River can be seen; the sun seems to shine on the elegant high-rises and towers of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue.
Manhattan is a giant rectangle here, neatly divided by wide avenues. The Gothic roofline of the Plaza Hotel comes into view. The Central Park Reservoir dominates the park. I never realized it stretched from the East Side almost all the way to the West.
[Images: Wikipedia]
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COLER’S AUXILIARY IS A 501 (C)3 NOT-FOR -PROFIT ORGANIZATION. THIS FUND RAISES MONEY FOR COLER RESIDENT SERVICES.
MANY SERVICE ARE NOT PROVIDED BY THE HOSPITAL INCLUDING: HOLIDAY GIFTS, HEALTH AND BEAUTY SUPPLIES, BUS TRIPS TO RESTAURANTS, GAMES, & SPECIAL EVENTS, IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING LIBRARY FURNITURE, GYM EQUIPMENT, ART SUPPLIES AND MUCH MORE.
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PLANS FOR ELEVATOR TOWERS LOCATED AT THE VERNON AVE. & 1st AVE. CORNERS. TOWERS WERE FOR PEDESTRIANS GOING TO UPPER LEVEL WALKWAY. JAY JACOBSONG GOT IT RIGHT
At the time of his father’s death, FDR was in his first year at Harvard, from where he graduated in 1904. The following year, he married Eleanor Roosevelt (1884– 1962), and together they had six children: Anna (1906–1975), James (1907–1991), Franklin Jr. (1909–1909), Elliott (1910–1990), Franklin Jr. (1914–1988), and John (1916–1981).
The family made the Springwood house, which they shared with Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt, their home.
A large but simple Italianate farmhouse, by 1915 FDR and his mother had completed extensive renovations that included the stucco and fieldstone exterior, the addition of two large wings, and a columned portico.
In 1925, four years after contracting polio which left him without use of his legs, FDR purchased his second upland farm, the 192-acre Tompkins Farm. The property consisted of abandoned fields well suited to reforestation, and a farmhouse and barn at the corner of Violet Avenue and Creek Road.
Around this same time, Eleanor Roosevelt and her friends Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook built a retreat named Val-Kill at a favorite picnic spot along the banks of the Fall Kill at the east end of the Bennett Farm. With FDR’s support, the women built a swimming pool and Dutch Colonial–style house, known as Stone Cottage, that was completed in 1926.
The women also developed Val-Kill into an experiment in rural industry, focusing initially on Nancy Cook’s expertise in furniture making. While construction of Stone Cottage was underway, a second building was constructed to house the furniture shops of Val-Kill Industries.
Inherited by FDR upon his mother’s death in 1941, the house and much of the estate were transferred to the federal government in 1945 at the President’s request.
Now the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, its interior remains as it was during Roosevelt’s lifetime. The grounds – over 1,000 acres in all – feature flower gardens, outbuildings, and miles of walking trails.
The Rose Garden contains the graves of both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The site also include the nation’s first Presidential Library.
The site is located at 4097 Albany Post Road in Hyde Park. For more information, visit their website, or call (845) 229-5320.
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COLER’S AUXILIARY IS A 501 (C)3 NOT-FOR -PROFIT ORGANIZATION. THIS FUND RAISES MONEY FOR COLER RESIDENT SERVICES.
MANY SERVICE ARE NOT PROVIDED BY THE HOSPITAL INCLUDING: HOLIDAY GIFTS, HEALTH AND BEAUTY SUPPLIES, BUS TRIPS TO RESTAURANTS, GAMES, & SPECIAL EVENTS, IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING LIBRARY FURNITURE, GYM EQUIPMENT, ART SUPPLIES AND MUCH MORE.
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ANDY SPARBERG, HARA REISER AND JOYCE GOLD GOT IT RIGHT.
NEW DATE FOR THIS PROGRAM IS NOW FEBRUARY 13TH.
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Photos, from above: The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (courtesy National Park Service); and A young Franklin Roosevelt with his parents, James and Sara, and their dog Monk on the lawn at Springwood in 1891 (FDR Library); The home of the Roosevelts (courtesy NPS); and an aerial view of The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site (courtesy National Park Service).
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
HAPPY CHANUKAH TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY FROM THE R.I.H.S.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND,
DECEMBER 9-10, 2023
COLER CELEBRATES
THE HOLIDAYS
WITH
TREE LIGHTINGS
ISSUE #1142
JUDITH BERDY
THIS WEDNESDAY THE STAFF AND RESIDENTS OF COLER CELEBRATED THE TREE LIGHTING OF TWO TREES IN THE COLER LOBBY.
JOVEMAY SANTOS AND MOMO, COLER’S HEALING HOUND WERE PRESENT TO GREET ALL GUESTS.
PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS FROM SING FOR HOPE PERFORMED CLASSIC AND HOLIDAY MUSIC
THE THERAPEUTIC RECREATION STAFF, WHO WORK FOR WEEKS TO DECORATE AND ARRANGE ALL FOR THE HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS…..GREAT WORK TEAM!!!
ASHLEY AND MAUREEN MAKE SURE ALL RECEIVE DELICIOUS TREATS
OUR SECOND TREE ENHANCES THE RIVER VIEW FROM THE LOBBY
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MANY SERVICE ARE NOT PROVIDED BY THE HOSPITAL INCLUDING: HOLIDAY GIFTS, HEALTH AND BEAUTY SUPPLIES, BUS TRIPS TO RESTAURANTS, GAMES, & SPECIAL EVENTS, IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING LIBRARY FURNITURE, GYM EQUIPMENT, ART SUPPLIES AND MUCH MORE.
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FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE 1955 PLACEMENT OF THE CENTER SPAN OF THE WELFARE ISLAND BRIDGE
Perley’s Reminiscences / Courtesy of the White House Historical Association
This blogpost originally appeared on January 17, 2017
American presidents have long received gifts from citizens, states, and foreign nations alike. Certainly the cheesiest gift of them all was given to Thomas Jefferson on January 1, 1802, joining cheese and democracy in the most perfectly delicious union.
The “Mammoth Cheese” was created for President Jefferson by members of the Cheshire Baptist Church from Cheshire, Massachusetts. The cheese weighed 1,235 pounds and milk from every cow in Cheshire—approximately 900 cows—was used to create this colossal cheese. According to the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser for December 30, 1801, the cheese arrived in Washington, D.C. “in a wagon drawn by six horses.” The Mammoth Cheese was so awe-inspiring, that it marks the first use of the word “mammoth” as an adjective spurred by a nationwide fascination with mammoths following the discovery of large prehistoric bones in the new world.
Church leader John Leland was an abolitionist and activist for religious freedom—specifically the separation of religion and politics. Leland and Darius Brown, the engineer who adapted for use the cider press in which the cheese was crafted, presented the cheese to President Jefferson, remarking with pride that it was made entirely from the labor of free-born dairy farmers and their wives and daughters—no slave labor included. As a well-known preacher and activist, Leland actively supported Thomas Jefferson and in July 1801 when cheese production began, not one Federalist curd was accepted as a contribution. Moreover, during the election of 1800, all of Cheshire voted for Jefferson, with the exception of one rogue oppositional vote that was thrown out due to the assumption that it must have been a mistake. Thomas Jefferson was overwhelmed with appreciation for the men and women who created the cheese and invited Leland and Brown to take a piece back to Cheshire for the creators to enjoy. The cheese became a national sensation, responses varying from news reports to poetry.
An ode to democracy, Andrew Jackson was later gifted a similarly large wheel of cheese. In 1835 Thomas S. Meacham presented President Jackson with an even larger 1,400 pound wheel of cheese made by dairymen from Oswego County, New York. Meacham’s mammoth cheese was one of multiple large cheeses he gifted, including an approximately 800 pound wheel of cheese for Martin Van Buren. Meacham’s cheeses are reported to have been ornately decorated with paintings and mottos customized for the recipients. It was created with the intention of pomp and circumstance—perhaps after hearing about the last cheese’s success—arriving at the White House in a cart drawn by 24 horses compared to Leland’s 6 horses. Jackson’s cheese lived in the White House foyer for about two years and in celebration of George Washington’s Birthday in 1837, Jackson invited the public to freely enjoy this aging giant. It is rumored that the event was so crowded, that people who could not fit through the doors were climbing in through the windows. It took only two hours for the cheese to be devoured however, its smell would linger for months.
The cheeses have had a lasting impression and during President Obama’s administration, the White House has held two Big Block of Cheese Days in an effort to channel the accessible democratic discussion stimulated by Jackson’s open house cheese celebration. The cheese has become a symbolic tool to welcome American citizens to communicate with the president. The Obama administration instead utilized social media to communicate with the public (no large cheeses were harmed in the making of this campaign). Whitehouse.gov posted a very punny celebrity-laden video about the initiative here
The move into the Second World War by the United States brought change for this country’s citizens. The most important was in the lives of the 16 million men and women who served during the war, and the over 400,000 who gave their lives.
Back at home communities coped with rationing of gasoline, sugar, tires, and other products to support the war effort. Other steps that both young and old were asked to take were buying war bonds and collecting scrap metal and rubber.
One of the more unusual items was the collection of milkweed pods, something desperately needed by the U.S. Navy for life preservers.
Only hours after Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the Philippines and the American forces stationed there. This successful invasion and bombing campaign gave Japan control of the Dutch East Indies’ oil reserves and access to abundant raw materials in the region.
Access to oil was one of the primary causes of Japanese aggression, but another of these resources was kapok, a fiber obtained from the fruit of kapok tree that grows in the rainforests of that area. The fiber, light and very buoyant, was used in life preservers by both the military and civilians.
As a replacement for this critical component of life vests was needed, the American industry began searching for likely alternatives. The most effective substitute was milkweed floss, with tests showing that a pound of this fiber would keep an adult afloat for over 40 hours.
Milkweed was quickly given the status of a wartime strategic material and the government allocated funds for its collection and processing. Soon the call went out to pick milkweed pods, with open mesh bags being distributed to schools in regions where milkweed was prevalent.
In Waterford, Saratoga County, a drive to pick the pods was organized by the local Lions Club, with members of area Scout Troops, 4-H Clubs, and students from the Waterford Schools pitching in. As an incentive to participate the Waterford Lions Club offered prizes of three dollars, two dollars, and one dollar to boys and girls who collected the greatest number of filled bags.
With an estimated half-million pounds needed to make life vests for the military in 1944, every bag picked was considered vitally important. In the spring of 1945, milkweed pods collected around the Saratoga County region were brought to the county fair grounds in Ballston Spa for shipment to the processing plant in Michigan.
The 8,000 bags that had been collected from Saratoga, Warren, and Washington Counties would provide enough floss to fill four thousand life vests. Overall, New York State collected enough pods to exceed its goal of gathering enough milkweed to fill over a quarter-million life jackets.
The milkweed needed to be picked before they broke open and scattered the floss, leaving only a small window of opportunity to collect the pods. Once filled, the mesh collection bags were hung outside to dry, with two bags needed to fill one life vest.
In many counties, it was the 4-H Club agents who oversaw the work of distributing the collection bags. One example was Samuel B. Dorrance, the agent for Rensselaer County, who passed out two thousand of these open mesh bags.
In a newspaper account of his efforts, published in the September 15, 1944, Troy Record, he gave these instructions for collecting the pods:
“When the seeds are brown, the pods are ready for picking but definitely not before, as they will mold,” he said. “Those in the northern part of the county are not yet ready. It isn’t necessary to examine each pod if a test shows that the majority of the seeds are ripe.”
He continued with the necessity of leaving the bags out to dry for at least two weeks, preferably hanging them from a fence at least a foot off the ground, after which they could be brought indoors.
With the slogan of “Don’t Let Our Sailor’s Sink” 4-H boys and girls roamed the countryside collecting milkweed from fence rows and open fields. Lifelong Saratoga County resident Marion Crandall shared this memory of that time while growing up in Bacon Hill, a farming community near Schuylerville:
“In the orchard there were a lot of milkweeds… they needed kapok for the war… for life preservers… it was a 4-H project, so we went to the orchard, picked milkweed pods, and put them in big onion bags, mesh bags.”
The efforts of the young people in Bacon Hill were a success, as by September of 1944 they had collected eleven bags of milkweed pods.
With the close of the war in September of 1945, collection of milkweed floss was no longer necessary, and the program was ended.
While it is impossible to count the number of lives that were saved through this work by the children of America, what they accomplished was vitally important to the war effort and even now we can look back with pride at what they achieved.
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE NORTH WING OF METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL WHICH HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED IN 1970. SEEEMS THE FIRE ESCAPE WAS A FAVORITE PLACE FOR A SMOKE.
Illustrations, from above: Milkweed pods collected in Massachusetts in 1944; Canadian World War Two milkweed collection propaganda; milkweed pod and floss illustration by Adelaide Murphy Tyrol; and U.S. sailors who survived 17 hours after the sinking of their vessel during World War Two with the aid of life vests (Coast Guard photo).
In 1869, alarming news about the dangers of drinking absinthe swept north from the city of New York, through Albany, all the way to Malone, near the Canadian border. A “brilliant writer” from the New York press and a “talented lady” had ruined themselves physically and mentally by drinking absinthe.
Comparing the drink to opium and morphine, the article warned readers that absinthe “obtains an all-powerful control over its votaries, deadens the sensibilities, and is, indeed the guillotine of the soul.”
Results of experiments on animals by Dr. Valentin Magnan, a respected French physician and an authority on what was called “alcoholic insanity,” gave weight to warnings that absinthe caused vertigo, convulsions, hallucinations, insanity and criminality. According to Dr. Magnan, the effects were permanent and hereditary — children of an absinthe drinker stood a good chance of developing a serious mental illness.
Dr. Magnan’s 1869 experiments on guinea pigs, rabbits and cats were well-publicized in New York State. He compared the effects of pure alcohol and absinthe on the animals by putting one in a glass case with a saucer full of pure alcohol, and another in a case with a saucer of the essence of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), one of the plants used to make absinthe and from which it takes its name.
The animal exposed to absinthe soon “fell on its side, agitating its limbs convulsively, foaming at the mouth and presenting all the signs of epilepsy.” The animal forced to get intoxicated by pure alcohol “behaved like an ordinary drunkard. He became lively, then reeled about, and at last lay down and fell into a heavy sleep.”
The warnings about the danger of using absinthe came primarily from opponents of alcohol abuse and public drunkenness. Interestingly, as the nineteenth century wore on, French wine makers encouraged their efforts.
They had seen most of their vineyards destroyed during the Great French Wine Blight and the shortage of wine led to higher wine prices. To curb their growing expenses, absinthe manufacturers stopped using wine alcohol and began using cheaper industrial alcohol made from beets and grain. The result was an inexpensive absinthe, cheaper than wine, which greatly appealed to working class drinkers.
A distilled spirit made from the essences of a number of plants including anise, fennel, hyssop, and wormwood, absinthe has high alcohol content, typically 110 to 144 proof (55 to 72 per cent alcohol). Because of its traditionally bright yellowish-green color, absinthe has been known by a number of nicknames including the green muse, the green torment, the green oblivion, and its most popular nickname, the green fairy.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, absinthe enjoyed a surge of popularity in France where more absinthe was consumed than in the rest of the world. Artists, writers and poets such as Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Arthur Rimbaud, and Oscar Wilde were said to have been inspired by the green fairy.
Absinthe also made its way into the U.S. The Absinthe Room opened in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1874 and attracted prominent literary figures including Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. In the city of New York, the Absinthe House opened its doors for business and soon absinthe drinking became all the rage with bohemians and their wannabees.
As absinthe became more popular in New York State, alarm bells about its usage rang louder. In 1879, a doctor reviewed the use of absinthe, “an unusually deadly poison,” in an article for the British magazine Contemporary Review.
Reprinted in The New York Times, the story concluded that heavy use of absinthe can cause “epileptiform convulsions” and unconsciousness which can last for six or seven hours. The doctor warned that in the worst cases, the absinthe user can become a “confirmed epileptic.”
The anti-absinthe drumbeat continued into the last years of the nineteenth century. For example, an 1893 article in the New York literary magazine Current Literature entitled “Confessions of an Absintheur” and written by “A Slave to the Green Fairy,” began with the author saying, “I know what absinthe means! Madness and death!”
The movement to ban absinthe was given a huge boost in 1905 when a Swiss laborer murdered his two children and pregnant wife after a day long drinking bout with wine, brandy — and two glasses of absinthe. The crime and its connection with absinthe were highly publicized and support for a ban on absinthe skyrocketed.
In 1912, following the lead of the Congo Free State, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland, the U.S. banned the importation of absinthe. A doctor speaking for the government said absinthe was being banned because it was “dangerous to health,” “one of the worst enemies of man,” and because users risked becoming “slaves to this demon.”
The ban on absinthe in the U.S. lasted almost 100 years. In 2007, the federal government lifted its ban and the green fairy returned to New York State. At first, sales soared and in 2010, New York State absinthe was distilled in Walton, a town in the foothills of the Catskills in Delaware County, and in Gardiner, a town in neighboring Ulster County.
Since then, sales of absinthe have leveled off. Some analysts have suggested that the drop may have occurred because consumers were disappointed by the “green fairy effect” or they did not like absinthe’s licorice-like taste.
Another explanation for the drop may be found in commentary about absinthe widely attributed to Oscar Wilde. He said, “After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
CANINE STYLES IS A DOG GROOMING SHOP AND CLOTHING STORE FOR UPPER EAST SIDE DOGS. THIS STORE HAS THE MOST CREATIVE WINDOW DISPLAYS FOR OVER THE MANY YEARS AT 63RD AND LEXINGTON AVENUE.
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
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