Yes, thank you very much Dan. It was lovely to see some old friends, meet some new ones, and take another look at Brooklyn, which, of course, is always fascinating. It is a good thing that we had already put ourselves into the mind set to launch ourselves into serious diets and fitness training starting Monday, in preparation for our trip to Greece this summer. After the BRT we especially need it. We were way too full to even think about cannolis last night. Sorry, Cholula, I missed my chance to kiss you goodbye. Please give Laura a hug for me and thank her for sharing you with me. Joe, my daughter asked me for your e-mail. Can you please PM it to me? At this point she is trying to convince us that it would probably make more sense to do the Met today and save the Cloisters for a trip when we have more time to relax and enjoy. The schedule today provides that we be back at our hotel by two in order to leave for the airport.in time to make our plane this afternoon. We look forward to seeing everyone again next time, somewhere, somewhen. Punki
Dan, all, et.al., It was great to join yesterday, even if only for a blink of an eye... I hope the bus went back to life at the end! If you stop by @EV, I 'owe' you a cheese cake piece at מוישיס. Oh, if you have a perference WRT a lending project @ kiva, let me know.
Given your out time at the hotel, that makes perfect sense. Meanwhile, a PM is about to wind it's way to you.
Here is photographic evidence of the first time Randy Petersen was in Canarsie, taken on June 4, 2011: Canarsie, Randy Petersen and dhammer53 — holding a box of rugelach from Teena’s Cake Fair — officially in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Canarsie. Note as proof the name “Canarsie” on the white awning in the background between Canarsie and Randy Petersen.
That's a nice picture. I especially like the guy on the right. He seems to be stuffing his face on delicious bakery goodies. I wish you could have seen the look on Randy's face when he took a bite of the raspberry/cheese rugelach just seconds before the picture was taken. I know that look. The box that I'm holding was given to me by Teena's Bakery, as a thank you for all the business we gave her. Last I saw the box, it was headed to the rear of the bus. I think it stopped at magic111. Randy was one of 40 riders that was wearing the BRT baseball cap. If you want one, you'll have to ride with us on BRT 12 next June.
The BRT shoudl be an eternal annula event. It is so good to learn so much in such a short time while engaged in scintillating conversation that to not continue them would be a travesty. Besides, until I met Canarsie I know nobody who ever made money out of Coney Island, and thanks to Dan I now know Coney Island was named after my favorite food. So, don't even jest about the possibility that it may sometime come to an end.
I don't recall where you were sitting on the bus when we were in Coney Island. Since the mike on the bus was in-op, you may not have heard what I said. I said that Coney Island was inhabited by lots of rabbits 300 years ago. The Dutch word for rabbits loosely translates to Coney Island. I know that Canarsie did a little lecturing on the bus, and he may have said that. I'm glad that you enjoyed your first DO.
Whenever the island was named the Dutch for "bunny" is "konijn" and the Italian for rabbit is "cognilio" either one of which could nicely make "Coney" since they both are the same root word. That, BTW, I already knew. Meantime the Wiki on the subject has more to say, proposing several possible sources, but not the one I selected as having allegedly heard: Following European settlement, New York State and New York City were originally a Dutch colony and settlement, named Nieuw Nederlandtand Nieuw Amsterdam. The Dutch name for the island—originally Conyne Eylandt, or Konijneneiland in modern Dutch spelling[2]—probably precedes the similar English name, Coney Island, with both translating as "Rabbit Island".[3] As on other Long Island barrier islands, Coney Island had many and diverse rabbits, and rabbit hunting prospered until resort development eliminated their habitat. The Dutch name is found on the New Netherland map of 1639 by Johannes Vingboon, which is before any known English records.[4] Coney Island therefore appears to be the English adaptation of the Dutch name. The word "coney" was popular in English at the time as an alternative for rabbit; while coney survives in archaic and dialectal contexts, a later adaptation, "bunny", is now in common use. Coney came into the English language through the Old French word conil, which itself derived from the Latin word for rabbit, cuniculus. The English name "Conney Isle" appeared on maps as early as 1690,[5] and by 1733 the modern name, Coney Island, was used.[6] Joseph DesBarre's chart of New York harbor in the 1779 work Atlantic Neptune,[7] and John Eddy's map of 1811, both use the modern spelling.[8] Although the history of Coney Island's name and its anglicization can be traced through historical maps spanning the 17th century to the present,[9] and all the names translate to Rabbit Island in modern English, there are still those who contend that the name derives from other sources.[who?] Also possible is the Irish Gaelic name for Rabbit which is Coinín, which is also anglicised to Coney. Ireland has many islands named Coney Island, all of which predate this one. Some claim that an Irish captain named Peter O'Connor named Coney Island in the 18th century, after an island in County Sligo named Inishmulclohy. Another purported origin is from the name of the Indian tribe, the Konoh, who supposedly once inhabited it. A further claim is that the island is named after Henry Hudson's right-hand-man, John Coleman, supposed to have been slain by Indians.[10] [edit]
Here is my photograph album. I could always use some assistance with naming FlyerTalk members in the captions of the photographs. Anyway, enjoy! I was telling Dan on the bus during the tour that years ago I was dating someone only a few blocks from his house. I literally passed by his boyhood home on Avenue I either by car or by bicycle virtually every day from Canarsie for at least two years. While much of Brooklyn has indeed gentrified, the neighborhood of Canarsie has degenerated to the point where parts of it look like a slum. It is heartbreaking to see what was once a beautiful neighborhood decay to the condition in which it has degraded. Despite that, I am thinking about attaching a Canarsie Reality Tour on the Friday before a future Brooklyn Reality Tour, which would include a number of different things that could very well take up several hours in the day, including a visit to Brooklyn’s oldest weekly newspaper, Canarsie Pier, some of the old roads from the Dutch days that were only recently paved, the schools to which I attended, and fresh hot bialys in the morning. Dan, thank you for putting up with me throughout the tour. It brought back so many memories of growing up in Brooklyn. It is even more amazing that we literally grew up only a few miles from each other; yet it took FlyerTalk for us to finally meet — and, at times, we had our Brooklyn moments on the bus, as if we had known each other for years. Most of all, thank you for the tour itself.
That is a really good idea IMO, especially if you discuss other brooklyn jounalistic triumphs, such as The Brroklyn Freeman, started by Walt Whitman. There is so much Brooklyn lore that the chance to learn more about it seem irrisistable, to me anyway. Eventually I'll probably want to do a Rio de Janeiro one, and I'll be happy to add commentary about the Brooklyn connections to Brazil, which is another very long story involving the Dutch who often arrived in Brooklyn via the older colonies in what is now NorthEastern Brazil. The Dutch West Indies Company in 1630 controlled nearly half of Brazil, but later moved north as they lost to the Portuguese who were regaining their dominance. By the early 1650's they had arrived in Brooklyn. That part of the history seems to be ignored in the US, but adds quite a lot to the colorful history of the Dutch once they escaped Spanish domination. I must stop doing this and get back to work! Thanks, Canarsie, for reminding me of these things.
What a wonderful weekend! I'm glad Dan's threat of this being the last BRT motivated me to participate when I discovered that I didn't have a schedule conflict. It was good to be able to do the Soup DO, BRT, and Wine DO all in one pleasant long weekend in NYC.
For those of you interested in the Dutch beginnings in NYC, or New Amsterdam, there's an article in today's NY Times about one of the first 200 people to settle there and their long line of descendants: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/n...dusen-family-one-of-manhattans-oldest.html?hp
And this family were a bunch of pikers (200,000 descendants) compared with the somewhat disreputable (read the terrific book I recommended above, "The Island at the Center of the World") Rapeljes, who brought forth over one million descendants.
And Sarah, born in 1625 was the first white woman born in New Netherland, according to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Rapelje I have not yet read the book but I have just downloaded it for my Kindle and will start it soon. Thanks for that too.
At jbcarioca's suggestion, I've started a thread in Destination Travel on NYC History, for all 5 boroughs. I hope that dhammer23 and canarsie will add in their Brooklyn knowledge and photos. http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/nyc-history-such.14877/
Heading into Brooklyn today with friends. My friend Jon and his wife have been anxious to eat pizza at the well known Di Fara's. http://www.difara.com/ The sicilian pizza (square) is delicious. It's all about the crunch. Pizza here is expensive, but worth every penny. It's a small place. I've waited 40 minutes with no one waiting on line. This is why Di Fara's can't be the pizza stop on the BRT.
Continuing on the Dutch NY parts, more info can be found on this website from WNET, NYC’s local PBS station. Videos, interactive maps, etc. http://www.thirteen.org/dutchny/
Jim posted this last year. We did some scouting out at a restaurant under consideration for BRT. I didn't have to break his arm to come with me. Charlotte russe was his favorite bakery concoction in Brooklyn.
Here's the trip report Jim wrote way back when after BRT 1 in 2001. Thanks to FortFun on FT for finding it. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/179733-taste-brooklyn.html You'll see why Jim was a special man. He had a way, his way, with words.
