You should always wash the hand which
You will use to hold the sandwich.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who joke that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who don’t; and those who don’t.
My father made breakfast […]

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On Sunday, May 16th, hardcore fans of the suggestive braved suspended subway service and a glorious sunny afternoon to take in some harmless smut at the Ullage Group’s “Not Dirty, Just Spicy” event at Jalopy.
Doug Skinner started things off by reviewing the rhetoric of extended double-entendre. To drive the point home, he performed the Cliff […]

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Bobby Edwards (seen here in a self-portrait from 1917) gave his own history of the “Greenwich Village Epic” in that quintessential Village journal, The Quill, in the November 1917 issue:
“Down in dear old Greenwich Village,” or, as the Bard sings, “Way Down South in Greenwich Village,” originated in Polly’s about four years ago.  Lucy Huffaker, […]

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“The Greenwich Village Epic,” aka “Way Down South in Greenwich Village,” or “Down in Dear Old Greenwich Village” is often quoted in books on the Village.
It’s usually credited to a famous Village character of the ’20s, Bobby Edwards, “the troubadour of Greenwich Village.”  (I’ve been assembling material on him, by the way; I hope to post it here soon.)  […]

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Ancient coral or ancient ladies’ swimming cap?
On the first day of spring, which in New York City was particularly welcome and unseasonably warm, I took a long walk on the sands of Dead Horse Bay, a quiet inlet tucked away not far from Floyd Bennett Field (the City’s very first airport), now abandoned to wildlife, […]

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The Ullage Group’s sixth public outing attracted our largest turnout yet.  We ran out of chairs and pews; some had to stand, fidgeting.
After an introductory sermonette, Lisa uncorked the ullage, and poured out the traditional offering to our hosts at the Jalopy Theater, Geoff and Lynette Wiley.  She then discussed the cultural history of toy […]

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Another “Old Maid” has surfaced: I’ll add it to the roster.  This one is a miniature “Peter Pan” deck from Whitman; and it boasts a rather disparate bunch: in addition to Briny Bill, you can meet Judge Grump, Pancho, Conchita, Pirate Bones, Merry Mary, Mermaid McCoy, Tubbins, and other oddballs.  And, of course, the Old Maid.
  
(Posted […]

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To most of us, the name “Tiny Tim” recalls the late Herbert Khaury, he of the uke and falsetto.  We may also think of the plaintive tot in Dickens, or — if smitten with old comic strips — Stanley Link’s miniscule hero of the ’30s.
But there was another, now forgotten, yet once a familiar New […]

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The idea is a simple one: if you have trouble learning the notes on your ukulele, simply paste this chart onto the fingerboard.

As someone who has played and taught uke for many years, however, I’d like to point out that this is not a good idea.  First of all, you don’t really want to play while staring […]

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