Derek Jeter spoke to reporters today. The always excellent Chad Jennings has the skinny. 

And here’s some good stuff about Ichi. 

[Photo Credit: John Dunn]

It’s spring time in Florida.

Hello again, welcome to the middle of the week with Where & When! So now that you’re here, you probably need to catch your breath for a minute before you once again dive into the storm and try to navigate your way around the city of old. Or cities; that happens sometimes. Like a warm day in a particularly nasty winter, but I’m not saying anything you don’t already know…

A friend of mine posted a somewhat similar picture of this building recently and I was instantly captivated by the design.  It sort of reminded me of a combination of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and Pig Style Alley in the movie Kung Fu Hustle; there are certainly more European flourishes in this design than Asian, but that’s not to say those comparisons are not relevant to this building in some way. I’m sure some intrepid design master will recognize it’s influences and find it somewhere, and that person will uncover very interesting history concerning this building.  That’s what I’d like for the first person to discover the Where and the When of this challenge to lay out: where is this building located, when was it built and what was it called when completed? For a bonus question, tell us how this building is relevant to this particular month and what has become of it? There’s a lot to tell about this building; I don’t expect you to write an essay about it (but you’re welcome to spare me the time and effort at least for this one), but it is a good bonus question and therefore deserves a special incentive. The one with the answers to the first two questions will get a claret glass of Bordeaux, while the rest of us will guzzle a schooner of sarsaparilla. And the bonus? How about some miso homefries? No? Okay, a ribeye medium well might seal the deal.  Take your pick; it’s open to vegans and vegetarians as well.

I do hope you find the answers as they are quite interesting.  By the way, the answers are relevant to the date; the name had changed over time and that in turn is relevant to the bonus, so you have to be precise according to the photo, which was likely taken when the building was just completed. I’ll check back during the afternoon and see what you’ve come up with or drop some clues if need be.  Have fun, and no peeking at the photo credit!

[Photo Credit: City of Beautiful Buildings]

Worth a click. 

Tonight on “American Experience” gives Penn Station.

Here’s a dumb spring training story and a dumb rebuttal.

Now, that we’ve got that out of the way, check out Steven Goldman’s ranking of Derek Jeter against the greatest shortstops of all time:

Sixteen shortstops rated, Jeter wins 13-3, with only Banks, Smith and Ripken coming out ahead. Given Jeter’s extraordinary consistency at bat and career accomplishments, that seems fair. While a few shortstops exceeded him at their peak moment, and many were fairly rated as superior on defense, the totality of his contributions, combined with when he made them, at a time when baseball was at its most cosmopolitan and competitive, means he cleared a higher bar than most of his predecessors. He might not have been the best shortstop ever, but he wasn’t far off.

[Photo Credit: Al Bello/Getty Images]

An interview from 1983.

 Light day of bloggin round these parts today on the count of the holiday.

In the meantime, enjoy:

Fats Is A Punk Rocker

[Photo Credit: Daniel Sorine]

A little comedy for a Saturday:

King Tut

[Photo Via: It’s a Long Season]

A Banter favorite is playing at BAM tonight. Perfect Valentine’s Day movie. 

For the next 25 hours you can download De La Soul’s entire catalog over at their site.

Where & When? It’s Friday; right here, right now! That means the week went by pretty quickly, from my point of view, and it’s been a pretty fulfilling week.  So let’s send off the work week with a big bang, shall we:

click on pic ahh, you get it…

I do wish I could tell which building the photo was taken from (that’s gotta be a bonus question), but instead I task you with naming at least six structures in this picture and whether they exist today or not.  Take your time with this one, as it’s a really gorgeous picture with sharp details when enlarged.  If you can make out some of the smaller structures that can be seen if you really look hard, feel free to point them out.  And since we’ve been engorging ourselves on food and drink all week, our top prize for the first person to name at least six structures within this pic (and the closest to the year the picture was taken) will get a crystal bowl of fresh fruit, while the person with the most structures identified will win a smoothie. The bonus question… eh, what the heck, if you get that one, you win brownies for everyone! Otherwise, the rest of us will have to split rice cakes (but don’t worry, you can choose the flavor).

Enjoy, and no peeking! >;)

[Photo Credit: Shorpy]

Another Victory?

Here’s Peter Richmond on the season-long lovefest/groanfest that will be Jeter’s retirement tour.

[Photo Credit: Kalamazoo Gazette]

From an essay I wrote about Richard Ben Cramer’s Esquire story on Ted Williams for the latest e-magazine from The Classical:

They came to Ted Williams the way those eight ill-fated adventurers came to Everest, thinking they could scale it, conquer it, reduce it to something mortals could comprehend. John Updike almost made it to the top when he wrote that gods don’t answer letters, but Ed Linn got off just as good a line in Sport magazine summing up Williams’ last game: “And now Boston knows how England felt when it lost India.” Leigh Montville weighed in with an almost poetically profane biography, and now Ben Bradlee Jr. has delivered a massive biography of his own at nearly 1,000 pages. But none of them—and I’m talking about a great novelist, two splendid sports writers, and a deeply committed researcher here— made it to the top of the mountain where dwelled Ted Williams, the Splendid Splinter, the Kid.

Richard Ben Cramer did.

He had only 15,000 words to work with, and he had to scheme and skulk and send flowers to get those, but he climbed inside Williams’ life and mind and special madness the way nobody before him did and nobody after him has. His story – “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?” – reached out from the pages of Esquire‘s July 1986 issue and grabbed you by the collar. Once you read his first sentence – “Few men try for best ever, and Ted Williams is one of those” – you didn’t need to be forced to go the rest of the way.

Check it out here. 

We’re on a roll with Where & When! I love that so many of these beautiful photos have managed to come to my attention and that we can share so much information about them. While I’ve researched various photos and pics, I’ve come to appreciate the wave of changes that occur each generation in New York, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them.  Some great architecture has sadly been lost to the ages due to neglect, damage from fire or the changing needs of society at that time, and far more often than not in this generation the replacements have been lacking in artistry or originality, but at least they’re not… well, they do… ah, who am I kidding? The early 20th Century was the golden age of skyscrapers and building construction in all of Greater New York and the surrounding metro area.  The mansions were better in the mid-to-late 1800s, but the buildings that came later served a greater purpose and the mansions, if they still exist, are mainly museums now.  That’s just my opinion, of course, but you’re welcome to agree or explain why I don’t know what I’m talking about >;)

click on photo to enlarge

Now you may or may not know what and where this is, but the year might throw you off a bit.  That’s because there are some very obvious and important distinctions about this place that you will have to list, and getting the year correct will likely help you with that task.  So not only are you determining where this was taken and when the photo was taken, but you’re also pointing out the main features in this structure.  Two bonus questions(!) go with this one: Name something related to a notorious event that happened here, and name another structure from around the world that inspired this one.

You all have fun with that while I sleep the morning away; I will check in after noon to see how you’re doing.  Same prizes as yesterday, but second bonus will be a chocolate biscotti. No peeking!

[Photo Credit: New York Architecture]

Sid Caesar, the comedy giant, has passed away at 91.

See for yourself.

According to this report, 2014 will be Derek Jeter’s final season as a player.  The announcement came on Jeter’s Facebook page.

[Painting by Michael Pattison]

Surprise! Time for more eye and mind candy from Where & When! Don’t ask me why I’m being so prolific of late, just enjoy it as it comes and I still have consistent moments to do it >;) So let’s jump back a few years:

Click on pic to enlarge

That’s quite a looker, isn’t it? This picture was taken the year the building was completed, and it’s can’t be too hard to find since it’s a building that was not torn down with the subsequent revitalization of lower Manhattan; in fact is there anything in this picture that has changed in the passing years? Tell us what the name of the building in the forefront is as well as the two prominent buildings in the rear. For a bonus, tell us what, if anything, has changed in this picture from then to now.

The prize? It’s still too cold for root beer, so you’ll have to settle for a large mug of minty hot cocoa, and the follow-ups will have a cup of ginger spice tea to keep our throats from getting sore from the cold.  The bonus will bring you a brownie >;)

Have at it guys; enjoy while I still have time to bring these extra games to you and as usual, no peeking at the photo credit.

[Photo Credit: wavz13]

Via Kottke, dig this funski: