Thanks, Gawker, for this trip down memory lane where Apples were Lisas, phones stayed in one place and art directors' default type was Cooper Black. (For more remembrance, visit the Apple ad graveyard)



Sunday, May 25, 2008
apple memorial
Saturday, May 24, 2008
#33--pay phones that worked
Another thing about the old days, people walking by a ringing payphone would answer it. This guy used to prank-call the pay phone outside his window on 2nd Ave and 30th Street. Note the SUV-free avenue and the price of a hot dog: $1.
32 things I miss about new york

Today's NY Times memorializes New York Past, citing gone-but-not-forgotten institutions like automats, subway tokens, the Dodgers and other things endemic to the city when I moved here in 1979, meaning to stay just a year or two. For some of us, New York is like those old Roach Motels (where bugs check in, but they don't check out.)
Other icons of Manhattan that I used to think were forever:
1. grafitti "art" on subways
2. The Mill Luncheonette and its sublime egg creams (the first time I had one, I wondered where was the egg)
3. checker cabs with jump seats that folded
4. John Lennon
5. Pan Am sign on the Met Life building where I used to work
6. Alphabet City--such a better name than the Lower East Side
7. selzer delivered in colored glass bottles in wooden crates (although I cancelled our service after it brought in roaches)
8. Not having to dial 212 when you called someone in the city. Phone numbers had letter code "exchanges" that told you where someone lived: MU meant Murray Hill, CH meant Chelsea. So you'd know if a prospective hook-up was GU (geographically undesirable)
9. Andy Warhol
10. Studio (nobody said 54)
11. Rumplemeyers
12. orange paper transfers for buses
14. Gimbels (where I bought our dining room table at its going out of business sale)
15. used book stores
16. Claremont Stables
18. buying subway tokens (with cutout Y) at the newsstand
19. straps on the subway to help keep your balance
20. Woolworths (where my toddlers were entertained by the birds in cages long enough for me to shop)
21. Being able to leave your toddlers safely for a few minutes in the pet section of a Woolworth's
22. Tower Records
23. Columbia Bagels on 110th & Bway
24. Fulton Fish Market
25. Plaza Hotel where I used to take my daughters for tea and a look at the Eloise portrait
26. Breakfast with Santa at Lord + Taylor, before the store opened, when counters were covered with sheets.
27. Thalia Theater which screened movie classics on the UWS
28. Russian Tea Room (not that I went there more than twice, but liked hearing about it)
29. Maxwell's Plum (hangout for young creatives)
30. smoking cigarette billboards on Times Square
32. The chatty subway conductor on the #1 who had a running commentary all the way to South Ferry. His sardonic announcements like "Do persuade yourself to join us. Allow the doors to close" put you in a good mood, even if was Monday, even if you were going to work.
Friday, May 23, 2008
new language: global brandspeak
A random comment on Jane's brilliant fun-with-brands post resulted in unprecedented bounce count for me yesterday. Her Brand Timeline Portrait (inspired by Noah Brier's Brand Tags) bounced me browsers from not only from our longitude but Mumbai, Warsaw, Cairo, Stockholm, Santiago, Zurich, Bucharest, Portugal, Helsinki, Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia, Nairobi, Singapore.
What accounts for her viral's global virility? I think she invented a new language. Universal brand speak. The happy result of multinational corporations spending obscene amounts on global ad campaigns is, they've bequeathed to consumers an international language. All over the world, people who share a certain lifestyle know that google=searching. Nike=just do it. Mastercard=priceless. So now we don't have to go thru the pesky process of memorizing foreign vocab and tenses--we can say it with brands.
Looking for love? Put out the word in Global Brandspeak:
Anyone who can't translate older woman of real (if in need of some retouching) beauty seeking older non-metrosexual man to bring good things to life, well, you're not interested anyway.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
super sassy and fun to wear!
Though some NYC middleschoolers hold the flattering assumption that I am cyber-savvy enough to shut down their facebook accounts (see under posted items), I'm actually kind of a computer dunce. I'm new to Facebook and Twitter. Haven't switched yet to Leopard. I still Quark, for god's sake. The only reason I can keep up this site is because Blogger is so easy to use, a caveman could do it.
How did I ever live without this handy (and stylish) apron? My BFF made this for me and hand delivered it this past weekend. This little helper is chalk full of details, including pockets that slant to the sides to prevent pens and tools from stabbing when sitting down. On top of it all...it's super sassy and fun to wear!
twitter bully still at large-UPDATE
Blogger Ariel Waldman has been harassed on Twitter by a cyberbully since June 2007, but Twitter refuses to do anything about it because:Unfortunately, although [this user’s] behavior is admittedly mean, [s/he] isn’t...doing anything illegal.
UPDATE- Read latest Twitter responses and AW's take on situation in new post.
A spokeswoman for Facebook, Malorie Lucich, said accounts are disabled if terms of service are in violation.
See, Twitter? For the sake of abiding members, other providers take TOS seriously.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
flesh-eating vegetarians aren't frauds, they're flexitarians
From today's NY Sun:Broadway East might easily be mistaken for a vegetarian restaurant, with its plates of macrobiotic grains and dairy-free simulated cheeses. But close perusal of the menu turns up a roast chicken dish that's made with real chicken. The black cod is not ersatz either.
The new spot is built for flexitarians, that breed of mostly vegetarian eater that doesn't mind a helping of animal protein now and then.
