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Tell me about Brooklyn


kenberg

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My wife and I drove up to Brooklyn yesterday. We spent the afternoon visiting family and strolling around Prospect Park. What a scene!

 

These places are not vegetarian but likely to have something vegetarians will enjoy:

 

 

 

(burger place with veggie burgers)

 

 

pizza

 

 

Good places to buy fruits and vegetables:

 

 

Fun places to walk

 

Prospect Park

 

Green-Wood Cemetary

 

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (my neighbor Thomas Rainer posted
on his blog)

 

Old brownstown neighborhoods in Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and others

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A child just takes his surroundings as normal . I grew up in St. Paul and I took it as natural that all cities had many lakes in and around them. It brings to mind Rck's (quote approximate) comment "I came to Casablanca for the waters" "But Casablanca is in the middle of a derert" "I was mus-informed".

 

Side bit: I was once told that the Supreme Court decided that, for purposes of taxation, Long Island was not an island. Any truth in that as far as you know?

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Side bit: I was once told that the Supreme Court decided that, for purposes of taxation, Long Island was not an island. Any truth in that as far as you know?

 

This sounds like the case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Maine

 

The question was whether Ling Island Sound and Block Island Sound, the waters north of LI, were a bay or open seas. It wasn't a matter of taxation, but whether this area of water was under federal or state control. If LI is a peninsula, then the sounds are bays and under control of the states that border it; if it's an island, it's federally controlled.

 

They decided that it's really a peninsula, because it's separated from the mainland just by the East River, which wasn't even wide enough for ships to pass until it was artificially widened.

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Ah yes, sounds like the case. I don't really have an opinion one way or the other, I'm sure these things are technical. But it is amusing to think of a court deciding whether Long Island is or is not an island.It sort of fits with Brooklyn not being part of Long Island. From the Supreme's view, Long Island is not an island at all, so it makes no sense to ask if Brooklyn is on or in Long Island. There is no island for Brooklyn to be on, and Long Island is just the name of an area, having nothing to do with islands. In Minnesota there is a town called Park Rapids. As far as I know, there are no rapids there.

 

But of course this is another example of logic trying to dominate reality. Reality always wins.

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They decided that it's really a peninsula, because it's separated from the mainland just by the East River, which wasn't even wide enough for ships to pass until it was artificially widened.

On a much smaller scale, we have the same situation here: Keweenaw Waterway

 

The Keweenaw Waterway was completed in the 1860's when a ship canal was built connecting Portage Lake on the east to Lake Superior on the west. Ships could now enter this ship canal from either side of the Keweenaw Peninsula and cross to the other side without having to go around.

 

The Keweenaw waterway also made it possible for larger vessels to travel to Houghton and Hancock and it provided a Harbor of Refuge to protect these vessels from Superior's terrible storms. Completion of this canal made the Keweenaw an island, rather than a peninsula.

Our one bridge to the mainland will be undergoing repairs from next December to June, so we're expecting significant traffic snarl-ups then.

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This is bizarre. If the problem with calling Long Island an island is that the East River isn't wide enough, then either LI is still an island (and Manhattan is part of it) or LI is a peninsula, and Manhattan is not an island either (because it's part of LI). In either case the lawyers who called LI a peninsula are a bunch of idiots.
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This is bizarre. If the problem with calling Long Island an island is that the East River isn't wide enough, then either LI is still an island (and Manhattan is part of it) or LI is a peninsula, and Manhattan is not an island either (because it's part of LI). In either case the lawyers who called LI a peninsula are a bunch of idiots.

 

But well paid idiots!

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This is like a Yogi Berra quote: In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they're not.

 

I am truly honored and pleased by the linkage, and that is one of my two favorites, the other being "A lot of things that said I didn't say".

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  • 4 weeks later...

My wife and I had dinner at the Pickle Shack last night. Excellent food and service. Good vibe. Reasonable prices.

 

It looked good from the review. We have been traveling to and fro so I haven't done much with this, but now we are back. Kathryn, the granddaughter, is now up in Brooklyn with a roommate. Neither of them has a car, probably right for living in Brooklyn. The Pickle Shack is not walking distance away but it's not so terribly far either. My plan is to talk with her soon and see what works for her. I am convinced enough so that if we go to Brooklyn then we will go to the Pickle Shack, but of course this dinner out is to be her choice (well, subject to price constraint). I'll recommend it.

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  • 1 month later...

My Brooklyn, Then and Now by 44 year resident Wendell Jamieson

 

 

Thanks. We are going up to visit the granddaughter on Wednesday.. A first time in Brooklyn both for Becky and for me. It will be a short visit, she has things to do other than entertain her grandparents, but we hope to absorb some of the sense of the place/

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