COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOL

Today, The Grandma has visited Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the most pretigious universities around the world.

 

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City.

 

Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and is considered one of the most prestigious schools in the world.

It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. Columbia is ranked among the top universities in the world.

Columbia was established by royal charter under George II of Great Britain.

It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.

Columbia scientists and scholars have played a pivotal role in scientific breakthroughs including brain-computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate schools and 16 graduate schools. The university's research efforts include the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator laboratories with Big Tech firms such as Amazon and IBM.

More information: Columbia

Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the MD degree. The university also annually administers the Pulitzer Prize. With over 14.5 million volumes, Columbia University Library is the third-largest private research library in the United States.

As of December 2021, its alumni, faculty, and staff have included: seven Founding Fathers of the United States; four U.S. presidents; 33 foreign heads of state; two secretaries-general of the United Nations; ten justices of the United States Supreme Court, one of whom currently serves; 99 Nobel laureates; 125 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; 22 Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.

Discussions regarding the founding of a college in the Province of New York began as early as 1704, at which time Colonel Lewis Morris wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the missionary arm of the Church of England, persuading the society that New York City was an ideal community in which to establish a college. However, it was not until the founding of the College of New Jersey (renamed Princeton) across the Hudson River in New Jersey that the City of New York seriously considered founding a college.

In 1746, an act was passed by the general assembly of New York to raise funds for the foundation of a new college. In 1751, the assembly appointed a commission of ten New York residents, seven of whom were members of the Church of England, to direct the funds accrued by the state lottery towards the foundation of a college.

The majority of Columbia's graduate and undergraduate studies are conducted in Morningside Heights on Seth Low's late-19th century vision of a university campus where all disciplines could be taught at one location. The campus was designed along Beaux-Arts planning principles by the architects McKim, Mead & White. Columbia's main campus occupies more than six city blocks, or 13 ha, in Morningside Heights, New York City, a neighbourhood that contains a number of academic institutions.

More information: History of New York City

 Some years ago I became president of Columbia University
nd learned within 24 hours to be ready
to speak at the drop of a hat,
and I learned something more,
the trustees were expected to be ready
to speak at the passing of the hat.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, THE SHOWPLACE OF THE NATION

Today, The Grandma has been listening to the radio. She loves the power of it, and she has been reading about the birth of public radio broadcasting in New York City.

The birth of public radio broadcasting is credited to Lee de Forest who transmitted the world's first public broadcast in New York City on January 13, 1910.

This broadcast featured the voices of Enrico Caruso and other Metropolitan Opera stars. Members of the public and the press used earphones to listen to the broadcast in several locations throughout the city. This marked the beginning of what would become nearly universal wireless radio communication.

A 1907 advertisement placed by Lee de Forest's Radio Telephone Company stated: It will soon be possible to distribute grand opera music from transmitters placed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House by a Radio Telephone station on the roof to almost any dwelling in Greater New York and vicinity ... The same applies to large cities. Church music and lectures can be spread abroad by the Radio Telephone.

Several years later, on January 13, 1910, the first public radio broadcast was an experimental transmission of a live Metropolitan Opera House performance by several famous opera singers. This transmission was arranged by de Forest. This event is regarded as the birth of public radio broadcasting.

The wireless radio broadcast consisted of performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Riccardo Martin performed as Turridu, Emmy Destinn as Santuzza, and Enrico Caruso as Canio. The conductor was Egisto Tango.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

The New York Times reported on January 14, 1910: Opera broadcast in part from the stage of the New York City Metropolitan Opera Company was heard on January 13, 1910, when Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn sang arias from Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, which were "trapped and magnified by the dictograph directly from the stage and borne by wireless Hertzian waves over the turbulent waters of the sea to transcontinental and coastwise ships and over the mountainous peaks and undulating valleys of the country. The microphone was connected by telephone wire to the laboratory of Dr. Lee de Forest.

The few radio receivers able to pick up this first-ever outside broadcast were those at the De Forest Radio Laboratory, on board ships in New York Harbor, in large hotels on Times Square and at New York City locations where members of the press were stationed at receiving sets.

Public receivers with earphones had been set up in several well-advertised locations throughout New York City. There were members of the press stationed at various receiving sets throughout the city and the public was invited to listen to the broadcast.

The experiment was considered mostly unsuccessful. The microphones of the day were of poor quality and could not pick up most of the singing on stage. Only off-stage singers singing directly into a microphone could be heard clearly. The New York Times reported the next day that static and interference kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves.

De Forest's Radio Telephone Company manufactured and sold the first commercial radios in the demonstration room at the Metropolitan Life Tower in New York City for this public event. The wireless transmitter had 500 watts of power. It is reported that this broadcast was heard 20.1 km away on a ship at sea. The broadcast was also heard 97 km away in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

More information: National Today

The birth of public radio broadcasting had an immediate impact on radio broadcasting as it stimulated the idea of having additional musical programs. The next month on February 24th the Manhattan Opera Company's new opera singer Mariette Mazarin sang Love is a rebellious bird from Carmen over a transmitter located in DeForest's laboratory. This radio concert was heard by a group of scientists, diplomats, newspaper reporters and the public within 32 km.

The New Jersey Telephone Herald did evening musical shows after their regular daily newscasts starting on March 15, 1911. The various musical programs consisted of instrumental music from a regular orchestra in attendance, individual recitals, and group singers. In addition they had theatrical performances, opera and organ playing at their new location on the second floor of the Essex Building in Newark, New Jersey.

DeForest in 1912 put together an amplifying technology from his 1906 Audion vacuum tube invention. He figured out how to take a weak signal and increase it many times (amplification) through a feedback circuit.

He had learned through experimentation that his Audion would increase the strength of a weak signal to some degree if a small wire mesh was placed inside the vacuum tube between the heated electron emitting element at the bottom of the tube and the pick up plate on top that had a high voltage opposite charge. He took this electronic idea one step further by taking part of that amplified electrical signal and sending it back through the Audion again. That increased the signal strength even further. That idea was further developed by Edwin Armstrong and Alexander Meissner and the technology of the vacuum tube feedback oscillator was perfected in 1912 by them.

This continuous feedback loop idea became a source of continuous waves through repeated feedback and amplification over and over again. The continuous waves of a particular frequency could be altered to a small degree by another signal introduced into it. This is called amplitude modulation. This was further advanced to the idea of having very high frequency continuous waves tens-of-thousands of cycles-per-second (kHz) modulated (slightly altered) with another signal from a microphone. From that concept developed the amplitude modulated transmitter, which lead to AM radio broadcast entertainment.

More information: Current

TV gives everyone an image,

but radio gives birth to

a million images in a million brains.

Peggy Noonan

'THE RISING', WHEN ALL CHANGED IN SEPTEMBER 11 2001

Today, Bruce Springsteen has started his 2023 World Tour in Barcelona, and The Grandma has been listening to one of his most memorable albums, The Rising, that is based in large part on Springsteen's reflections in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

 

The Rising is the twelfth studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released on July 30, 2002, on Columbia Records.

An immediate critical and commercial success, it was Springsteen's first to top the US Billboard 200 since Tunnel of Love (1987). Hailed as a triumphant return to form for Springsteen, the album won two Grammy awards and marked the start of a successful collaboration with producer Brendan O'Brien.

The Rising came seven years after The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995), the longest interlude between studio albums for the artist, and was his first in almost two decades with the E Street Band, with whom he had recently completed a highly successful reunion tour.

The album is based in large part on Springsteen's reflections in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Springsteen felt compelled to record the album when, in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, a stranger in an adjacent vehicle rolled down his window and said: We need you now.

More information: Bruce Springsteen

A few of the songs were written before the attacks. The title track tells the story of a firefighter going up the World Trade Center as survivors flee, and evokes the image of peoples' spirits rising up like angels with a dream of life.

My City of Ruins was originally performed in, and written about, Asbury Park. After Springsteen performed it on a post-September 11 America: A Tribute to Heroes telethon, the song achieved a particular resonance. Further On (Up the Road) was performed live in Madison Square Garden at the end of the Springsteen-E Street Reunion Tour, and was professionally recorded, although it was not included in the HBO, DVD, or CD versions of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live in New York City.

Waitin' on a Sunny Day was originally written in the 1990s and played during a soundcheck on the Reunion Tour.

Springsteen has commented that Nothing Man was originally completed in 1994, but re-recorded for this album. Worlds Apart," the most experimental song on the album, features a heavy Middle Eastern influence along with Qawwali singers in the introduction.

The Fuse, another experimental track, features a subtle hip hop beat and vocal looping. A re-recorded version of the song, with an orchestral backing, features in the Spike Lee-directed film 25th Hour.

Mary's Place is directly inspired by Sam Cooke's Meet Me at Mary's Place; The gospel-like My City of Ruins is organized around the melody line of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready.

Following the biggest pre-release promotion of Springsteen's career and a tour, The Rising became Springsteen's sixth No. 1 album on the US Billboard 200, and topped the charts in six other countries, including the UK.

Although The Rising was a response to 9/11, many see it as a more universal anthem of resilience and hope. On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Dan DeLuca of the Philadelphia Inquirer said: The songs make contextual sense in the aftermath of 9/11, but the specific details that give them power are allusive. 'Lonesome Day,' 'You're Missing,' and 'My City of Ruins' are about the hollowing devastation of that day, but the language is universal, so the sentiments are by no means frozen in time.

The song My City of Ruins has been used in response to tragedies other than 9/11, such as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

In 2006, while on tour supporting his We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions album, Springsteen performed the song at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The song received an emotional response from the crowd given its refrain of Come on rise up!

More information: Ultimate Classic Rock

Come on up for the rising
Come on up, lay your hands in mine
Come on up for the rising
Come on up for the rising tonight

Bruce Springsteen

THE NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY, RUNNING SINCE 1904

Today, The Grandma has taken the New York City Subway, one of the world's oldest public transit systems and one of the most-used.

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the world's oldest public transit systems, one of the most-used, and the one with the most stations, with 472 stations in operation (424 if stations connected by transfers are counted as single stations).  

Stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

The system has operated 24/7 service every day of the year throughout most of its history, barring emergencies and disasters. By annual ridership, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in both the Western Hemisphere and the Western world, as well as the seventh-busiest rapid transit rail system in the world.

In 2017, the subway delivered over 1.72 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.6 million daily rides on weekdays and a combined 5.7 million rides each weekend (3.2 million on Saturdays, 2.5 million on Sundays).

On October 29, 2015, more than 6.2 million people rode the subway system, establishing the highest single-day ridership since ridership was regularly monitored in 1985.

The system is also one of the world's longest. Overall, the system contains 399 km of routes, translating into 1,070 km of revenue track and a total of 1,370 km including non-revenue trackage.

Of the system's 28 routes or services, which usually share track or lines with other services, 25 pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, and a few stretches of track run at ground level. In total, 40% of track is above ground.

More information: MTA

Many lines and stations have both express and local services. These lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the outer two are used by local trains, while the inner one or two are used by express trains. Stations served by express trains are typically major transfer points or destinations.

As of 2018, the New York City Subway's budgetary burden for expenditures was $8.7 billion, supported by collection of fares, bridge tolls, and earmarked regional taxes and fees, as well as direct funding from state and local governments. As of 2020, its on-time performance rate was 89% during weekdays.

Alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870. 

His Beach Pneumatic Transit only extended 95 m under Broadway in Lower Manhattan operating from Warren Street to Murray Street and exhibited his idea for an atmospheric railway as a subway. The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons.

Today, no part of this line remains as the tunnel was completely within the limits of the present-day City Hall station under Broadway.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system. 

A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, and construction began in 1900. Even though the underground portions of the subway had yet to be built, several above-ground segments of the modern-day New York City Subway system were already in service by then.

The oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line. The oldest right-of-way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road.

The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) almost 36 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City (which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line).

The 14.6 km subway line, then called the Manhattan Main Line" ran from City Hall station northward under Lafayette Street (then named Elm Street) and Park Avenue (then named Fourth Avenue) before turning westward at 42nd Street.

It then curved northward again at Times Square, continuing under Broadway before terminating at 145th Street station in Harlem. Its operation was leased to the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and over 150,000 passengers paid the 5¢ fare to ride it on the first day of operation.

More information: NYC Subway

On a New York subway
you get fined for spitting,
but you can throw up for nothing.

Lewis Grizzard

THE GRANGERS & RICHARD CASTLE, A MURDER IN NYC

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have visited Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, two old friends, who live in Manhattan.

 

Before this, they have been preparing their Cambridge Exam studying Who/What pronouns.

 

More information: Who/What

Castle is an American crime mystery/comedy-drama television series, that aired on ABC for a total of eight seasons from March 9, 2009, to May 16, 2016. The series was produced jointly by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. Created by Andrew W. Marlowe, it primarily traces the lives of Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), a best-selling mystery novelist, and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), a homicide detective, as they solve various unusual crimes in New York City.

Detective Beckett is initially infuriated at the thought of working with a writer and goes to great lengths to keep him out of her way. However, the two soon start developing feelings for each other. The overarching plot of the series focused on the romance between the two lead characters and their ongoing investigation of the murder of Beckett's mother.

Richard Castle is a famous mystery novelist. Bored and suffering from writer's block, he kills off Derrick Storm, the main character in his successful book series. He is brought in by the New York Police Department for questioning regarding a copycat murder based on one of his novels, where he meets and becomes intrigued by Kate Beckett, the detective assigned to the case.

Castle is inspired to take Beckett as his muse for Nikki Heat, the main character of his next book series and uses his friendship with the mayor to force the police to let him shadow Beckett.

Castle's exuberant man child personality clashes with Beckett's more reserved and professional demeanor. However, as Beckett begins to appreciate Castle's assistance in helping her catch killers, the two eventually become friends and then lovers.

Their cases often deal with murders occurring within various unusual subcultures or milieus, including reality TV shows, vampire enthusiasts, a science fiction convention, and a man who claims to be a time traveler.

A recurring plot line deals with the unsolved murder of Beckett's mother years before, an investigation which leads to an increasingly sprawling, and dangerous, conspiracy.

The series also focuses on the backstories of supporting characters like Detective Javier Esposito, Detective Kevin Ryan, Medical Examiner Lanie Parish, Captain Roy Montgomery and Captain Victoria Gates, through multiple episodes.

More information: Screen Rant

There is always a story.

Richard Castle

COMMEMORATING ITALY'S LIBERATION DAY IN NEW YORK

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have visited the Italian American community in New York City, that was celebrating a national Italian day that commemorates the end of the nazi occupation in 1945.

Before this meeting, they have been studying the irregular forms of Past Simple.

More information: Past Simple (Irregular Forms)

Italian Americans are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. According to the Italian American Studies Association, the current population is about 18 million, an increase from 16 million in 2010, corresponding to about 5.4% of the total population of the United States.

The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, with significant communities also residing in many other major U.S. metropolitan areas like New York City.

Between 1820 and 2004 approximately 5.5 million Italians migrated from Italy to the United States during the Italian diaspora, in several distinct waves, with the greatest number arriving in the 20th century from Southern Italy. 

Initially, many Italian immigrants (usually single men), so-called birds of passage, sent remittance back to their families in Italy and, eventually, returned to Italy; however, many other immigrants eventually stayed in the United States, creating the large Italian American communities that exist today.

More information: Take Walks

Festa della Liberazione (Italy's Liberation Day), also known as the Anniversario della Liberazione d'Italia, Anniversario della Resistenza is a national Italian holiday commemorating the end of Nazi occupation during World War II and the victory of the Resistance in Italy.

The date was chosen by convention, as it was the day of the year 1945 when the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency in a radio announcement, propounding the seizure of power by the CLNAI and proclaiming the death sentence for all fascist leaders, including Benito Mussolini, who was shot three days later.

Bella Ciao, Goodbye beautiful is an Italian protest folk song that originated in the hardships of the mondina women, the paddy field workers in the late 19th century who sang it to protest against harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of North Italy.

The song was modified and adopted as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance by the Italian partisans between 1943 and 1945 during the Italian Resistance, the resistance of Italian partisans against the Nazi German forces occupying Italy, during the Italian Civil War, and the Italian partisan struggle against the fascist Italian Social Republic and its Nazi German allies.

Versions of Bella Ciao are sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.

Bella Ciao was originally sung as Alla mattina appena alzata by seasonal workers of paddy fields of rice, especially in Italy's Po Valley from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century with different lyrics.

They worked at monda (weeding) the rice fields in northern Italy, to help the healthy growth of young rice plants. It took place during the flooding of the fields, from the end of April to the beginning of June every year, during which the delicate shoots needed to be protected, during the first stages of their development, from temperature differences between the day and the night. It consisted of two phases: transplanting the plants and pruning the weeds.

Monda was an extremely tiring task, carried out mostly by women known as mondinas, from the poorest social classes. They would spend their workdays with their bare feet in water up to their knees, and their back bent for many hours.

The atrocious working conditions, long hours and very low pay led to constant dissatisfaction and led, at times, to rebellious movements and riots in the early years of the twentieth century.

The struggles against the supervising padroni was even harder, with plenty of clandestine workers ready to compromise even further the already low wages just to get work. Besides Bella Ciao, similar songs by the mondina women included Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi and Se otto ore vi sembran poche.

Other similar versions of the antecedents of Bella Ciao appeared over the years, indicating that Alla mattina appena alzata must have been composed in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest written version is dated 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.

Bella Ciao was revived by the anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy between 1943 and 1945, with modified lyrics. The author of the lyrics is unknown.

In 2015, the song was banned in some municipalities of Northern Italy, ruled by the right-wing League.

More information: The Local

 

Una mattina mi son alzato,
o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!
Una mattina mi son alzato
e ho trovato l'invasor.
 

One morning I awakened,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader.
 

Popular Italian Song

SAINT GEORGE'S LEGEND, WHEN PAST BECOMES ETERNAL

Yesterday was Saint George and today, The Grangers and The Grandma have decided to know more about his legend and his origins, which are very controversial.

Before reading a wonderful and interesting legend about Saint George/Sant Jordi in Montblanc, the family has been studying Past Simple.

 More information: Past Simple (Regular Verbs)

Once upon ago, there was a town with a castle named Montblanc. Inhabitants were farmers and makers. They lived happily. But, near the village, lived a terrible Dragon with sharp nails and a long tail.

Every morning, he hunted farm animals, ate two by two and then went to his cave. The dragon ate all the animals and the people decided by lottery to offer him a person to eat it.

Every day was sadder, Dragon visited them furious and hungry again and again. People gave him food so he wouldn't be angry anymore until one day, the princess, that she was young a pretty simple and very educated, was chosen to surrender to the dragon. People were terrified and all of them wanted to take her place, but the King said sadly that her daughter was like any other.

The next morning, the princess left the castle wearing a white dress, she crossed the village while the people were watching her sadly.

Suddenly, the princess heart how a knight arrived on a white horse. The Princess, very worried, stopped and recommended him that he should leave so he wouldn't eat it. The knight, who was named Saint George, told her that he would save the city of Montblanc from the Dragon.

Next, the Dragon flew over the heads of the princess, it descended and it and Saint George fought for their lives. Sant Jordi killed the dragon and he and the princess dragged his body to the town.

Meanwhile, the people greeted Saint George and they were very happy because he won the bad Dragon. The dragon died, and they said that from the blood of his wounds, was born to a rose, that Sant Jordi gave to the princess.

After, the King offered the hand of the princess, but the knight rejected it to continue fighting other battles (he made a cobra in Medieval style).

Then, the people were happy again. Sant Jordi rode his horse. He mysteriously disappeared and the Montblanquins, in gratitude, decided to let the world know this story.

Finally, they had a party for a week, dancing, eating and wearing their best clothes.

Today, Saint George is a special day in Catalonia. People bring roses and books to commemorate love and culture.

More information: Montblanc Medieval

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey.
What fairy tales give the child is
his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey.
The baby has known the dragon intimately
ever since he had an imagination.
What the fairy tale provides for him is
a St. George to kill the dragon.

G.K. Chesterton

ENJOY 'SANT JORDI' IN SAINT GEORGE, STATEN ISLAND

Today is Saint George, one of the most venerated religious figures and patron of many places around the world, especially in European countries. Today, we also commemorate the death of William Shakespeare, one of the most universal writters in history, whose date of death has become a day to celebrate literature.

Saint George is the patron of England, but also Catalonia, where people give roses and books as a symbol of friendship, love and culture.

The Grangers and The Grandma have decided to visit St. George, a beautiful neighbourhood on the northeastern tip of Staten Island to commemorate this event and spend a great day together.

More information: April 23-Saint George, Books & Roses in Catalonia

More information: Sant Jordi, Unknown Origins & Venerated Patron

St. George is a neighbourhood on the northeastern tip of Staten Island in New York City, along the waterfront where the Kill Van Kull enters Upper New York Bay.

It is the most densely developed neighbourhood on Staten Island, and the location of the administrative center for the borough and for the coterminous Richmond County.

The St. George Terminal, serving the Staten Island Ferry and the Staten Island Railway, is also located here. St. George is bordered on the south by the neighbourhood of Tompkinsville and on the west by the neighbourhood of New Brighton.

What is now St. George was initially occupied by the Lenape Native Americans, then colonized by the Dutch and the British. The first residential developments arose in the 1830s, and through the late 19th century, the area was a summer resort. Until the construction of the ferry-railroad terminal in 1886, present-day St. George was considered to be part of New Brighton.

The section around the current ferry and railroad terminal was renamed after developer George Law, whom Erastus Wiman promised to canonize in exchange for relinquishing the land rights for the terminal. Several government buildings and landmarks were constructed in St. George in the early 20th century, and further developments on the waterfront commenced in the early 21st century.

More information: Generation NYC

St. George is part of Staten Island Community District 1. St. George is patrolled by the 120th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.

Originally, Staten Island was inhabited by the Munsee-speaking Lenape Native Americans. The Lenape relocated during different seasons, moving toward the shore to fish during the summers, and moving inland to hunt and grow crops during the fall and winter.

The present-day area of New York City was inhabited in 1624 by Dutch settlers as part of New Netherland.

In 1664, the Dutch gave New Netherland to the British, and six years later the British finalized a purchase agreement with the Lenape.

At the time of British handover, several British, Dutch, and French settlers occupied the area, but did not have an established title to the land. A series of surveys were conducted through 1677, and several parcels were distributed to different landowners.

Among them were the 140 ha Duxbury Glebe, given to Ellis Duxbury in 1708, bequeathed to the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Andrew's ten years later, and then leased for 54 years by John Bard in 1765.

Another tract was granted to Lambert Jansen Dorlant in 1680, whose western boundary was a brook on present-day Jersey Street.

By 1748, it had been purchased by Salmon Comes, who ran a ferry to Manhattan.

By 1765, part of the Dorlant tract was owned by John Wandel, a molasses distiller who operated a plant at the Kill Van Kull near Richmond Terrace and Westervelt Avenue, taking advantage of the Jersey Street brook. Two Native American roads intersected near the distiller: Shore Road (today's Richmond Terrace) on the North Shore, and a road that winded southward on St. Marks Place and then Hamilton and Westervelt Avenues.

Fort Hill, one of the hills overlooking the harbor, was the location on Duxbury's Point or Ducksberry Point, fortified by the British during the American Revolutionary War. Hessian troops, contracted by the British, were stationed near the Jersey Street brook, which then became known as Hessian Springs.

After the end of the war, the area remained primarily rural through the early 19th century. The area became part of the town of Castleton upon the town's incorporation in 1788. 

The New York state government took 12 ha of Duxbury Glebe in 1799, upon which it established the New York Marine Hospital, also The Quarantine, a contagious disease hospital. The state then gave 2.0 ha to the federal government for the U.S. Light-House Depot Complex, a lighthouse facility.

Among the first people to promote the widespread development of Staten Island was former U.S. vice president Daniel D. Tompkins, who purchased land in the northern part of Staten Island in the early 1810s. Tompkins purchased Abraham Crocheron's farm, located on present-day Jersey Street south of Richmond Terrace, in 1814.

The next year, he acquired 280 ha from St. Andrew's Church, and two years after that, he bought Philip Van Buskirk's land claim, located between the two disconnected pieces of land. Tompkins also incorporated the Richmond Turnpike Company to build present-day Victory Boulevard in 1816, started operating a ferry to Manhattan in 1817, and laid out the adjacent village of Tompkinsville for development between 1819 and 1821. Tompkins then expanded the Van Buskirks' old farmhouse, using it as his primary residence. He died in 1825.

Tompkins's property within present-day St. George was sold in April 1834 to Manhattan developer Thomas E. Davis, who continued to buy land through the following year.

More information: NYC Gov

In the years after unification, the North Shore became quickly urbanized, and the political and economic center of Staten Island shifted to the region. Development of St. George turned mostly to residential and commercial uses by the 1900s.

As early as 1919, St. George was used to describe the northeastern waterfront of Staten Island as well as the hills immediately adjacent to the ferry terminal.

The community underwent a revival starting in the late 1980s, when a group of developers proposed the St. George Seaport at Brighton, a $750 million retail and commercial complex based on Manhattan's South Street Seaport. Redevelopment of the area continued through the 1990s.

In 1994, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the St. George Historic District, which includes 78 houses and St. Peter's Church. The Brighton Heights Reformed Church, a city and national landmark in St. George, burned down in 1996 and was rebuilt three years later.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, younger families were starting to move to St. George, since housing in the neighbourhood was cheaper compared to in the rest of the city.

In the first decade of the 21st century, several prominent structures in St. George were renovated or opened.

More information: Silive

The reality is: 

Staten Island is like 90 percent of the country
-it’s slow to change, 

but most of the people are fundamentally good people.
They’re just set in their ways.
After all, it’s an island. It has its own evolution.

Colin Jost

TRAVIS BICKLE & THE NEW YORK CITY YELLOW CAB TAXI

Today, The Grandma has visited Travis Bickle, who has explained her the history of the New York City taxicabs.

In New York City, taxicabs come in two varieties: yellow and green; they are widely recognizable symbols of the city.

Taxis painted yellow (medallion taxis) are able to pick up passengers anywhere in the five boroughs. Those painted apple green (street hail livery vehicles, commonly known as "boro taxis"), which began to appear in August 2013, are allowed to pick up passengers in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens (excluding LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport), and Staten Island.

Both types have the same fare structure. Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). It also oversees over 40,000 other for-hire vehicles, including black cars, commuter vans, and ambulettes.

The medallion system was created in 1937 as a government imposed limitation on the supply of taxicabs, requiring that a medallion be purchased for the right to operate a taxi. Thereafter, New York did not sell any medallions until 1996, when it auctioned slightly more than 2,000. The lack of new medallions resulted in such a shortage that by 2014 they were selling for more than $1 million each, with about 14,000 medallions in existence. Since then, the increase in rideshare vehicles, which numbered about 63,000 in 2015 and 100,000 by August 2018, has drastically reduced the market price of medallions.

As of September 2012, there are around 7,990 hybrid taxi vehicles, representing almost 59% of the taxis in service -the most in any city in North America.

More information: Classic New York History

The first taxicab company in New York City was the Samuel's Electric Carriage and Wagon Company (E.C.W.C.), which began running 12 electric hansom cabs in July 1897. 

The company ran until 1898 with up to 62 cabs operating until it was reformed by its financiers to form the Electric Vehicle Company. The company then built the Electrobat electric car, and had up to 100 taxicabs running in total by 1899.

On May 20, 1899, Jacob German, driving an electric taxicab received the first speeding ticket in the United States. Later that year, on September 13, Henry Bliss became the first victim of an automotive accident in the United States when he was hit by an electric taxicab as he was helping a friend from a streetcar.

By the early 1900s the Electric Vehicle Company was running up to 1,000 electric taxicabs on the streets of New York City until, in January 1907, a fire destroyed 300 of these vehicles, which, in conjunction with the Panic of 1907 caused the company to collapse.

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has enforced strict requirements for the color of medallion taxicabs since the late 1960s. According to the Rules of New York City, The exterior of the vehicle must be painted taxi yellow (Dupont M6284 or its equivalent), except for trim. Samples of paint color and shade are to be submitted to the commission for approval. The specified M6284 paint code is actually a Ford code for school bus yellow.

More information: Time

Taxi Driver is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film follows Travis Bickle (De Niro), a taxi driver and veteran, and his deteriorating mental state as he works nights in the city.

With The Wrong Man (1956) and A Bigger Splash (1973) as inspiration, Scorsese wanted the film to feel like a dream to audiences. With cinematographer Michael Chapman, filming began in the summer of 1975 in New York City, with actors taking pay cuts to ensure that the project could be completed on a low budget of $1.9 million. Production concluded that same year, with a score being composed by Bernard Herrmann in his final score, which he finished just several hours before his death; the film is dedicated to him.

The film was theatrically released by Columbia Pictures on February 7, 1976, where it was a critical and commercial success, despite generating controversy for its graphic violence at the climactic ending, and casting of then 12-year-old Foster in the role of a child prostitute. The film received numerous accolades including the 1976 Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, and four nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, Best Actor (for De Niro), and Best Supporting Actress (for Foster).

Although Taxi Driver generated further controversy for its role in John Hinckley Jr.'s motive to attempt to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan, the film has remained popular, culturally significant and inspirational of its time.

In 1994, the film was considered culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the US Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In 2012, Sight & Sound named it the 31st-best film ever in its decennial critics' poll, ranked with The Godfather Part II, and the fifth-greatest film of all time on its directors' poll.

More information: Roger Ebert

'Taxi Driver' is one of those films
that is groundbreaking in how much
you're inside this character's head.
It uses voice-over in a revolutionary way
where the audience is invited
as a co-conspirator to the whole story line.

Sam Esmail

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL OPENS IN NEW YORK CITY

Today, The Grandma has visited her old friend Henry Morgan. They have been talking about one of the most beautiful train stations, Grand Central Terminal in New York, the terminal that was opened on a day like today in 1913.

Grand Central Terminal, also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central, is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Grand Central is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, serving the northern parts of the New York metropolitan area. It also contains a connection to the New York City Subway at Grand Central-42nd Street station. The terminal is the second-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station.

The distinctive architecture and interior design of Grand Central Terminal's station house have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Beaux-Arts design incorporates numerous works of art.

Grand Central Terminal is one of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions, with 21.6 million visitors in 2018, excluding train and subway passengers. The terminal's Main Concourse is often used as a meeting place, and is especially featured in films and television.

Grand Central Terminal contains a variety of stores and food vendors, including upscale restaurants and bars, two food halls, and a grocery marketplace.

Grand Central Terminal was built by and named for the New York Central Railroad; it also served the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and, later, successors to the New York Central.

More information: Rockettes

 Opened in 1913, the terminal was built on the site of two similarly-named predecessor stations, the first of which dates to 1871. Grand Central Terminal served intercity trains until 1991, when Amtrak began routing its trains through nearby Penn Station. The East Side Access project, which will bring Long Island Rail Road service to a new station beneath the terminal, is expected to be completed in late 2022.

Grand Central covers 19 ha and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world. Its platforms, all below ground, serve 30 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower.

In total, there are 67 tracks, including a rail yard and sidings; of these, 43 tracks are in use for passenger service, while the remaining two dozen are used to store trains. Another eight tracks and four platforms are being built on two new levels deep underneath the existing station as part of East Side Access.

Grand Central Terminal was named by and for the New York Central Railroad, which built the station and its two predecessors on the site. It has always been more colloquially and affectionately known as Grand Central Station, the name of its immediate predecessor that operated from 1900 to 1910.

The name Grand Central Station is also shared with the nearby U.S. Post Office station at 450 Lexington Avenue  and, colloquially, with the Grand Central-42nd Street subway station next to the terminal.

Grand Central Terminal was designed and built with two main levels for passengers: an upper for intercity trains and a lower for commuter trains. This configuration, devised by New York Central vice president William J. Wilgus, separated intercity and commuter-rail passengers, smoothing the flow of people in and through the station. After intercity service ended in 1991, the upper level was renamed the Main Concourse and the lower the Dining Concourse.

More information: Untapped New York I

The original plan for Grand Central's interior was designed by Reed and Stem, with some work by Whitney Warren of Warren and Wetmore.

Grand Central Terminal was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Reed and Stem, which was responsible for the overall design of the terminal, and Warren and Wetmore, which mainly made cosmetic alterations to the exterior and interior. Various elements inside the terminal were designed by French architects and artists Jules-Félix Coutan, Sylvain Salières, and Paul César Helleu.

Grand Central has both monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail, especially on its facade. The facade is based on an overall exterior design by Whitney Warren.

The terminal is widely recognized and favorably viewed by the American public. In America's Favorite Architecture, a 2006-07 public survey by the American Institute of Architects, respondents ranked it their 13th-favorite work of architecture in the country, and their fourth-favorite in the city and state after the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In 2013, historian David Cannadine described it as one of the most majestic buildings of the twentieth century. The terminal is also recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, added in 2013.

As proposed in 1904, Grand Central Terminal was bounded by Vanderbilt Avenue to the west, Lexington Avenue to the east, 42nd Street to the south, and 45th Street to the north. It included a post office on its east side. The east side of the station house proper is an alley called Depew Place, which was built along with the Grand Central Depot annex in the 1880s and mostly decommissioned in the 1900s when the new terminal was built.

The station house measures 240 m along Vanderbilt Avenue, 91 m on 42nd Street, and 32 m tall.

More information: Untapped New York II

 

 

 The zodiac is painted upside down on the ceiling of Grand Central.

They said it was to give the perspective of God,
but they'd simply hired a bunch of drunks.

M.E. Henry Morgan

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, VISITING THE ARCONIA

Today, The Grandma has visited Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam and Mabel Mora, some old friends who live in Arconia, a historic New Yorker building, where The Grandma has a rental flat. 

While The Grandma was visiting their friends, a neighbour has been murdered, and The Grangers have had to demonstrate their innocence,  and explain that they were visiting a member of the family, who has spent the night in the Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.

More information: Past Continuous

Only Murders in the Building is an American mystery-comedy streaming television series created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman.

The ten-episode first season premiered on Hulu on August 31, 2021.

The plot follows three strangers played by Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, who share an obsession with a true crime podcast. After a suspicious death in their affluent Upper West Side apartment building, the Arconia, the three neighbors decide to start their own podcast about their investigation of the death, which the police ruled a suicide.

The series has received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its comedic approach to crime fiction, as well as the performances and chemistry among the lead performers.

In September 2021, Hulu renewed the series for a second season which is set to premiere on June 28, 2022. Alongside the initial announcement, it was announced Martin and Short would star in the series.

In August 2020, Selena Gomez joined the cast and also serves as an executive producer.

In November 2020, Aaron Dominguez joined the cast in a series regular role.

In January 2021, Amy Ryan joined the cast in a series regular role. That same month, Nathan Lane joined the cast in a recurring role.

On December 1, 2021, it was reported that Cara Delevingne joined the cast as a new series regular for the second season.

On January 12, 2022, Short announced that Shirley MacLaine and Amy Schumer were cast to guest star for the second season.

On February 11, 2022, Michael Rapaport joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season.

Principal photography for the first season began on December 3, 2020, in New York City, and concluded in April 2021. The Belnord was used for exterior shots of the Arconia. Filming of the second season began on December 1, 2021.

More information: Hulu

 

 

 What is comedy?
Comedy is the art of making people laugh
without making them puke.

Steve Martin

MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, THE OLDEST TEACHING ONE

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have visited Mount Sinai Hospital because one of the members of the family has started to feel badly. During their staying, they have been preparing their Cambridge Exam. They have studied Had/Didn't have and the Reflexive Pronouns.

More information: Had/Didn't have

More information: Reflexive Pronouns

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Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States.

It is located in East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the eastern border of Central Park stretching along Madison and Fifth Avenues, between East 98th Street and East 103rd Street.

The entire Mount Sinai health system has over 7,400 physicians, as well as 3,815 beds, and delivers over 16,000 babies a year. In 2023, the hospital was ranked 23rd among over 2,300 hospitals in the world and the best hospital in New York state by Newsweek.

Adjacent to the hospital is the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital which provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.

At the time of the founding of the hospital in 1852, other hospitals in New York City discriminated against Jewish people both by not hiring them to treat patients, and by prohibiting them from being treated in the hospitals' wards.

Orthodox Jewish philanthropist Sampson Simson (1780-1857) founded the hospital to address the needs of New York City's rapidly growing Jewish immigrant community. 

It was the second Jewish hospital in the United States, after the Jewish Hospital, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was established in 1847.

The Jews' Hospital in the City of New York, as it was called until adopting its current name in 1866, was built on West 28th Street in Manhattan, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, on land donated by Simson. It opened two years before Simson's death. Four years later, it was unexpectedly filled to capacity with soldiers injured in the American Civil War.

The Jews' Hospital felt the effects of the escalating Civil War in other ways, as staff doctors and board members were called into service. Dr. Israel Moses served four years as lieutenant colonel in the 72nd New York Infantry Regiment; Joseph Seligman had to resign as a member of the board of directors, as he was increasingly called upon by President Lincoln for advice on the country's growing financial crisis.

The New York Draft Riots of 1863 also strained the hospital's resources, as it struggled to tend to the many wounded.

More and more, the Jews' Hospital was finding itself an integral part of the general community. In 1866, to reflect this new-found role, it changed its name.

In 1872, the hospital moved uptown to the east side of Lexington Avenue, between East 66th and East 67th Streets.

The hospital established a school of nursing in 1881. Created by Alma deLeon Hendricks and a small group of women, Mount Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses was taken over by the hospital in 1895.

Mount Sinai has a number of hospital affiliates in the New York metropolitan area, including Brooklyn Hospital Center and an additional campus, Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens. The hospital is also affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which opened in September 1968.

In 2013, Mount Sinai Hospital joined with Continuum Health Partners in the creation of the Mount Sinai Health System. The system encompasses the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and seven hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, as well as a large, regional ambulatory footprint.

More information: Mount Sinai

 We are mission-driven in our pursuit
to change medicine; make lives better,
healthier, and longer;
and make care more accessible and equitable.
This is the Mount Sinai way.

Mount Sinai catchphrase