SfanGoch

That's funny but not surprising, Richard. Does she know what the record player is for? When I was in grade school, the nuns always called it a "Victrola". Sr. Philemona, who looked like Ernest Borgnine in a habit, predated the discovery of fire. It's a shame people use bank/debit cards to pay for everything now. It's almost impossible to find an errant sawbuck lying on the sidewalk anymore. A few years ago, my kid found a fifty while we were walking through Brooklyn Bridge Park. The little son of a......gun beat me to it.

$1.79 at the Sonomax in my neighborhood and $3.59 at a Mobil station on 11th Ave. in Manhattan. Go figure.

Could be that or it's a pretty ingenious cover to burglarize the house.

You got everything but the kitchen sink int this one.

My friend Norbert owns a gasthaus in a town called Obernzenn, near where I was stationed in the early '80s. He had a Grundig color TV mounted on the wall opposite the bar. Since he usually couldn't remember where he last left the remote, he'd grab his key ring and do exactly what you said. My friends and I would P.O. the oldtimers watching soccer matches by shaking our keys and changing the channel. Then they would shake theirs and change it back. Then we'd do it again. After a while, it would sound like sleigh bells in the place. One day, after an extended key concert, Norbert went over to where the TV was, yanked it off the platform, threw it through the window and announced, "Time to buy a new television."

That's what my folks called the icebox, the "frigidaire". I still do on occasion. I still hear people in the neighborhood refer to discount stores as "five & tens". OT: remember the old electro-mechanical TV remotes? They made a loud metallic clunk when you pressed the buttons. When I was twelve, my friend Junior found one in his basement. He brought it outside and started playing around with it. We were walking up the "yavnya" ("Avenue" to non-Brooklynites. It was always "walking up the yavnya", even if you were really heading south. Go figure ) and Junior was monkeying around with the remote again. As he pushed the buttons, the car we were standing next to, I believe it was an older Chrysler, cranked up. There was nobody inside. We split real fast. Later on that day, we went back to where the car was parked and it was still in the same spot. So, Junior pulled out the remote; pushed the buttons and the car started up again. To this day, I wonder how that was possible.

ACK!!! The first "Buy Now" price is half the original sticker price of the real thing.

I get a kick (and slightly annoyed by their lack of knowledge about the difference) when people under a certain age refer to films, like old newsreel footage and such, as "videos".

It's surprising that there are any Polish stores of any type still exist in Hamtramck. Almost 90% of the Poles beat feet out of town. Are those pączki certified halal?

I recently bought an original Bell System Princess phone, with the light-up rotary dial, at a "vintage" shop for six bucks. Still works. It's a perfect match with my family's original phone number dating back to 1952. I had it transferred to me after my dad passed away two years ago.

Funny that you should mention evilBay: 1968 Impala

NYS, and nine others, do have container deposits. NY's is a nickel per metal can, glass or plastic bottle, paper container or combination under 1 gal. Wine and liquor bottles are exempted. You can return them to any business or use reverse vending machines which are usually located at larger supermarkets. When I was a kid in the '60s, there was a 2 cent deposit on bottles only. Collecting them paid for a lot of cool junk for me and my friends.

Roj-o on that, Charles. Nearly everyplace in the city (except Staten Island. They're still stuck in 1975) is accessible by bus or subway. Subway's faster; but, the bus gives you a better opportunity to take in the sights in all their grimy glory . Roy, I also eat my share of mondongo, lengua, pernil and cuchifritos.

Hey Richard, most of us got used to the idea of unisex terlets by gas stations. You know, the ones that handed you the key attached to a hubcap by a foot long chain. It was all about Liberte, Egalite, Onway oilet-tay.

"Dead as a doornail" means someone, or something is useless. Doornails are the large-headed studs that were used in earlier times for strength and more recently as decoration. The practice was to hammer the nail through and bend the protruding end over to secure it. This process, similar to riveting, was called clenching. This is the origin of the "dead" part, since such a nail would be useless afterwards. Hotcake is a synonym for pancake. "Selling like hotcakes" is an American idiom coined in the 19th Century when the term "hotcakes was first used. For something to "sell like a hotcake", it must be bought in mass quantities with little effort on the part of the seller, usually so much so that it is hard to keep up with demand. H.L. Mencken's "The American Language" is a good read about Americanisms.

The original not so Slim Jim. Throw in some Pumpernickel bread, Kosciusko Mustard and a bottle of Zywiec beer to wash it down and you're set, Peteski.

Greenpoint is located at the Northern end of Brooklyn, bordered by Bushwick to the southeast, Williamsburg to the south and Long Island City in Queens, across Newtown Creek, to the north. The area is colloquially known as BushPointBurg, theme park for urban exploring, street cred seeking hipsters playcationing in NYC. Red Hook and Park Slope are located in what used to be called South Brooklyn. I like both nabes. Carroll Gardens was part of Red Hook until gentrifiers and real estate brokers decided to come up with a contrived name (Red Hook was considered a run down, post-industrial slum. What do they know?) to cash in. The Hook and The Slope are adjacent to each other. Red Hook is about 7 miles from me on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The Slope is about eight. Depending on traffic, which can turn the BQE into a six lane parking lot during AM/PM rush hours, it's a 20 minute drive.

"Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache" by Warren Smith "SS 396" by Paul Revere & The Raiders The '55 Ford and Caddy in "Maybellene" are doable. Duck Walk is optional.

Roy, you can add "FAT" to the other six days. Eating Polish "health food" means only two slabs of rye bread slathered with smalec (lard spread) while chowing down on some flacki (tripe) or a bowl of schav with sour cream and crumbled hard boiled eggs. Truly the gateway to hardened arteries. Craig, I'm a hardcore Polak. I love czarnina. To paraphrase Col. Lucas in "Apocalypse Now", "Captain, I don't know how you feel about this czarnina, but if you'll eat it, you never have to prove your courage in any other way." Charlie, Golemo's is a the best. They have great kielbasa. You're only about twenty minutes away. Go there and try it. There are a bunch in Providence also. When I worked linehaul, it seemed like every driver from the Providence terminal was a fellow Polak. They always came loaded with the good stuff. If you like kapusta, you'll like bigos. When I make mine, like back in the Old Country, I make it with cabbage, sauerkraut, venison, kielbasa, bacon, smoked ham, smoked pork, dried wild mushrooms and red wine. The great thing is that you can keep a pot going for a week, just keep adding more ingredients to replace what was eaten. I made a pot for Christmas and it lasted until right after the New Year. Except the Greenpernt, Brooklyn variety. The ones in Saskatoon are O.K., too. My aunt and late uncle ran a small hotel there years ago. The last time I was there, in 2000, I was walking along 8th Street East and a fat, grungy looking bum came up and hit me up for a couple of bucks. He said I didn't "look" Canadian and asked me where I was from. I said New York. "Really? What part?" Brooklyn. "Where in Brooklyn?" Greenpoint. "So am I, Chief!" "Yeah, right", I thought to myself. I wasn't buying this guy's spiel. I figured he was just sucking up for the money. So... what part of The Point did you say you're from? " I live on Noble St., next to the Danfords, across from Milton St. Park." What in the friggin' world are you doing in the middle of nowhere, man? "Vacation, bro. I figured this was a good time for one." We actually knew the same people. He said, " When you get back, tell Kevin Ward and Coleen Byrnes George from the 120 Club said 'What's up?'" "By the way, you got U.S. dollars? I get a better deal around here paying with greenbacks." Too weird.

Bingo! That's exactly what I do. There are a bunch of industrial plastic suppliers on Canal St., in Manhattan. Plastic sheets, shapes and solvents all in one location.

Weld-On 3 is excellent. It's mostly Methylene Chloride, water-thin and a 4oz. can will set you back about ten bucks. It's the same stuff as Tenax 7, Ambroid Pro Weld, Tamiya Thin/Extra Thin, etc. but a lot less expensive. Any decent hardware store carries it.

Other than NYC, the only place I'd relocate. Who stole the kishka? More than likely, it was Hymie Weiss Hymie was Polish. So is actress/Playboy Playmate Aleksandra Szwed Hell, she can steal my kishka any ol' time.

Ah, the Polish black market.........call Northside 777. I believe it was the legendary Stan Coveleski who said, "Pączki and baseball.....uh....what was the question?" I told someone at another modeling site that I would lament the loss of another Polish meat market in the neighborhood more than another brick & mortar hobby shop. There are only four left in Greenpernt which has the second largest concentration of Poles in the U.S., after Chicago. One can always find another source for models. Ya can't say the same for real, fresh kielbasa, pączki and zimne nogi.

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