Words to live by on 39(8/9).

Viva la France.

http://www.timessquare.com/New_York_City/Times_Square_NYC/Sex_and_the_Square/
"In 1880 it was estimated that a dozen brothels each lined West 39th and 40th streets alone. West 39th was such a well-known place for French brothels it was dubbed "Soubrette Row" by patrons. French prostitutes were notorious for having no limits: they would do anything and everything for the right price."

A noble profession.

"The Plumber Protects the Health of the Nation." Not to mention the health of 39(8/9).

A bit of bonafide history.

It is this writer's humble opinion that 39(8/9) should be more than a repository of witty observations and Noel Coward-like repartee. It should include all that, mais oui, but should also be a source of information and elucidation.

That said, put this in your pipe and smoke it, from "The New York Times," July 18, 1998.

"On the gritty block of West 39th Street near the garment district and the ethnic food shops of Ninth Avenue, the police sex scandal rocking the Giuliani administration came as little surprise.

"That's life," a shopkeeper said with a New Yorker's barely perceptible shoulder movement. "Period."

You can read more of this thin slice of 39(8/9) history below.


http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/18/nyregion/scandal-midtown-south-neighborhood-brothel-was-open-secret-around-west-39th.html

Glitter makes our street shine

It makes the blackened used gum pieces seem intentional.
Brilliant.

Perfection on 39 (8/9)

No Viagra needed on 39(8/9).

Not just any mechanical.

Who cometh?

The iceman.

A match made in heaven.

What goes better with tube steaks than tube ice?

Love from 39(9/10).

Botany on 39 (8/9).

In most of the world, the laws of God and nature rule our bounteous flora and fauna. But on 39 (8/9) different rules apply.

Here, pretzels have cores.

Star Wars on 39 (8/9).

T-pain on 39 (8/9)!!!!!!!!

Taking the gloves off.

It's 90 degrees out today and someone didn't need these.

My time of day.

There was a lovely song from the musical "Guys and Dolls," called "My Time of Day." I think Frank Sinatra sang it in the movie.

"My time of day is the dark time
A couple of deals before dawn
When the street belongs to the cop
And the janitor with the mop
And the grocery clerks are all gone.

When the smell of the rainwashed pavement
Comes up clean, and fresh, and cold
And the streetlamp light
Fills the gutter with gold

That's my time of day
My time of day

And you're the only doll I've ever wanted to share it with me."

Well, on 39 (8/9), our favorite time is "Towel Time," when the 2,000 hotel rooms on this block tidy themselves laundromatically.

Wisdom on 39(8/9).

Synergy on 39 (8/9)

Line for ...

morning coffee... donuts... oatmeal...

No, no no...

Tamales!

Awwyeah.... This is 39 (8/9).

Line for what?

Usually when leaving the office late at night, you will see people queuing up for a club,
but this line early in the morning has me befuddled.

Zipper Logic

A key 39er had what the kids call a wardrobe malfunction today -- a broken zipper. I know what you're thinking. Well, for something like that, you have to go NY Zippers & Trim (above) all way the eff down on 37th Street.

Not the case at all. Check out JVS Zipper, home of the world's first self-oiling zipper, right here on our beloved 39 (8/9).

I'm on 39(8/9) and you're not

so don't tell me that you "feel my pain",
don't tell me that you understand what it is like to have hot dog water wash up on your curb and witness a soaked pigeon unable to fly again.
don't tell me that your paycheck is leaking money to some unknown FICA account that will never give you money back and no one can stop the leak. All attempts appear pathetic and futile.
don't tell me it is hard to navigate around tourists on your sidewalk too,
because you're not here. You wouldn't understand (except the FICA one if you're under 55 years old, then we're all screwed).

Advice to live by.

Shit is coming is going....

39 (8/9) Isn't for Everyone

Our inclusiveness, as well as our kindness to kittens, is well documented. However, I still believe that 39 (8/9) isn't for, well, dolphins. Whoever forwarded the dolphin, please reconsider.

A Courageous Confession

Let's face it, we all get frightened--or excited--and sometimes the result is unwelcome dampness. But for this to afflict an entire building...? All I have to say is Brava for your collective courage 322.

Our Rich Pageant

Every day dozens of tourists flock to 39 (8/9) to enjoy fine dining, deluxe accommodations, or simply to take in the view. As they soak up the rich pageant that is 39th (8/9), they may not know that they, too, play their part in the unfolding drama.

Let's get ready to...

Words of the Day

39th bt 8/9 is a gentle teacher. Today she teaches us a new phrase.

*Yet More Breaking News*

As if things weren't tense enough between the King and the Four Star General, it looks like the Swedes have decided to throw their slyngels into the ring.

How cold is Natuzzi Bros ice?

So mothereffing cold even the logo's frozen! Take that, King Freeze...

Heartbreak on 39(8/9)

COME AND GET IT!!!

where else can you get a VAGGI OMELETTE?
Only at Aleef and only at 39(8//9)

*special thanks to sarah k for the photo

I woke up on 39th street again

Collecting America's #1 export.

In the morning and the evening, the dinosaur trucks appear and eat our trash.

Compassion on 39 (8/9).

On 39 (8/9) we care about our fellow man. Or fellow cat.

*EVEN MORE BREAKING news

This HVAC man loves paintball. Which is code for, step aside Four Star Cleaning, I'll put a magenta cap in your arse...

*Breaking News: Attempted Coup*

This just in... Four Star General Cleaning seems to be trying to depose King Freeze for control of the block...

Where it all goes down

The sidewalk detour is home to many sideshows.
One morning you can see a fedex guy enjoying his morning joint, another day you can see three men sharing a 40, and if you are lucky you might sight a man urinating back there on your way home at night.
This detour is for some upcoming courtyard for the comfort inn or something adjacent to it. Regardless, it is the gift in the cracker jack box. You are unsure what it will give you, but it is always a surprise.

All Hail

For some reason, we get many, many HVAC trucks on our fair block. We get earls, dukes, an occasional prince. Today, we got the King himself... Welcome, Your Majesty...

The Finck Building.

Moshe Finck was 12 when he arrived at Ellis Island just before the Great War broke out, with his father Bensalem, an itinerant bootmaker from the eponymous Finck, Austria. Like so many poor, immigrant Jews before them, Finck pere and fils settled on the Lower East Side and began scrounging for work.

Bootmaking, being a heavily unionized trade, was closed to the Fincks so they applied their manual skills to the garment trade, originally working at the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory. The Fincks survived the famous fire at that factory only to see the elder Finck crushed to death when a seamstress fleeing the fire leapt 13 stories to her death and landed on Bensalem, killing him.

Undaunted by this horrible tragedy and still only a teenager, Moshe redoubled his efforts, sewing night and day. Eventually after five years of working eighteen hour days, Finck had saved enough money to open a small garment factory on Avenue D and 11th Street, specializing in "dickies, ascots and other affairs of the neck."

Fortune shined on the young Finck. He entered the dickie manufacturing business just as the Roaring 20s Dickie Boom began. Dickies were all the rage--everyone from Babe Ruth to Warren Harding were wearing Finck Dickies. In fact "Lucky" Lindy was wearing a custom-designed Finck dickie when the Spirit of St. Louis crossed the Atlantic.

Finck left the Lower East Side for a 12-room apartment on upper 5th Avenue. He was driven to work in a Dusenberg and was seen at Toots Shor's with high-rollers like Abe Rothstein, Bugsy Siegel and Toots himself. In 1928, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a story purportedly about Finck, "A Dickie As Big As The Ritz."

Then came the crash. And the dickie bubble had burst. Suddenly destitute men were selling dickies on street corners for a nickel a piece. Finck watched as all he worked for went down the tubes. He survived the Depression pressing clothes in Wo Hop's hand laundry.

However, with World War II, Finck's fortunes returned. Suddenly the Army-Air Force's demand for aviator's scarves sky-rocketed. It was Lindbergh who remembered Finck. "He's a fuckin' immigrant Jew," the good-natured pilot grumbled "but he can sew like Jesus Christ."

Soon Finck Aviator Scarves were supplying 25% of all scarves to Allied pilots. Then 40%. By war's end, Finck was making 75% of all Allied aviator scarves and was employing over 1,000 scarf-makers.

Finck built the Finck Building in 1943 to house his massive operation.

Finck Aviator Scarves and its subsidiaries closed in 1961 bowing to both closed cockpit aircraft and Japanese competition.

Numerology

Just around the corner...

39(8/9) tag line contest.

What's a great block without a great tag line?

Broadway is "the Great White Way."
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is known in France as 'La plus belle avenue du monde'
("The most beautiful avenue in the world").
A portion of Michigan Avenue in Chicago is known as "The Miracle Mile."

And here we are, abject and tag line-less.

Let's fix that now.
With the Inaugural 39(8/9) Tag Line Contest.

Come up with a epithet, a rhyme, a bon mot, if you will, about our small asphalt of heaven.

For starters I suggest this homage to Hitchcock:

39. Steps away from everywhere.

Or, here's one with a Southern twang:

Nothin' could be finer than to be a 39-er.

Bold and defiant. Proud and assertive:

39. Don't mock the block.

Throwing down the gauntlet.

Sanctuary?

Sanctuary.

Mocked by 39(8/9).

Ellis Island's cousin

Give me your tired, your poor vacationers on a budget,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free in dust kicked up by delivery trucks,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore curb.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp dump my hot dog water beside the golden 333 W. 39th door!

Clairvoyance on 39(8/9).

Can I be frank?

Titans

Some say that only drug dealers use pay phones. Not on 39(8/9). Our payphones -- Reserved for Titans of industry. Take that AT&T!

A view of the water from 39(8/9).