What if the winter Olympics were in New York?

You know it’s bad when cars in midtown are sliding all over the place, or just getting stuck. But that’s how it is today in Manhattan. It ain’t pretty.

More snow due this weekend.

Which all just sets us up for a beautiful spring!

[Photo Credit: Robert Sabo/N.Y. Daily News]

Lorne Michaels talks comedy. 

It’s less than 24 hours since police found Phillip Seymour Hoffman dead in his apartment. The description of how he was found is graphic and since we know him so well from the movies it’s easy to picture it all in painful detail.

It’s a blue Monday in New York.

[Photo Credit: Jonathan Smith]

Is the Super Bowl in New York just another pain in the ass to avoid?

Course it is. Will Leitch has more.

Lonely Avenue. 

Another good one from Humans of New York. 

Man, this is almost three years ago now. But check it out, some audio of Emma Span and me. This was at Gelf’s Varsity Letters reading series down in the village. Emma sure is funny.

Scouting New York tackles The Godfather. Tasty.

(Thanks to Kottke for the link.)

Welcome back to another go-round with Where & When. Last time we went out of town to discover the truth, today we come back home (so to speak) to find some more truth. So let’s get our keyboards ready and surf:

I like this picture; I can tell you that not much in this view has changed (really).  I’ll tell you what those changes are though if you tell me where this is (the station and the name of the main street the photo depicts), plus an approximate year. This is another easy one; not to tax you as we continue to discuss the recent additions to the club, the outlook going forward and how freezing cold it is outside for most of us.  How about a large mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream for the first person with both location and approximate date, and a hot cup of Oolong tea for the rest of us who follow up. I am feeling a little better as I recover from a bad cold, so I’ll try to check in once in a while. As I always say, I’m open to suggestions for future challenges and don’t peek at the photo credit for the answer (that’s more for the new readers who might be following us today).  Feel free to discuss and leave your answers in the thread.   And now I take my leave of you good folks, have a good day!

[Photo credit: Subchat.com]

Pictures of the subway back in 1981 by Christopher Morris (via The Wandrlustr). For more, head on over to Time‘s great Lightbox page. 

This snowy New York Minute is brought to you by the forever on point site: This Isn’t Happiness.

Welcome back for another round of Where & When.  I was going to take a break today because I’m fighting a bad cold, but my email froze when I tried to alert Mr. B, so I took this a s a sign to buckle down and continue as planned.  Then when I did a quick scan for a picture related to me being sick (as one would expect), I came across something else a little more interesting:

There’s a big story behind this, and I want you to uncover that story and tell us what the significance of this picture and the (un)likely date it was taken is.  As a bonus, there is a startling epilogue involving three major figures attached to this building; tell us what happened with these three people and you will be rewarded with an extra root beer.  Oh and the hint may be obvious: we’re on a trip from the usual.

This one’s relatively easy, I want to test your intuition and to bring forth an interesting back story with this one (as I try to do with all).  As usual, first person to name the where and the when will receive the root beer of their choice, and a special root beer for the bonus epilogue and a cream soda of choice for all the runners-up.  Have fun with this guys and gals, I’m going back to bed; don’t be mad if I don’t catch up this time.  Oh, and no peeking! >;)

[Photo Credit: The Washington Post]

A New York City Safari – lions on the inside.

Welcome one and all; we’re back with another round of Where & When.  Still looking for interesting pics and anecdotes to go along with them, searching for little twists to challenge you with. All in a few minutes of feverish work or days of planning? Doesn’t matter, we have fun.

Take this pic for example:

Easy, right? You’ve seen that building before, and you can still see it if you like.  But you know me by now, it’s not that simple.  I want to know if you can tell me where the photographer was standing when this picture was taken.  There are obvious clues and not-so obvious to help you figure that out, so you won’t need any clues from me.  When it was taken shouldn’t be too hard to figure out either, though I will accept an approximation in lieu of an exact date.  As a bonus, name two prominent buildings in the picture.

Your favorite root beer in a decanter if you are the first with the answers, your favorite cream soda in a spritzer bottle for all follow-ups and a scoop of ice cream for the bonus.  Be fair, don’t look at the photo credit for the answer and show your math (which means something this time around).  I’ll be back in the afternoon (hopefully) with the answers.  Hmm, and full credit will be given only for complete answers and proof of your strategy; that means you won’t get credit for only answering one question per comment, but feel free to utilize the comments to map your strategy before presenting.  Have fun!

[Photo credit: NYC Past]

My Dad died on this day 7 years ago. I just learned that today is also National Hot Pastrami Day.

Fitting.

Sunday was a fun day in New York.

Photo Credit: brnyc via This Isn’t Happiness]

Happy New Year! Welcome to a new year and new round of Where & When; time to get off on the right foot and move forward.  Let’s see how many more people we can get into our little games here and see how far we can expand our borders; for the coming year we will be traveling around the tri-state area to various points of interest and try to determine where the heck we ended up.  Of course New York City remains the center of attention, but as I’ve said, the challenging pics are hard to come by.  But enough complaints and speculation, check out this interesting point:

Gotta love Olde Bvildings.  Okay, enough horsing around, let’s try to find out where this is.  As far as when, if you study the pic, you’ll notice something (open to the public one year prior) that gives you the proper year.  As a bonus, consider the statue in the picture and tell us who it depicts.

Rewards: The first person with the correct answers gets a fictional snifter of the root beer of his or her choice (New Year’s Special), and the runners-up will get a martini-glass of the ream soda of their choice; you all should you declare your brand of choice.  The bonus will get you an extra cream soda, and you are also welcome to submit additional trivia for a bonus.

Well, have it.  Stay away from the photo credits, I’ll try to get back to you all in the afternoon.  And, as always, new challenge ideas are always welcome, just send me an email with a pic and date and we’ll queue it up.  Enjoy!

[Photo credit: Ephemeral New York and Old NYC Photos]

Cool.

Swiping more wonderfulness from Kottke, dig Greg Alessandrini’s NYC photographs…