corner nimbus

The Lonely Wall

Perhaps it was once part of a house. Perhaps it never was but hoped one day it would be. Perhaps the wall at 220 16th St. is quite content to mislead the mind and toy with expectations. Perhaps it holds out as a tease to the developers who've built the ample condos on that block. Who could hold that against it, life for a wall can be pretty boring.

Unless of course you are a wall in Jerusalem, where you might see some action. In an edition of Ripley's Believe It or Not, which I read with my daughter on Monday while we waited in the Methodist Emergency Room, it is stated that if you address a letter to God it is forwarded to Jerusalem and tucked into a crack in the Western Wall. But I imagine it would be pretty hard to get delivery confirmation on that. Perhaps as hard as it is to figure out what's the matter with her arm and when it will stop hurting her. But at least we now know there's no fracture.

Sandy's Internet Coffee Shop

I love this tiny coffee shop on 16th St. just up slope from 5th Avenue. For some reason it's a very comfortable place. Perhaps it's the yellow walls, and the friendly people who run it, who I suspect also own the computer repair business next door.

I didn't realize they had computer access there. Now I know where to go in a pinch.

Fields No More

Driving by this liquor store on 16th St. the other day I had a moment of panic because there was brown paper up over the windows and a little sign that said closed. It hit me hard because I had such a good feeling about that place. I wanted to go talk to the kind elderly man that ran it and document his old store, but I never got the chance.

Later I drove by the place and saw that the paper was gone, the store was open, and it looked exactly the same. I calmed down about missing my chance but began to doubt my sanity.

Today I got a chance to go in and ask. Sure enough, there had been paper on the windows, apparently the place changed hands when the previous owner retired. The new people seemed very nice but I think I annoyed them a bit going on and on about how I loved the old place and saying things like "you're not going to change ANYTHING right?" The man I was speaking to started to look a little pale, not as happy as he had been to begin with. He kept saying "We're going to bring in some really great new wines..." At one point he seemed to be asking me if it were OK if they brought in some new wines...I guess I come on too strong at times. I would love to learn to relax. It's actually really great that the previous owner found people ready to leap in and take over his business, I'd be even more sad to see this place standing empty like the old Universal Video space.

They are changing the name to something like Windsor Wine and Liquor. But will they take that beautiful sign down? It's a free country of course but can they really do better than use what they already have? No one's asking me but I'll tell you anyway- they are lucky to have that gorgeous sign, which the pictures in this post really don't do justice to.