New York Navel Gazing

Last weekend I also made a trip to the Queens Museum of Art. I'd never been before (most likely because it is, as one might imagine, in Queens) to see a pretty interesting exhibit about Robert Moses curated by my once-upon-a-time undergrad thesis advisor, and the scale model of New York City pictured below. Since then, I keep telling everyone I know to go to the Queens Museum of Art to see the model...especially anyone who's only been in the city a few years, because the model can help you see the forest instead of the trees...it can give you a sense of the size of the different boroughs, where they are located, where population is concentrated. The model shows all five boroughs, at a scale of one inch to one hundred feet, and walking around I could find individual buildings at Columbia, and the street where I live now.


Looking from the Upper West Side of Manhattan south and east.


Looking from eastern Brooklyn to the west - Manhattan in the distance.


Looking from Queens south - with an excellent view of La Guardia airport.

Trivia: the General Assembly first met in the room that currently houses the scale model of NYC.

Second piece of trivia: Did you know that the Statue of Liberty faces Brooklyn? Or that this is because it looks in the direction of the Battle of Brooklyn, the first major battle of the Revolutionary War?

Rice to Riches

A couple of days ago I went to a rice pudding shop, Rice to Riches. All they sell is rice pudding. And coffee. I really like rice pudding, and I like the idea of a store that sells only rice pudding because it is kind of absurd. It turns out I also like their brand identity, because the store is papered all over with slogans like

"We sell rice pudding, if you don't want that, you can have rice pudding, and if you don't want that, you can have rice pudding."

or

"I'll diet when the earth runs out of food"

or

"eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding"

or

"all calories consumed here are yours to keep"

or

"eat all you want... you're already fat"

For some reason, I found it very cheering to read these little slogans while eating rum and raisin rice pudding off of a translucent yellow paddle (offered in lieu of a spoon). Also, the rice pudding was good.