Game 7 of the Whirled Serious.
This is it, guys.
Never mind the long winter ahead:
Let’s Go Base-ball!
Picture by Richard Diebenkorn.
Friday
May 1, 2026
Since 2002
New York Minute
Check out this story at Slate by Jordan Weissmann on how Katz’s stays in business:
The newer generation of artisanal delicatessens that have risen up in recent years—restaurants like Brooklyn’s Mile End Deli and Washington, D.C.’s DGS Delicatessen—are fundamentally different. They serve their own excellent, obsessively sourced variations of house-cured and smoked pastrami (or Montreal-style “smoked meat,” in Mile End’s case). But volume isn’t really part of their equation. Instead, they emphasize profitable alcohol sales and have more varied menus with higher margin main dishes. And crucially, they can pack less meat onto the plate, which would be anathema at an old-school deli like Katz’s.
“Katz’s is super-special. It’s the only thing of its kind in the entire world,” Mile End’s founder, Noah Bernamoff, tells me.
The reason Katz’s was able to live on while its competitors disappeared largely boils down to real estate. As Sax writes in Save the Deli, New York’s delicatessens can basically be divided into two groups: those that rent their buildings and those that own. Famous renters, like the Stage Deli and 2nd Avenue Deli, have closed in the face of rent hikes. Famous owners, like Carnegie and Katz’s, have lived on. (And when 2nd Avenue Deli reopened, it bought a building … on New York’s 3rd Avenue). If Katz’s had to deal with a landlord, it would likely have disappeared or moved long ago.
[Photo Credit: Antonio Bonanno]
All the Marbles
Wow, the Royals put a thumpin’ on the Giants last night.
And so tonight, the 2014 baseball season concludes.
We’ll be watching…
Where & When: S.2 Game 2
Greetings, kids and kittens, welcome back to another edition of Where & When. Our season premiere was very solid and we had a pretty good turnout (though I was remiss in declaring a winner since it seemed to be a group effort, so everyone gets a root beer), how about we follow up with some more excitement and discovery?
I’ve somehow stumbled upon some pretty interesting locales and buildings, so I’m rather amped to share them with you this week; provided of course that I have time to set them up like this. So c’mon, let’s get to the game, shall we?
This looks like a rather unique structure for New York, doesn’t it? It sort of reminds me of a beach resort hotel… well, at least one of those thoughts is relative to the location, or close to it. The region was likely not as developed as it is now, but a place like this would certainly stand out in any era. As usual, your job is to determine where this picture was taken and when. There are enough clues in the picture to get a good idea when, but where is going to take some thinking.
There’s a frothing decanter of root beer waiting for the first person to answer both questions correctly, and a bonus scoop of ice cream for the one who can answer the bonus question of what this region looks like now; i.e. what has become of what you see in the photo.
All participants with good guesses or good stories will get a equally frosty glass of cream soda. Cheers to all involved and I’ll try to get back sometime during the day (but as you can tell, I make no promises). Enjoy!
photo credit: Library of Congress
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Dwight Garner reviews The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lapore. He writes that is is “a long, strange thing to chew on”:
On the one hand, the story it relates has more uplift than Wonder Woman’s invisible airplane or her eagle-encrusted red bustier. It’s a yea-saying tale about how this comic book character, created in 1941, remade American feminism and had her roots in the ideas and activism of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
On the other hand, “The Secret History of Wonder Woman” is fundamentally a biography of Wonder Woman’s larger-than-life and vaguely creepy male creator, William Moulton Marston (1893-1947). He was a Harvard graduate, a feminist and a psychologist who invented the lie detector test. He was also a huckster, a polyamorist (one and sometimes two other women lived with him and his wife), a serial liar and a bondage super-enthusiast.
Taster’s Cherce
Serious Eats gives us the history of fried green tomatoes. It’s a dish that always sounds better than it is. But I’m not deterred. I just think I haven’t had made properly yet.
[Photo Credit: David Incoll]
Morning Art
“Chairs” by Raimonds Staprans [via the always awesome site, Lover of Beauty].
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
The Giants are one win away from their third championship in five years.
They won again behind their ace on an otherwise somber night in baseball.
[Photo Credit: Elsa//Getty Images North America via It’s a Long Season]
Up Around the Bend
The Giants thumped the Royals but good last night and now the Whirled Serious is tied, 2-2.
The Game 1 starters return for a critical Game 5, the final game by the Bay. Be interesting to see if James Shields can finally deliver the kind of start we’ve seen from him for years in the AL.
Root-root-rootin’ for the Royals.
Let’s Go Base-ball!
[Photo Credit: Tara Wray]
Go West Young Men
The Whirled Serious moves to San Francisco and I gotta figure the Giants will win tonight.
Either way, Let’s Go Base-ball!
[Photo Credit: Eyetwist via This Isn’t Happiness]
"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver
--Earl Weaver