LITTLE ITALY, THE GODFATHER & THE CORLEONE FAMILY

Today, The Grandma has visited Little Italy in Lower Manhattan to meet the Corleone family, some American-Sicilian friends of her who lived in this beautiful neighbourhood.

Little Italy, also in Italian Piccola Italia, is a neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, once known for its large Italian population. It is bounded on the west by Tribeca and Soho, on the south by Chinatown, on the east by the Bowery and Lower East Side, and on the north by Nolita.

Little Italy on Mulberry Street used to extend as far south as Worth Street, as far north as Houston Street, as far west as Lafayette Street, and as far east as Bowery. It is now only three blocks on Mulberry Street north of Canal St.

Little Italy originated at Mulberry Bend south of Canal, in what had formerly been the Five Points area but is now the heart of Chinatown. Jacob Riis described Mulberry Bend as the foul core of New York's slums.

During this time period Immigrants of the late 19th century usually settled in ethnic neighbourhoods.

Therefore, the mass immigration from Italy during the 1880s led to the large settlement of Italian immigrants in lower Manhattan. The results of such migration had created an influx of Italian immigrants which had led to the commercial gathering of their dwelling and business.

Bill Tonelli from New York magazine said, Once, Little Italy was like an insular Neapolitan village re-created on these shores, with its own language, customs, and financial and cultural institutions.

Little Italy was not the largest Italian neighborhood in New York City, as East Harlem (or Italian Harlem) had a larger Italian population. Tonelli said that Little Italy was perhaps the city's poorest Italian neighborhood.

In 1910 Little Italy had almost 10,000 Italians; that was the peak of the community's Italian population. At the turn of the 20th century, over 90% of the residents of the Fourteenth Ward were of Italian birth or origins.

After World War II, many residents of the Lower East Side began moving to Brooklyn, Staten Island, eastern Long Island, and New Jersey. Chinese immigrants became an increased presence after the U.S. Immigration Act of 1965 removed immigration restrictions, and the Manhattan Chinatown to Little Italy's south expanded.

In 2010, Little Italy and Chinatown were listed in a single historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Little Italy, by this point, was shrinking rapidly.

Little Italy was home to dozens of restaurants that serve authentic Italian cuisine.

Since 2004, Sorrento Lactalis funds neighborhood cultural events in Little Italy.

The Feast of San Gennaro originally was once only a one-day religious commemoration. It began in September 1926 with the new arrival of immigrants from Naples. The Italian immigrants congregated along Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as the Patron Saint of Naples. 

The Feast of San Gennaro is a large street fair, lasting 11 days, that takes place every September along Mulberry Street between Houston and Canal Streets. The festival is an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community.

Little Italy residents have seen organized crime since the early 20th century. Powerful members of the Italian Mafia have operated in Little Italy.

More information: Untapped New York

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same name. 

The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy. 

The story, spanning from 1945 to 1955, chronicles the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando), focusing on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

Studio executives had trouble finding a director; the first few candidates turned down the position before Coppola signed on to direct the film but disagreement followed over casting several characters, in particular, Vito and Michael. 

Filming took place primarily on location around New York City and in Sicily, and was completed ahead of schedule. 

The musical score was composed principally by Nino Rota, with additional pieces by Carmine Coppola.

More information: Smithsonian Magazine

 International affairs is very much run like the mafia.
The godfather does not accept disobedience,
even from a small storekeeper who doesn't pay his protection money.
You have to have obedience; otherwise,
the idea can spread that you don't have to listen to the orders,
and it can spread to important places.

Noam Chomsky

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, A PARANORMAL TRUE STORY

Today, The Grandma has visited Amityville, a village in the Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York. The population was 9,523 at the 2010 census.

Huntington settlers first visited the Amityville area in 1653 due to its location to a source of salt hay for use as animal fodder. Chief Wyandanch granted the first deed to land in Amityville in 1658.

The area was originally called Huntington West Neck South (it is on the Great South Bay and Suffolk County, New York border in the southwest corner of what once called Huntington South), but is now the Town of Babylon. According to village lore, the name was changed in 1846 when residents were working to establish its new post office.

The meeting turned into bedlam and one participant was to exclaim, What this meeting needs is some amity. Another version says the name was first suggested by mill owner Samuel Ireland to name the town for his boat, the Amity.

The place name is strictly speaking an incidental name, marking an amicable agreement on the choice of a place name.

The village was formally incorporated on March 3, 1894. In the early 1900s, Amityville was a popular tourist destination with large hotels on the bay and large homes. Annie Oakley was said to be a frequent guest of vaudevillian Fred Stone. Will Rogers had a home across Clocks Boulevard from Stone.

Gangster Al Capone also had a house in the community. Congregants began holding meeting for St. Mary's Church in 1886, building a Chapel in 1888 by Wesley Ketcham under Rev. James H Noble and the church was consecrated in 1889, pre-dating the town incorporation.

More information: Classic New York History

Amityville is the setting of the book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson, which was published in 1977 and had been adapted into a series of films made between 1979 and 2018.

The story of The Amityville Horror can be traced back to a real life murder case in Amityville in November 1974, when Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot all six members of his family at 112 Ocean Avenue.

In December 1975 George and Kathy Lutz and Kathy's three children moved into the house, but left after twenty-eight days, claiming to have been terrorized by paranormal phenomena produced by the house. Jay Anson's novel is said to be based on these events but has been the subject of much controversy; the murder case actually happened, but the house being haunted remains a matter of debate.

The house featured in the novel still exists but has been renovated and the address changed in order to discourage tourists from visiting it. The Dutch Colonial Revival architecture house built in 1927 was put on the market in May 2010 for $1.15 million and sold in September for $950,000, equivalent to $1.2 million in 2021.

More information: All That's Interesting

There are two different stories in horror: internal and external.
In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside,
the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don't understand.
Internal is the human heart.

John Carpenter

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, REMEMBERING KING KONG

Today, The Grandma has visited the Empire State Building to remember one of her favourite stories, King Kong.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from Empire State, the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of 380 m and stands a total of 443.2 m tall, including its antenna.

The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following the later's collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012.

As of 2020, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 49th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.

The site of the Empire State Building, in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was developed in 1893 as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. 

In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the site and devised plans for a skyscraper there. The design for the Empire State Building was changed fifteen times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building.

Construction started on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931. Despite favorable publicity related to the building's construction, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners did not make a profit until the early 1950s.

The building's Art Deco architecture, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around four million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th- and 102nd-floor observatories; an additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019. 

The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 TV shows and movies since the film King Kong was released in 1933.

The building's size has become the global standard of reference to describe the height and length of other structures. A symbol of New York City, the building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was ranked first on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture in 2007.

Additionally, the Empire State Building and its ground-floor interior were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

More information: The Empire State Building

King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure fantasy horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. 

The screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose was developed from an idea conceived by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. It stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and tells the story of a giant ape dubbed Kong who attempts to possess a beautiful young woman. It features stop-motion animation by Willis O'Brien and a music score by Max Steiner. It is the first entry in the King Kong franchise.

King Kong opened in New York City on March 2, 1933, to rave reviews, and has since been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time.

In 1991, it was deemed culturally, historically and aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. 

A sequel, titled Son of Kong, was fast-tracked and released the same year, with several more films made in the following decades, including two remakes which were made in 1976 and 2005 respectively, and a reboot in 2017. 

More information: The Hollywood Reporter

 Well, the Empire State was about 40' high in the studio.
King Kong was a little model about 2' high,
and the scenery that he worked in was in proportion to his size.

Fay Wray

MONOPOLY, FROM ATLANTIC CITY TO NEW YORK CITY

Today, The Newtons and The Grandma have been playing Monopoly, the multi-player economics-themed board game and they have bought some interesting places of New York City.

Before playing, they have been studying the Imperative, some modal verbs (Should and Must), and also Countable and Uncountable nouns.

It has been an intensive day.

Monopoly is a multi-player economics-themed board game. In the game, players roll two dice to move around the game board, buying and trading properties, and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents, with the goal being to drive them into bankruptcy.

Money can also be gained or lost through Chance and Community Chest cards, and tax squares. Players receive a stipend every time they pass Go, and can end up in jail, from which they cannot move until they have met one of three conditions.

The game has numerous house rules, and hundreds of different editions exist, as well as many spin-offs and related media. 

Monopoly has become a part of international popular culture, having been licensed locally in more than 103 countries and printed in more than 37 languages.

More information: Imperative

 More information: Must-Mustn't

More information: Should-Shouldn't

More information: Countable & Uncountable

Monopoly is derived from The Landlord's Game created by Lizzie Magie in the United States in 1903 as a way to demonstrate that an economy that rewards individuals is better than one where monopolies hold all the wealth, and to promote the economic theories of Henry George -in particular his ideas about taxation.

The Landlord's Game had two sets of rules originally, one with taxation and another on which the current rules are mainly based. When Monopoly was first published by Parker Brothers in 1935, it did not include the less capitalistic taxation rule, which resulted in a more aggressive game.

Parker Brothers bought the game's copyrights from Darrow. When the company learned Darrow was not the sole inventor of the game, it bought the rights to Magie's patent for $500.

Parker Brothers began marketing the game on November 5, 1935. Cartoonist F. O. Alexander contributed the design. U. S. patent number US 2026082 A was issued to Charles Darrow on December 31, 1935, for the game board design and was assigned to Parker Brothers Inc. 

The original version of the game in this format was based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Parker Brothers was eventually absorbed into Hasbro in 1991. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly -the domination of a market by a single entity.

More information: The Guardian

 I get more upset at losing at other things than chess.
I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.

Magnus Carlsen

ROLL OF THE DICE! MARTHA NEWTON IN ATLANTIC CITY

Today, The Newtons and The Grandma have travelled from New York to AtlanticCity in New Jersey. 

Martha Newton is going to start her particular career in this resort and the family has wanted to spend these later moments with her before she leaves the family. During the travel, The Newtons have studied the English Prepositions of Place.

More information: Prepositions of Place

Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches.

In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497. It was incorporated on May 1, 1854, from portions of Egg Harbor Township and Galloway Township.

it is located on Absecon Island and borders Absecon, Brigantine, Pleasantville, Ventnor City, Egg Harbor Township, and the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic City inspired the U.S. version of the board game Monopoly, especially the street names.

Since 1921, Atlantic City has been the home of the Miss America pageant.

In 1976, New Jersey voters legalized casino gambling in Atlantic City, and the first casino opened in 1978.

For many years before the city was founded, the island site of the future settlement was the summer home of the Lenape. While the precise date of the first permanent occupation of what came to be Atlantic City has not been precisely determined, it is commonly thought that in 1783 Jeremiah Leeds first built and occupied an all year home on the island. However, it was not until 1850 that the idea arose to develop the location into a resort town and in early 1853 the name Atlantic City was adopted.

More information: Atlantic City

The history of gambling in Atlantic City traces back to prohibition and the 1920s, with racketeer Louis Kuehnle running an underground hotel and casino. Enoch "Nucky" Johnson followed and furthered Atlantic City's rise through the Roaring Twenties as a destination for drinking, gambling, and nightlife.

In 1974, New Jersey voters voted 60%-40% against legalizing casino gambling at four sites statewide, but two years later approved by 56%-44% a new referendum which legalized casinos, but restricted them to Atlantic City.

Resorts Atlantic City was the first casino to open, in May 1978, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Governor of New Jersey Brendan Byrne.

Atlantic City is considered the Gambling Capital of the East Coast, and currently has nine large casinos.

In 2011, New Jersey's then 12 casinos employed approximately 33,000 employees, had 28.5 million visitors, made $3.3 billion in gaming revenue, and paid $278 million in taxes. They are regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

In the wake of the economic downturn following the Great Recession and the legalization of gambling in adjacent and nearby states (including Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania), four casino closures took place in 2014: the Atlantic Club on January 13; the Showboat on August 31; the Revel, which was Atlantic City's second-newest casino, on September 2; and Trump Plaza, which originally opened in 1984, and was the poorest performing casino in the city, on September 16.

Executives at Trump Entertainment Resorts, whose sole remaining property at the time was the Trump Taj Mahal, said in 2013 that they were considering the option of selling the Taj and winding down and exiting the gaming and hotel business. Trump Taj Mahal closed October 10, 2016, after failing to come to terms with union workers.

Caesars Entertainment executives have been reconsidering the future of their three remaining Atlantic City properties (Bally's, Caesars and Harrah's), in the wake of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the company's casino operating unit in January 2015.

In 2020, Bally's Atlantic City was acquired by Bally's Corporation.

More information: Atlantic City Free Public Library

Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.

Bruce Springsteen

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION IN NEW YORK CITY

Today, The Grandma has received some news from NYPD forensic scientists. It seems that they have new clues about Raquel Newton.

CSI: NY (Crime Scene Investigation: New York) is an American police procedural television series that ran on CBS from September 22, 2004, to February 22, 2013, for a total of nine seasons and 197 original episodes.

The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers identified as Crime Scene Investigators, instead of the actual title of Crime Scene Unit Forensic Technicians (CSU)) as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths, as well as other crimes.

The series is an indirect spin-off from the veteran series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and a direct spin-off from CSI: Miami, during an episode in which several of the CSI: NY characters made their first appearances. It is the third series in the CSI franchise.

Originally in 2004, CSI: NY was produced in partnership with the Canadian media company Alliance Atlantis. The company dissolved after season three in 2007, and all production after that was done under the purview of CBS Paramount Television.

The series was filmed at the CBS Studio Center, with many of the outside scenes shot in and around Los Angeles. Occasionally, scenes were filmed on location in New York City.

The series ended its ninth and final season on February 22, 2013. It was canceled by CBS on May 10, 2013.

More information: Screen Rant

CSI: NY follows a group of investigators who work for the New York City crime lab. The series mixes gritty subject matter and deduction in the same manner as its predecessors, yet also places a great deal of emphasis on criminal profiling.

The team is led by Detective Mac Taylor, a former Marine from Chicago. Mac is a veteran of the NYPD who lost his wife on 9/11, and as such must work to rebuild his personal life while supervising his team. He is organized, efficient, dedicated, and very proper in his management style.

Mac's partner is originally Stella Bonasera. Stella is half-Greek, half-Italian, and entirely New York City. She helped Mac through the impact of his wife's death and has been by his side ever since. She is a savvy investigator, yet she often speaks before she thinks. Stella leaves New York to head a crime lab in New Orleans and is replaced by Detective Jo Danville.

Jo is a former FBI criminalist and an experienced psychological profiler. She and Mac quickly form a strong friendship and an even stronger working rapport. Jo is still haunted by her ousting from the FBI after blowing the whistle on improper lab procedure, so she works to regain her professional reputation.

Together, Mac, Stella, and Jo head an elite team of detectives including Danny Messer, Aiden Burn, and Lindsay Monroe. The team also works alongside CSI Sheldon Hawkes, Detective Don Flack, Medical Examiner Sid Hammerback, and CSI trainee Adam Ross.

More information: Screen Rant

No one in this lab knows how to drag their feet.

Mac Taylor

WHAT IS NEW YORK OR EMPIRE STATE OF MIND?

Today, The Grandma has visited an old friend. He is New Yorker, and he talks like nobody about what it means being a New Yorker and thinking like him/her. 

In 1976 singer/songwriter Billy Joel, released the album entitled Turnstiles and on the album was New York State of Mind. Although it was initially unpopular, it quickly became a fan favorite and a regular part of Joel's on stage performances.  

New York has always been, and arguably always will be, an incredible city that never sleeps while holding out hope for dreamers who aspire to reach bigger and better things. 

But what is the New York State of Mind, and what does it mean to have an Empire State of Mind? What is it about this city that transforms the mind, body, and soul so deeply?

What does it mean to be a New Yorker?

Ah New York, a city full of dazzling lights, incredible food, and the most self-assured people in the world. Either adored or completely loathed, New York is a place where there is no middle ground. You either are or aren't from here, and you either do or don't like it here. But for the sake of argument, our personal preference for New York is nothing short of fabulous. We love everything about this city. From the way you can get a delicious meal on nearly every corner, to being able to walk wherever you need to go, there really is no other place quite like New York.

What makes New York really great, however, are the people. As a melting pot of cultures from all over the world, New York redefines what it means to be an American. Immigrants from every corner of the globe make their way to the Big Apple to live out their dreams and experience what it means to be a New Yorker. 

Living in this city isn't easy, and no one ever said it would be. In fact, before even stepping foot here people are warned about how difficult it is to make it, and they aren't lying! From the price of living to the ultra competitive job market, living in NYC isn't all fun and games. It is this that's why they say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

The difficulties and struggles are in a way what makes the city great. It takes a certain frame of mind and attitude to push through adversity and rise above it. You can't be a wuss and live here. We have all worked hard to get to where we are, and we don't mind putting in overtime to reach our dreams. That is what it means to be a New Yorker.

What defines the Empire State of Mind?

The Empire State of Mind is defined by the ability to make our own rules. We don't follow social norms. In fact, more often than not we create social norms for the rest of the country to follow, especially when it comes to style and fashion.

Of course, we could also argue that New Yorkers don't really like to be defined by any attitude, particularly by people who aren't from here. But alas, we are our own breed, and we do have a tendency to rub off on each other.

The Empire State of Mind is easy to spot if you are from New York. In general, we adhere to the following ideas and attitudes:

-Nothing can stop us from doing what we really want to do.

-We relish in the struggle, fight, and determination in everyday life.

-Step up, speed up, or get out of our way!

-To the point and not willing to wait around for someone to do something we know we could do better.

-Jay walk. An inability to give a care about when streetlights and signs say it is safe to cross the street.

-Some Cabs also don't follow these laws, so keep your head up.

-No fear!

-Saying what you want, when you want to say it, how you want to say it.

-We Love New York, and We’d Have it No Other Way!

So many people come to New York and experience culture shock because they never imagined how different it would be from their own home. But it is. There is no other place in the world like New York. It is the one place in the world that no matter where you come from, you can still be yourself. The character, the energy, fast paced, motivated, determined, and maybe even a little bit pushy, but hey we love it that way.

When people start talking about changing New York City for the better we laugh in agreement on how so many things can be better, but deep down we feel lucky and proud to be living in such dynamic city that has so much to offer. Incredible food, world-famous art, the best live shows in the world, and people with more heart and soul than anywhere else are what define this absurdly awesome city. And that is the Empire State of Mind.

More information: Billy M. Joel, "It's nine o'clock in a Saturday"

 I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line
'Cause I'm in a New York state of mind.

Billy Joel