Monthly Archives: October 2013

Here’s an inventive and funny movie that used to make the rounds on HBO back in the mid-Eighties. Beautiful and disturbing stop-motion animation. Highly recommended.

Can we go? Please.

Boo.

and this too:

What’s your favorite and least favorite Halloween candy?

Boo.

[Photo Via: One Picture a Day]

[Picture by Maurizio Di Iorio via This Isn’t Happiness]

Oh, this is good. The wonderful Letters of Note site has published a book.

Welcome one and all to the latest episode of Where & When; the Banter’s unique version of Lost & Found where you get lost in thought and find a drink at the end of the road. I like that better than any that involves mittens or Mittens or… you get the picture.

Speaking of getting the picture, get a load of this:

Hmm, what does that look like? Looks pretty old. Yet, I’ll bet some may have see that during an off day or may have caught a glimpse of it it during a commute. I have to tell you, the date was not attached to this, but a reference implied that this depicts an earlier version of the structure that exists today, which apparently is a restored version of this. It could depict the year that this structure became part of local and eventually national folklore. Still too hard to tell? I’m sure you’ll get it before Congress gets it </political sarcasm>…

For all newcomers to this game, the object is simple: use your detective skills to determine the location and the date of the picture, using visual and written clues that are either in the picture or hinted by me (or others). Display how you tracked down the answers when you respond and you might win.  A guess is okay, but “showing your math” will garner more credit. Using the internet is okay as well, but don’t click on the photo credit for the answer.

An Old Fashioned Glass of Old Town  for the first person to decipher my nonsense correctly, and a Moxie for those who follow.  As a treat, I’m going to let you post your answers in the comments today, as it is a special day, plus it might get you accustomed to a new feature of this post starting next week.  Don’t worry, you’ll appreciate what I add to it as much as you appreciate what is already here.  Comment away, if need be I will confirm the answer later this afternoon.  Feel free to discuss whatever comes to mind. Good luck!

[Photo Credit: The Historical Society, Inc.]

Cards look to stay alive and force a Game 7.

I say the Sox end it tonight.

Never mind the bollocks:

Let’s Go Cards!

Slow day at the Banter. Hey, here’s a New York moment for guys from the ‘burbs. This armless gas station giant used to be painting a different color but he’s still standing. I remember passing through Elmsford when we’d got visit our aunt Ruthie in New Rochelle.

Be back tonight for the game.

[Photo Credit: Rolandopujol]

In Focus takes on Banksy in New York.

Course not everyone is enamored of the pop artist.

[Photo Credit: Eric Thayer; Carlo Allegri]

Picture Via Find Me If You Can–Read Description.

Al is great. Give us the chocolate cake. 

(The video is out-of-synch but that’s okay, just listen…)

Here’s more on Lou Reed:

From our man Luc Sante.

Jody Rosen.

Sasha Frere-Jones.

Kurt Loder and Carl Wilson.

And a playlist from The Daily Beast.  

[Images Via: This Isn’t Happiness]

Another tough loss for the Cards last night. Then again, aren’t they all tough this time of year? They are up against the wall now and I doubt they’ll win the damn thing which is a drag.

I saw this picture and thought I’d share it. It doesn’t mean anything. I just found it pleasing.

[Photo Credit: Anthony Delgado via MPD]

This is the fear and loathing Whirled Serious for Yankee fans.

Gotta figure the Cards need to win tonight, right? They go back to Boston down 3-2 they are going to need a whole lot of Buckner on their side to pull this shit out.

I got no call on the game tonight–but I’m not feeling especially optimistic. Just hoping the Cards find a way.

Never mind the nerves: Let’s Go Red Boids!

[Photo Via: MPD]

Tonight on HBO.

Head on over to Longform and check out their reprint of Gay Talese’s terrific 1966 profile of Alden Whitman, the New York Times obituary writer:

“Winston Churchill gave you your heart attack,” the wife of the obituary writer said, but the obituary writer, a short and rather shy man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and smoking a pipe, shook his head and replied, very softly, “No, it was not Winston Churchill.”

“Then T.S. Eliot gave you your heart attack,” she quickly added, lightly, for they were at a small dinner party in New York and the others seemed amused.

“No,” the obituary writer said, again softly, “it was not T.S. Eliot.”

If he was at all irritated by his wife’s line of questioning, her assertion that writing lengthy obituaries for the New York Times under deadline pressure might be speeding him to his own grave, he did not show it, did not raise his voice; but then he rarely does. Only once has Alden Whitman raised his voice at Joan, his present wife, a youthful brunette, and on that occasion he screamed. Alden Whitman does not recall precisely why he screamed. Vaguely he remembers accusing Joan of misplacing something around the house, but he suspects that in the end he was the guilty one. Though this incident occurred more than two years ago, lasting only a few seconds, the memory of it still haunts him—a rare occasion when he truly lost control; but since then he has remained a quiet man, a predictable man who early each morning, while Joan is asleep, slips out of bed and begins to make breakfast: a pot of coffee for her, one of tea for himself. Then he sits for an hour or so in his study smoking a pipe, sipping his tea, scanning the newspapers, his eyebrows raising slightly whenever he reads that a dictator is missing, a statesman is ill.

[Illustration by Jacob van Loon]

“Sunflowers at Choisel” by Georges Braque (1946)

Hi there, welcome back to another fun round of Where & When, the game that’s all over the map and you have to invest a certain amount of time trying to decide where and when the heck you are (kind of like Doctor Who I imagine…), then reach for that drafty bottle as opposed to a brass ring.  Sounds easy enough, but looks aren’t everything, so use whatever tools are available to find out the truth, if you can handle it.

Speaking of looks, let’s look at our latest challenge:

A nice, hi-res photo to ponder.  Also ponder this: The pic was taken at a moment where there was a proposal to bring the good folks of Brooklyn and Manhattan together and create some more space for people to eventually pay exorbitant rent for.  This idea was eventually made a reality to a much smaller scale; bonus if you know how this was accomplished.

A quaich full of Chautauqua for the first person with the correct answers, and a cold can of Zevia for those who follow suit.  As always, explain how you found the answers, and don’t click on the photo credit link for answers, though if you arrive to a similar place via another route, it is fair game (but you must show your math).  Send your answers to cixposse at gmail dot com and we’ll discuss the answers and winners after 4pm today, as I’m still trying to figure out when’s a good deadline.  Tell your friends and family, your co-workers, your next door neighbors and total strangers to come visit the site and play.  And all you lurkers, well as one of you did prove, anything’s possible; even winning! Enjoy yourselves and see you at the final bell!

[Photo credit: NYC Past]