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 […]

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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 […]

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Our final fish game is “Go Fish,” published in 1951 by Ed-U-Cards.  The fronts are simple fields of color, the backs show this cheerful specimen. In later editions, this has been adapted into a flipbook; if you arrange the cards in the proper order, the fish blows bubbles. As a lagniappe, I’ll add this interesting miniature […]

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Come, let us sit upon the fence; It saves us trouble and expense. Yes, that’s my turd in the punchbowl; you can keep it, if you like. You can’t prove that no two snowflakes are alike; but you can make a good case for no one snowflake being alike. Skinner’s First Law of Economics: Work […]

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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 […]

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Our fourth fish game, “Go Fish,” was published in 2001 by Cardinal Industries.  Ten varieties of fish are depicted; but, like the example above, are unidentified. (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, let someone else deal with it. Well, of course it burst: it was a bubble. Guy Debord noted that Surrealist techniques had been co-opted by the advertising business: automatic writing became unedited “brainstorming.”  Similarly, early experiments in computer-generated poetry led to the composition of spam. Hey, look […]

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The art of book illustration seems to have evaporated up into the ullage.  It lives on, of course, in the lively fields of children’s books and graphic novels.  But few novelists nowadays turn over a few pages to an artist to draw pictures of their stories. Which provides an excuse to post here one of […]

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Our third fish game is also simply called “Fish Card Game,” and comes to us shrouded in mystery, with no indication of date or publisher.  The other fish depicted are: Seahorse, Flying Fish, Surgeon Fish, Manta Ray, Tiger Shark, Ocean Sunfish, Porcupine Puffer, and Deepsea Angler. (Posted by Doug Skinner)   

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Greater longevity has multiplied our problems; fortunately, scientists are working to make life shorter. Do these pints make me look fat? The Mona Lisa isn’t smiling; she’s smirking. A woman once accused me of limiting my audience by making obscure references: I had mentioned Nostradamus. maggot nuggets Of course there’s a hole in the ground; […]

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