Open Thread Wednesday

By on July 29, 2015 2:49 pm in open thread

What’s on your mind? Comment away! (Better late than never.)

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  • GHB

    Anybody know the deal with the older guy who hangs out by the entrance to the Promenade at Clark Street reading and smoking his cigars? He’s there when I go to work, when I get home, and from what I’ve heard, he’s there pretty much all day. I don’t think that he’s homeless. Being outdoors is nice, but those cigars reek, and he leaves the stogies on the ground when he’s done.

  • Karl Junkersfeld

    That is Charlie and he is a neighborhood staple. He is a brilliant dude who retired from the New York Times. There was a time when this wonderful neighborhood was populated by many Charlie’s which made the nabe an interesting place to live. It is individuals like Charlie that give a neighborhood its character. Everyone knows him and many of us will stop and talk to him to ask questions about current events and history. Sorry that your senses were offended. I guess Charlie doesn’t fit in any longer with many of the new inhabitants of Brooklyn Heights. FWIW, he owns a nice coop on Willow Street. Looks can be deceiving or in the case of Charlie, “never judge a book by its cover”.

  • smokythebandit

    I also have an Internet connection. Mind your own business.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    This is the best thread I have ever seen on this website.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com ClaudeScales

    You reminded me of the time, during the 1970s CB radio craze, when a friend of my parents saw a highway patrol car parked near the side of the road. He got on his radio and said, “Breaker one-nine for a Smokey report.” There was some crackling on the radio, followed by, “Who do you want me to report to?”

  • GHB

    I just hate cigars. Thanks for the info, Karl.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Exactly “Never judge a book by its cover” Norman Mailer used to walk around the hood sporting a very worn down jacket that was patched with duct tape.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    If you tried a real Cuban Montecristo #2, you might change your mind.

  • Roberto Gautier

    I was surprised in an enjoyable way to drop in on the back and forth about cigars and the enigmatic smoker/reader outside the Clark Street station. I wouldn’t smoke one now, but really did enjoy the occasional Cuban tobacco high in the past. While living In Holland and Italy, I was able to score on the smokes forbidden to Americans due to the embargo. I, too, was curious about Charlie and now that his identity been revealed, perhaps to his dismay, I will walk by knowingly.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I smoked cigarettes for about ten years, and aside from a few small things (the cost, the residual smells, the negative health effects) loved it. I can’t for the life of me understand the appeal of cigars (and I can’t get the cigar imagery created by Bill Hicks et al out of my head either). Maybe you or Charlie could explain?

  • Willow Street Watch

    A cigar is as comforting to a (real) man, as a good cry is to a woman.

    I’m more of a rum crooks and pipe person. I love sitting near my big xmas tree every year with a good cherry or musky blend.

    And if some yuppie type or some child of the Frankfurt school thinks that’s not PC, they/you can all dunk your heads…..

  • Willow Street Watch

    I somehow remember the 70’s CB Craze as if I was somehow a part of that scene…

    Let’s see, Burt Reynolds in his T top 400 or 455 firebird. Or (much) better, the dukes of hazard jumping their 68-69 charger with that now unmentionable symbol of hate on the roof. Hmmm, I wonder how many acts of mass violence which can attributed to Luke Duke, cooter, Roscoe P Coletrain, Enos and Daisy duke….

    By the way, if you want to hear the absolute high water mark of the CB craze records, go on you tube and listen to CB Savage…..

  • Kevin

    Does anyone have a contact at the Brooklyn Public Library – specifically for Kristie Madura who said this drilling would begin at 8am? They started at 7:25 this morning. If this is what we’re in for over the next several years of construction we’re in TROUBLE on Clinton

  • Roberto Gautier

    Let us know what you find about the promised starting time for drilling at the library site.

  • Roberto Gautier

    I believe that a review cabbie driver’s records is part of the Vision Zero program to reduce pedestrian deaths. Are Uber drivers subjected to the same scrutiny?

  • Roberto Gautier

    Sorry. I omitted the “of” in the phrase a “review of cabbie drivers’ records.”

  • Boerum Bill

    As an cigar smoker, I love that analogy!

  • Boerum Bill

    HA! He probably went 10-100 in his pants!

  • Willow Street Watch

    COMMUNITY ALERT! Tonight is the public hearing/rally to stop the Pier Six development. All those wishing to have their voices heard need to assemble 5:30 to 6:00 PM at St Francis College 180 Remsen Street bet Clinton and Court Sts. Bring a (loud) friend, bring your printed flyers/ literature and bring signs. Call AND E Mail media, major print media,
    NY 1, radio news directors/assignment desks. Contact call-In radio shows etc. The MORE DIVERSE media we can get there the better. You have like just under six hours at this point, make USE of that time. But most of all, show up with multiple copies (like at least 40 copies) of your statement to give the media, cross pollinate other opponents and gener- ally raise the energy/animus of the meeting…..

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I think there’s an “edit” option, so you don’t have to post addenda.

    I just used it to add this addendum: I like to use the “edit” option when I want to completely change what I originally wrote to mean the opposite of my original post.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    As someone who knows at least one woman, I found it rather distasteful and a tad sexist.

  • StudioBrooklyn

    There are a host of neighborhood “staples” who I’d love to learn more about. I hope Charlie doesn’t mind being discussed as if he’s some sort of landmarked building…I think as neighbors who pass each other with regularity we have a natural fascination with our often interesting or unapparent pasts, and the experiences that form the characters and their routines that we see today.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    Us “Confederates” can’t edit. You blue “Union” guys, who’ve sold your soul to Disqus, go right ahead…

  • StudioBrooklyn

    I thought I sold my soul to Time Warner when I first connected to the internet. Disqus is just borrowing it from them.

  • ShinyNewHandle

    I’m polytheistic, at least where devils are concerned. Worship away!

  • StudioBrooklyn

    By the way, interesting factoid: TWC does not accept ritual animal sacrifices in lieu of payment. Kinda makes me hate them as a company-slash-overlord/totem.

  • gcarl

    I have not been getting the BHB emails for a long time now. Is anyone else having this problem? Anyone know why? I tried rejoining, but the system says i am already a member.

  • AEB

    And pray tell, what is a real man? Really, Willow, your comment here is a pinnacle of…well…blindness not to mention primitive thinking.

    And kindly move past your quaint references to the Frankfurt School! Jesus, what century do you live in? But no need to answer that. The world is a larger place than, apparently, you can conceive of.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    I smoked cigaretts and cigars for years, and quit both for the same reasons you listed. To answer your question; a cigar is a much more flavorful tobacco experience. think of a fine aged Cognac compared to Jack Daniel’s. That is a good cigar, not a Philly Blunt.

  • ArtofAnAngel

    I emailed them to confirm ~Dos Toros is coming to Court b/w Livingston & Joralemon {~;

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