Ringo, George, John and Paul...

Autumn on the Island

I love this fall weather on the Island! Low humidity, temperatures in the 60's in the day and 50's at night, pumpkins, leaves turning colors (eventually!), thoughts of the coming Thanksgiving Holiday, movies like "You've Got Mail" which begins with fall in New York.

Each season has its beauty here, each day a gift from God.
-------
It is the best, Larry,

My fave season of the year & Long Island's secret weapon. Certainly, the beaches & summer & parks are well known....but this is the time for us natives.

It also lasts longer for us than our upstate & inland neighbors, given the moderating influence of the ocean in whose embrace we float.
- Roy Probeyahn

The Bay Shore Marina

Long Island Photos Link

http://myli.mycapture.com/mycapture/photos/index.aspx

Leggios

Here I am at Leggios. They have the best heroes on Long Island. Joe Leggio is waiting on me. I love this place. Check out (by clicking on the picture) all the stuff on the shelves.

The Beach

Long Island Sound

A Day at the Beach

I had a wonderful time at the beach with my nephew yesterday. We golfed and then swam. I love the ocean!

Baldwin

Magazine: Baldwin among best places to live

BY STACEY ALTHERR
stacey.altherr@newsday.com

t

July 18, 2007
Money magazine has named Baldwin one of the top places to live in the country.

The magazine calls Baldwin "a haven for families" and says it "draws a diverse population who move to the town for its schools, and its proximity to healthy job markets and beaches." It comes in 25th out of 100 "Best Places to Live" and is the only Long Island community to make the annual list.

The LIRR

Mr. Butler, who lived across the street from us in Bellmore, worked for the Long Island Railroad. I always looked with awe on his work growing up there. The LI double "R" as it sometimes calls get us LIers where we need to go. It has come a long way.

Yesterday, after a pastors meeting in Massapequa Park, my friend George dropped me off at the station. I got my ticket through the automated machine. I was heading into Flushing to meet Lucy. She was coming out of the city at the time I was heading in. I got on one of the new trains, complete with air conditioning. I was able to relax and enjoy the jaunt along the south shore where I grew up. Visible from the train were some of our old fishing spots- we would spend hours there day after day in the summer. Strangely enough but not surprisingly really there were no kids. Computers, DVDs, air conditioned houses (an absolute luxury when I was a kid) have kept the kids of today locked up, leaving the outdoors to itself. They do not know what they are missing and I would not trade my memories of fishing in Twin Lakes for all the money in the world... If MasterCard made commercials back in the 60's... a fishing rod at Robinhood's- $1.95, all the hooks you could ever use- 49 cents, fishing line- 59 cents, memories of days spent fishing in Bellmore and Wantagh- priceless! Sorry for the digression. Back to the LIRR... I arrived safely at my connection in Woodside and jumped on the 7 train and met Lucy. It is always an adventure to travel by train for me. I love trains. I guess that is why every Christmas for the past 50 years a set of Lionel Trains have been around our Christmas tree. My dad bought them in Queens coming out of the subway in December 1956. I was 5 months old. He said he bought them for me. Yeah right!

Long Island Sailor Man

Bay Shore sailor grinds out America's Cup win

Matt Welling, of Bay Shore, never doubted that his longtime dream of crewing on a sailboat that won the America's Cup would come true this year -- even when the competing boat took an early lead in the series.

Under contract to his team for another month, Welling hopes to be signed on for the next race cycle, which could keep him with the team for two to four years. In the meantime, he said, "We're looking forward to moving home at the end of this month" and staying in Bay Shore for at least a year. After some rest, he said he would engage in other professional sailing events until Alinghi calls.

He's anxious to return to Long Island. "I miss the bagels," he said. "We can't get good bagels here in Spain."

Long Island Clams

Yesterday our friends Mike and Linda brought by some fresh clams. They were absolutely delicious.

It is amazing how many memories a single taste can evoke. As I savored those treasures of the Great South Bay, my mind went back to places we had talked about together: Nathan's in Oceanside, where you could get clams on the half shell and some fresh lemon and seafood sauce. Then there were summer cookouts in the 60's and 70's. Clams always showed up and there was someone there who knew the fine art of shucking them.

One of my favorite clamming stories has become a favorite of my granddaughter's, Emma. We were at Jones Beach, somewhere around 1967. There was one of those sandbars that often form in the summer. People were running on it. Some kid started to dig and then a gold rush began. It was a bed of clams! people were running from every direction to dig. We got 90 clams as we filled buckets and bags and any other container we could use. I remember a Coleman gallon jug being used as one.

Later that day and into the next Mom made up everything from fried clams to clam chowder and stuffed clams. It was incredible.

Thanks Mike and Linda for bringing the clams by and for all the memories they brought to the surface.

What Weather!

We are having some of the most beautiful weather this weekend! Enjoy!

You Know You Are From Long Island If...

You live in the shadow of the greatest city in the world,

but you almost never go there.

When you're away from Long Island , you love it
and when you're there, you don't.

You think if you're not from Long Island or NYC,
you're not really from New York

You know the exact point at which Queens
turns into Nassau simply on intuition.

You don't go to Manhattan , you go to "The City".

You never realize you have an accent till you leave.

Everything north of the Bronx is "upstate." New Jersey stinks.

At some point in your life you've gone clamming.

Either your parents or your grandparents lived in the city.

You'd pay $11.50 for a movie.

You don't live in Long Island You live ON Long Island

Your distant future might involve the state of Florida

You can correctly pronounce places like
Ronkonkoma , Hauppauge, Wantagh , Mineola, Islandia, Massapequa and Islip

You know the location of 6 malls and a dozen McDonalds, 20 Chinese Restaurants
and 36 7-11's.

You never, ever want to "change at Jamaica..."

You've tried to find the Amityville Horror house.

No, you don't want mustard on that burger!!

You can't understand why a diner would ever close.

You've had a seagull crap on your car.

You have or someone you know has fallen asleep on the LIRR
and ended up in one of these three places;
Babylon , Port Washington or Hicksville .

You know White Castle is terrible for you
and the food is terrible but you periodically "Get the Crave".

You want the Yankees to stay in the Bronx,
but would probably go to more games if they moved to Manhattan

You think that somehow, the Jets and Giants still play in New York

You've missed that "Drunk Train", the 2:42 out of Penn
and had the dreaded wait until 5:30.

You or someone you know has owned an animal
that came from North Shore Animal League.

Quick! Who's your county Executive ? Don't know do you?!

You've never taken an MTA bus.

The Long Island Expressway isn't really as bad as everybody thinks.

You don't associate Fire Island with gay men.

You know which parts of the Godfather were filmed on Long Island

You think Islip MacArthur airport is cute
and you enjoy watching it grow up.

Billy Joel said it best,
"either you date a rich girl from The North Shore,
or a cool girl from the South Shore ".

You don't really see the big deal about the Hamptons

When people ask "where are you from?"
you answer Long Guy Land and automatically assume everyone in the world knows that answer means New York.


You've always liked Billy Joel and you own several of his "records."


The Belt Parkway is a nightmare. You've been stuck in a traffic jam
for more than 2 hours (without moving).

Your parents took you to All American, Nathan's or Carvel
(on the way home from the beach).

Regular gas - $3.29 and you still pay it!!!

You hate paying tolls.

You don't have to go far to see your family .

You remember Grumman.

You know the color of the water at Jones Beach is not BLUE!

You were upset when all the Roy Rogers turned into Wendy's and Arby's closed for good.

You can spout off all the LIRR stops between
Penn Station and where you live.

Paying $35 for a haircut doesn't sound so crazy.

You think the people from Brooklyn are
"da wunz dat tawk wit a accent."

You went sledding in the sumps or at Bethpage State Park.

You knew of Massapequa before
the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco nightmare.

You think going to Queens is a hike.

The first time you heard the term "Long Island Iced Tea"
you were somewhere else and you laughed.

When you visit somewhere else you are astounded
to see that people actually stop at yellow lights.

When you just sort of presume that wherever you visit,
you'll be able to find good delis, good pizza, and good bagels...
then the horrible reality sets in and you can't wait to get home!

You can name at least three bands that came from Long Island

When you walk in the city and you see two men holding hands...
you don't stare.

No word ends in an ER, just an AH.

You actually get these jokes
and pass them on to other friends from Long Island

You are smiling now.

You Know You Are From Bay Shore if...

1. You understand why I am typing this in maroon.

2. You have eaten at Leggios and just reading this makes your mouth water.

3. You know you are from Bay Shore if you know someone named Knapp. There are about 1,000 of them! Maybe more.

4. Already you are thinking about sending this to your friends from Bay Shore.

5. You know you are from Bay Shore if you know what a Marauder is and you can spell it.

6. You have eaten Pizza at Mulberry Street or Ginos.

7. You love being 45 minutes to the city and 45 minutes out from the city.

8. You have had a round trip ride on the Fire Island Ferries.

9. You would rather stay home for summer vacation than travel.

10.Your home away from home is the beach.

11. You still call the South Shore Mall the South Shore Mall.

12. You argue with people who is better the Mets or the Yankees and the only way you are going to a Ducks game is if someone gives

a ticket for free.

13. You know you are from Bay Shore if you know someone who was born in Southside Hospital!

14. You know where Southside Hosiptal is.

15. You know someone who has worked there or works there now.

16. You know you are from Bay Shore if Spanish speaking people don't sound strange to you.

17. You know you are from Bay Shore if you are used to living in a neighborhood without sidewalks and you don't want it to change.

18. You can be on Howells Road one second and then on Bay Shore Road the next and Howells Road again and you only made one turn.

19, Exit 41S sounds good.

20. Peter Pan is much more than a fairy tale or a Disney movie.
21.. You are smiling right now and thinking- I gotta get over to Leggios for a hero!

and finally no matter where you go Bay Shore, the heart of Long Island's South Shore is in your heart and it will never leave it!

Inspired by my beautiful daughter Tina Marie Mancini








Tina and I at the Peter Pan Diner

My Hero

Just had a Leggios Italian Hero for lunch- sorry Subway you don't even come close!

(See March Post on this blog entitled My Hero)

What Are You Tawking About?!

Who says we talk funny?

BY JUSTIN DAVIDSON

May 22, 2007, 11:39 PM EDT
The Long Island accent is an aural icon. Americans recognize it, mock it and celebrate it. Some Long Islanders labor to get rid of it. Occasionally, an actor learns to acquire it, not always with great success.

The odd thing about Long Islandese is that it doesn't actually exist -- not as an entity distinct from old-time New York City speech. Dialect recapitulates history, and the sounds of the city's eastward suburbs -- those twanging nasals, the diphthong drawl in "man," the A's of "call," "talk" and "mall" larded with W's -- chronicle the great postwar migration eastward from Flatbush, Bushwick and Williamsburg.

"If you really want to hear a ripe Brooklyn accent, you go to Long Island," says Amy Stoller, a Manhattan-based dialect coach. Listen to a group of .Massapequa teenagers, who wouldn't even know from Ebbets Field, and you can hear the echo of their stickball-playing grandparents. If those kids sound nothing like a clique from the next town over, it probably has less to do with geography than with ethnicity.

There are at least four different strands of New York-area accents, broadly defined by tribe: Italian, Jewish, Irish and Hispanic (the latecomer to this dialectal stew). Blacks have adopted features of all these strains, but the strongest form of dialect, formally known as African-American Vernacular English, sounds much the same in New York as it does in Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The distinctions hit the ear starkly. Just imagine how offensive to the ear it would be to cast the Malverne-raised actor Tony Danza as a Jew, or to hear Bushwick native Rosie Perez playing an Irish girl. But these idiosyncrasies are difficult to itemize. A few ethnically identifiable sounds stand out.

In the Hispanic version, for example, Stoller detects a "tendency to turn vowels that are followed by nasal consonants [N, M and NG] into nasalized vowels, so 'man' comes out sounding almost like it ends with a French N. They never get around to putting their tongue into the bump behind their teeth, but instead divert the air through their nose."

Dictated by immigration

Most of the identifying characteristics lie in the melodic inflections of speech: cadences that locals recognize but that can't be transcribed. Those intonations also recap the his.tory of immigration. Hang around the largely Jewish village of Great Neck, and you can detect traces of Polish, Russian and German mingling with Yiddish.

Intonations are remarkably specific. "When you think of New York Italian," Stoller says, "you're really talking about largely Sicilian and Neapolitan and cadences, which are nothing like the cadences of Rome or Tuscany or Milan."

Some of the signed headshots papering the walls of the New York Speech Center in Manhattan are those of actors who yearned to scrub the New Yawk from their speech. The inner sanctum is crammed with books piled on the floor, and insets in framed mounts.

In the middle of this evocative clutter sits Sam Chwat, who lives in Great Neck, has a whiff of Brooklyn in his speech, and spends his days trying to make actors sound as though they came from nowhere in particular. Chwat pronounces his name like the phonetic term "schwa"; it seems like a made-up surname for a speech professional, but it's the one he was born with.

The New York/Long Island accent has venerable roots, he explains. In the 1600s, colonists from southern England sowed their phonemes in three principal areas along the East Coast: New England, New York and the South. To this day, in all three zones, R's at the end of words are pronounced as vowels, just as they are in England.

So New York R-dropping is not an English vowel that has been bent by iron-eared immigrants, but a sound that predates the harder R that became widespread after later mass migrations from Scotland and Ireland.

The oldest form of the Long Island accent was spoken by the Bonackers, the East End residents of Accabonac Harbor, whose R-less word endings had more of a New England ring.

It wasn't just aristocrats who bequeathed their linguistic peculiarities on the colonies. New York speech, like that of Cockney London, makes plentiful use of the glottal stop, which turns a T into a silent gulp, transforming "little" into "li'l" and "Milton" into "Mil'n." Cockneys also pronounce TH as F ("I fought I 'eard a clap o' funder"), a quirk that migrated to slave Colonial populations and remains common in African-American Vernacular.

Long Island's stigma

Some speech patterns become stigmatized and others privileged, which leads to the formation of new patterns. Take the famously local pronunciation "Lawn Guyland": Chwat explains that the percussive G linking the words "Long" and "Island" comes from an attempt to sound more refined.

Standard English has no separate G sound at the end of "long" or "thing." NG is merely a written approximation of a nasal consonant whose separate existence we don't recognize. It's produced by pressing the back of the tongue against the back of the palate -- a completely different part of the mouth from the locations where N and G reside.

People who want to avoid déclassé pronunciations such as "goin'" make an incorrect effort to sound correct by tacking on a hard G, rather than using the stealth consonant NG. Thus, the question, "Are we walking, driving or taking a bus?" pops with plosives.

A similar overcompensation applies to R. Upwardly mobile people, vaguely aware of their tendency to consider R an honorary vowel when it comes at the end of a word, will stick a hard R where it doesn't belong at all, so that "law" becomes "lawr" and an "idea" is "idear."

"In New York, more is more," Chwat says drily.

But who can remember everything? Long Islanders who drive to "Warshington" still do so in a "cawh." Even the thickest accents are full of such inconsistencies, and incompletely trained actors tend to apply any rule too broadly. They forget that the New York diphthong -- a single vowel distended into two -- applies only to an A that precedes an M or an N. So while on Long Island, the phrase "Sam can't dance" gets three drawled, nasal A's, an actor might use the same three honks in "Patty's happy she's back," even though no genuine Long Islander would. (And for mysterious reasons, Long Islanders use the diphthong A in "can" and "cancer," but not in "Canada.")

Vocal chameleons

In a region as mobile and diverse as Long Island, an accent is a sometime thing. Linguists speak of code-switching: the practice of adapting one's speech to one's surroundings. Marie K. Huffman, a Stony Brook University linguistics professor, has noticed that her students harden their R's more conscientiously with her than they do with each other.

"Language has so much to do with social identity," she says. "As a teenager, you often have the will to explore linguistic identities and then you decide what kind of adult you're going to be." That explains why some white adolescents infatuated with hip-hop start picking up aspects of African-American Vernacular, then shed them a few years later.

Laurie Simmons, a Manhattan-based artist who grew up in Great Neck, speaks the sort of pure generic American English that Tony Danza dreams of. She remembers altering her speech in high school depending on what group of girls she was trying to join. "I learned the accent because I needed to, for survival. I could turn it off and on at will. My parents didn't talk that way, but I was 'bilingual.'"

Years later, she taught the Long Island patois to her two daughters, who practiced it as an exotic, comical dialect. When the three of them attended a Passover seder in Great Neck last month with Simmons' extended family, the girls, 21 and 15, amused themselves by "doing" the accent all evening. Simmons was mortified, but nobody else noticed: Code-switching is too natural to attract much attention.

If Long Island's version of a New York accent has endured, it's partly because the working Brooklynites who forsook the city and moved into the professional classes saw no reason to change their speech. Chwat discovered as much trying to drum up business among Great Neck doctors and lawyers. "I can't make a living off them," he says. "They like the way they talk."

Asset or Achilles?

Mindy Ferrentino Wolfle, a Long Beach-based marketing and career consultant, says she doesn't counsel clients to change their accents. So long as a local business stays local, an accent isn't a liability, though it does attract attention everywhere else. Accordingly, she trained herself to sound newscast-ready.

"If I sound very Long Island, I don't sound very smart," Ferrentino Wolfle worries. "I know it's insulting to think that, but it's about perception, not about reality." Over the years, she's drilled generic American into her subconscious, and mostly it sticks. "The way I speak now is the same all the time," she insisted.

Then she paused. "I just heard myself say 'awl.' I'm going to have to work on that."

From Newsday

Spring Evening

It is one of those beautiful spring evenings on the Island. I just came in from watering the garden. This afternoon Lucy and I played golf at Robert Moses Pitch and Putt. It was around 70, a cool ocean breeze was blowing and the eucalyptus were in bloom. What a gourgeous day!

And More!

More Spring on the Island

A Swan sitting on her nest out east near Mattituck

The Beach

My niece and I on the beach this past weekend

A Great Place

Share your memories of it in the comment section

Quick Tour of Robert Moses Today

The Sunset On Good Friday

The Cross Sound Ferry

Linking Long Island to New England

I believe a very small portion of Long Islanders have ever ridden on the ferry that goes from Orient Point to New London, Connecticut.

That is unfortunate because the ride is so enjoyable. Even getting there is interesting. Long Island's North Fork is beautiful and has many places of interest as well as superb food.

The wildlife out east ranges from deer to fox to loons. The ride across is one hour twenty minutes. It takes about the same amount of time to get to Orient Point from Bay Shore where I live. But once on the other side you are 45 minutes from Providence, Rhode Island, an hour and half from Boston and about 2 1/2 hours to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Visit https://www.longislandferry.com for more info.

Spring on the Island

Gotta love this!

Tue Mar 27

Mostly Sunny

73°/46°

Long Island Memories

You Must Remember These
For LI boomers, these landmarks are gone, but not forgotten

Email this story Printer friendly format

More Coverage TV & Radio Heroes: Where Are They Now? Photo Nunley's, Baldwin The Lollipop Farm, Syosset Island Garden, West Hempstead My Father's Place, Roslyn Long Island Arena, Commack Drive-ins Nathan's Famous, Oceanside

Nunley's, Baldwin: This small kiddie amusement park entertained toddlers and their parents from 1939 to 1995. You could go on the Ferris wheel, play miniature golf or enjoy other tame rides. But what most people remember is the carousel: a glorious 1912 Stein & Goldstein model (one of only three intact) that was moved from Brooklyn when Nunley's opened and contained 41 horses, two chariots and a lion. When Nunley's closed, the carousel was bought by Nassau County (which successfully won a court decision blocking an auction). It was put in storage in a hangar at Mitchel Field, awaiting refurbishing and possible relocation to the proposed Nassau County Museum Row. Perhaps soon a new generation will be able to grab the carousel's brass ring. A Pep Boys auto store now occupies the Sunrise Highway site.

The Lollipop Farm, Syosset: This children's zoo, which opened in 1950, was where many of us first got introduced, either with our families or on school trips, to the animal kingdom. It had no ferocious beasts, thus no bars, so you could pet and feed straw and popcorn to the goats, giant tortoises, lambs, ducks, ponies and other animals. And if you didn't feel like walking, a miniature train would whisk you around its five acres. It closed in 1975.

Island Garden, West Hempstead: Another ramshackle multipurpose arena that aspired to be our Madison Square Garden, but was more like an evil twin to the Long Island Arena. It was a drafty, barnlike building where boat enthusiasts browsed, circus elephants pranced, Bruno Sammartino and Bobo Brazil wrestled, Dylan and Cream rocked, and the Rick Barry-era Nets sojourned for a couple of seasons. Unable to compete with the more modern Nassau Coliseum, it was torn down in 1973, 16 years after it opened. The place is now -- what else? -- a shopping center.

My Father's Place, Roslyn: Promoter Michael (Eppy) Epstein converted a former bowling alley into Long Island's premier music club. From 1971 to 1987, the intimate (400 capacity) club was the place to hear live music on the Island -- anything from folk-rock to reggae to blues. You'd sit elbow-to-flannel-shirted elbow at long, family-style tables, guzzling pitchers of beer or sangria, drinking in the sounds of a pre-"Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen or a local kid named Billy Joel. Notable also for being the site of one of Bob Marley's first American concerts -- and for the Long Island debut of Gotham punkers the Ramones, who performed to a nearly empty house.

Long Island Arena, Commack: Home of the late, beloved Ducks of the Eastern Hockey League (1959-73), a minor league squad that made every game seem like "Slap Shot," and briefly, the American Basketball Association's Nets. If it ever was warm there, please let us know. The temperature inside once registered 28 degrees (with the wind chill). Angry Ducks fans once lit a bonfire in the stands, prompting the team's announcer (who was also club owner) to proclaim that the game was being sponsored by the Smithtown Fire Department. The 1972 arrival of the Islanders quacked the Ducks for good, but the ramshackle Arena soldiered on as a flea market and rock concert venue for more than two decades. It was finally demolished in the summer of '96 (along with two neighboring Commack landmarks, a roller rink and drive-in) for a huge King Kullen shopping center.

Drive-ins: Long Island's last remaining outdoor theater, the Westbury (in Jericho), closed last year, and pending a legal challenge, was slated to be demolished. If the wrecker's ball does win, then local passion pits will be pulverized forever. Once Long Island was filled with them: Valley Stream, Long Beach, Massapequa, Bethpage, Copiague, Smithtown, Huntington, Commack, Coram, Bay Shore, Patchogue, Shirley and Greenport were among the communities with drive-ins. The memories remain etched: the tinny speaker attached to the car, the dubious-quality food and the even more dubious-quality films being shown on the giant screen underneath the stars. Long Island had the nation's largest: Copiague's All-Weather Drive-In, which had parking spaces for 2,500 cars, plus an indoor 1,200-seat viewing area, playground, cafeteria, full-service restaurant. To traverse the 28 acres, a shuttle train took customers from their cars to the various areas.

Nathan's Famous, Oceanside: Sure, you can go to the food court versions or even buy Nathan's products in the frozen food department of your grocery store, but they will never recapture the true Nathan's experience. The Coney Island institution opened a branch on Long Beach Road in 1955 on the site of what had been another Long Island landmark, the Roadside Rest. The huge building with picnic-style tables became a destination: to go after high-school football games, after a day at the beach, to celebrate when you first got your drivers' license, or just to people-watch and meet kids from other towns. The food -- 25-cent hot dogs, chow mein sandwiches, frog's legs, the world's best French fries in a cup -- was pretty good, too. The original building, plus the stage-show area and kiddie park, were razed in 1975; the site is now a Waldbaum's shopping center, which contains a much smaller Nathan's.

And let's not forget . . . Dodge City, a late-'50s Patchogue theme park that tried to recreate the Old West ... The Jolly Roger, a 51/2-acre Bethpage amusement park and restaurant complex that at its height would draw up to 4,000 children on a summer's Saturday ... Jahn's Ice Cream Parlours, various locales, home of the kitchen sink, a dessert to die for ... Wetson's, one of the first fast-food burger chains ... Uniondale Mini-Cinema, where a generation learned to love midnight movies ... The Capri, Monaco, Colony and other South Shore beach clubs, captured in the 1984 film "The Flamingo Kid" ... Stock cars, funny cars and demolition derbies at Freeport Stadium, Islip Speedway and Center Moriches' New York National Speedway (with its ear-splitting "Sunday!!!!" radio commercials) ... Battles of the Bands, competitions where teen rockers played their hearts out.

In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein spent his summer on Nassau Point, in Peconic, NY on eastern Long Island. My grandfather, David Rothman, was owner of Rothman's Department Store in nearby Southold.

One June day, Einstein came into the store. Of course, my grandfather recognized him at once. He decided, though, to treat him just like any other customer.

"Are you looking for something in particular?" he asked

"Sundials," Einstein said in his thick German accent.

Now, Rothman's has always had a large variety of items -- just about everything from housewares, to fishing tackle and bait, to hardware, to toys, to appliances. But no sundials. Not for sale, anyway. But...

"I do have one in my back yard," my grandfather said.

He led Einstein -- who seems a bit bewildered -- to the back yard, to show him the sundial. "If you need one you can have this."

Einstein took one look and began to laugh. He pointed to his feet. "No. Sundials."

Sandals. Those, he had.

As he was ringing up the sale, Einstein heard the classical music playing on the record player. Talking about it, my grandfather mentioned he played the violin.

Einstein lit up. "We must play together some time."

They set a date. As he prepared, my grandfather wasn't sure which music to bring, and finally decided on an assortment from simple to a Bach piece that was the most difficult thing he played. When he arrived at the summer cottage Einstein rented (still referred to as "The Einstein House"), he was welcomed warmly. Einstein looked over the music and chose the Bach.

Read more at: http://www.sff.net/people/rothman/einstein.htm

Albert Einstein's Long Island Summer

Long Island's Weather

My Front Walk this morning

Long Island Pizza

Click on the link for the results!

http://www.newsdayinteractive.com/project/long-island-pizza/

The East End

Montauk Sunrise October 1, 2003

Some of the most unexplored and yet most beautiful sections of the Island are the North and South Forks. They are very different. The north fork has large rocks in places and is on Long Island Sound whereas the South Fork has beautiful sand beaches.

There are wonderful produce stands as well as old houses on the north fork and it is filled with open spaces. The south fork has many condos. Both have their beauty and charm.

My Hero

In other places in the country they are known as a bomber, grinder, hoagie, hoagy, poor boy, sub, submarine, submarine sandwich, torpedo, wedge, zep. (and they don't taste the same either!)

On Long Island they are my hero and your heroes!
(from the amount of meat they pile on to the fresh Italian bread they use!)
(My aologies to Subway but here in New York a subway is a train, not a place to buy heroes!)

I recall taking final exams in Jerusalem Avenue Junior High. I had a morning one and an afternoon one. The cafeteria wa closed. Right next door was "My Hero", a great place that made whatever you wanted. I can still taste the work of art!

Out here in Bay Shore there is Leggios. They make the best heroes around. The place is a little joint in a residential section. Sometimes the wait is an hour or more! I learned the secret. You call in the order ahead and find out when they will be ready. Leggoi's is my hero now!

In case you are still in doubt, let me conclude this post with three true stories of heroes, and Italian bread.
#1- A person came from out of town and ordered a whole hero for lunch. The deli clerk tried to talk them down to half a hero. They insisted. After consuming three quarters of it this person was so tired they took a little nap in their car before continuing on with their day- In their own words, "I have never had a sandwich with so much cold cuts!"
#2- Another person came to visit a family on Long Island for a holiday. They were seen switching their rolls for authentic Long Island deli hard rolls. When caught in the act of thievery they blurted out, "We can't get them like this back home!"
#3- My uncle came up from Florida. He was born and Brooklyn and lived on Long Island before moving there in the 70's. He went with the girls and I to get some Italian Bread from the bakery. Before we got back to the house we had half a loaf devoured (We only live three blocks from the bakery and we were driving!)

BAGELS

One of the great mysteries of life is what makes the Long Island Bagels so good?
Some contend it is the water, which also accounts for the pizza crust. Maybe it is. Once you have had a hard roll, pizza or a bagel from the Island , you are ruined for life. The endless search begins to find the place outside of Metro New York that can produce such a wondrous thing. The lines crowd the shops sometimes 20 people long! I step up and say, "An everything egg bagel with lox and cream cheese spread." You can't do this anywhere else in the country.

Facts and Figures and a Little History

Discover the Undiscovered Island...
...Long Island

Long Island, New York offers diversity, glamour, the good life, excitement or solitude; all within 125 miles.The quiet waters of Long Island Sound to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south are a combination vacationers and meeting planners cannot resist.

Long Island Facts and Figures

             NASSAU         SUFFOLK
Population   1.3 million    1.4 million
Area         287  sq.miles  911 sq. miles
County Seat  Mineola        Riverhead

A Bit of History

• 1524 - Italian Explorer Verrazano spots the South Shore
• 1640 - Southold and Southampton are the first settlements
• 1796 - Lighthouse at Montauk is NY's first coastal beacon
• 1909 - LI becomes "Cradle of American Aviation."
• 1922 - First trans-Atlantic radio telephone transmitter at Rocky Point
• 1927 - Lindbergh takes off at Roosevelt Field on first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris
• 1939 - Pan American commercial air service to Europe from Port Washington
• 1940 - LI becomes major center for war production
• 1947 - Brookhaven National Laboratory to study peaceful uses of atomic energy
• 1984 -Larry Mancini returns to live here after a ten year hiatus
  

Famous People From Long Island

Among those from Long Island who have made it into the limelight are the acting Baldwin brothers, the piano man himself, Billy Joel, Harry Chapin, football hero Vinny Testaverde, comedians Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy, and pop stars Ashanti and Mariah Carey.

TV Shows Set in the Area:

• Mary Kay and Johnny (1947–1950)
• The Goldbergs (1949–1956); in the Bronx; moved to fictional Haverville, New York in final season)
• Amos and Andy (1951–1953)
• I Love Lucy (1951–1957, moved to Connecticut in final season)
• My Little Margie (1952–1955)
• Make Room for Daddy (1953–1964)
• The Honeymooners (1955–1956); in Brooklyn
• The Thin Man (1957–1959)
• Car 54, Where are You? (1961–1963)
• The Joey Bishop Show (1961–1965)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966, workplace scenes in Manhattan; see below)
• Dr. Kildare (1961–1966)
• The Patty Duke Show (1963–1966); in Brooklyn Heights
• Bewitched (1964–1972; workplace scenes in Manhattan; see below)
• That Girl (1966–1971)
• Family Affair (1966–1971)
• Sesame Street (1969–present)
• The Odd Couple (1970–1975)
• McCloud (1970–1977)
• All in the Family (1971–1979); in Queens
• Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–1973)
• Madigan (1972–1973)
• Kojak (1973–1978)
• Rhoda (1974–1978)
• Baretta (1975–1978)
• Barney Miller (1975–1982)
• Ellery Queen (1975–1976)
• The Jeffersons (1975–1985)
• Ryan's Hope (1975–1989)
• Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979); in Brooklyn
• Fish (1977–1978)
• Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986)
• Taxi (1978–1983)
• The Ted Knight Show (1978)
• Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983); in Queens
• Eischied (1979–1980)
• Gimme a Break (1981–1987) (final season only, all prior seasons set in fictitious Glenlawn, California)
• Cagney & Lacey (1982–1986)
• Fame (1982–1987)
• Silver Spoons (1982–1987)
• The Cosby Show (1984–1992); in Brooklyn
• Kate and Allie (1984–1989)
• Night Court (1984–1991)
• The Bronx Zoo (1987–1988); in the Bronx
• Beauty and the Beast (1987–1990)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987–1996)
• Working Girl (1990)
• Seinfeld (1989–1998)
• Law & Order (1990–present)
• Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1993); in Brooklyn
• Ghostwriter (1992–1995); in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
• Mad About You (1992–1999)
• The Real World (1992 and 2002 seasons)
• The Nanny (1993–1999)
• NYPD Blue (1993–2005)
• The Cosby Mysteries (1994–1995)
• The Critic (1994–1995)
• Gargoyles (1994–1997)
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998)
• Friends (1994–2004)
• New York News (1995)
• Caroline in the City (1995–1999)
• NewsRadio (1995–1999)
• The Parent 'Hood (1995–1999)
• The Wayans Bros. (1995–1999)
• Central Park West (1996)
• Cosby (1996–2000)
• Spin City (1996–2002)
• Brooklyn South (1997–1998); in Brooklyn
• Fired Up (1997–1998)
• Just Shoot Me (1997–2003)
• Sex and the City (1997–2004)
• Veronica's Closet (1997–2000)
• City Guys (1997–2001)
• Felicity (1998–2002)
• Becker (1998–2004); in The Bronx
• The King of Queens (1998–present); in Queens
• That's Life (1998)
• Will & Grace (1998–2006)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999–present)
• Futurama (1999–2003) (set a thousand years in the future in New New York, built above the ruins of the old)
• Third Watch (1999–2005)
• The Street (2000)
• Welcome to New York (2000–2001)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001–present)
• Grounded for Life (2001–2005) in Staten Island
• The Job (2001-2002)
• Animal Precinct (2002–present)
• Family Affair (2002–2003)
• Less Than Perfect (2002–present)
• What I Like About You (2002–2006)
• Without a Trace (2002–present)
• Tarzan (2003)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003–present)
• Tru Calling (2003–2005)
• The Apprentice (2004–present), seasons 1-5
• The Jury (2004)
• CSI: New York (2004–present)
• Rescue Me (2004–present)
• Law & Order: Trial By Jury (2005)
• Blind Justice (2005)
• Jake in Progress (2005–present)
• Related (2005–present)
• Conviction (2006)
• 30 Rock (2006)
• The Don Rickles Show (1972, Long Island)
• Maude (1972–1978, Tuckahoe in Westchester County)
• Who's the Boss? (1984–1992, Connecticut)
• Growing Pains (1985–1992, Long Island)
• Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005, Long Island)

More Island Fun

Walking in the Rain!

Going to watch our home team the METS play

On the side porch of Teddy Roosevelt's Home
Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island

Coney Island

Montauk

Halftime at the High School Football Game

Getting buried in the sand at the beach

While many who have lived on the Island have great memories, there are new things popping up. One we all learn to live with- the ongoing building development. Just yesterday I saw a new medical center going up on a vacant lot and a huge addition to the public library.

Another thing that has recently been added to the Long Island Cuisine is southern Barbarque. Yesterday afternoon Lucy and I ate at Smoking Al's one of many that have come and rated number one by Newsday. It was delicious!

http://www.smokinals.com/
(Click on "About Us" for how this came to be on the Island)