new york city – Moe Lane

Location Seed: Abattoir Place, New York City.

Abattoir Place, New York City – Google Docs

Abattoir Place, New York City

Technically, this street is supposed to be West 12th Street after that street intersects with 11th Avenue: Abattoir Place extends west until it hits the Hudson River. And if you’re walking, that is indeed how you get there. If you’re driving, however, you’ll never see the street, because it doesn’t exist for anybody who isn’t moving under his own power. Even a bicyclist won’t be able to find it.

If you’re trying to figure out how that works, do yourself a favor and stop. Accept that it’s magic or something, and that it could be a lot less benign than it is. People have puzzled over this mystery right to the point of getting major strokes; it’s just not worth it.

Continue reading Location Seed: Abattoir Place, New York City.

R.I.P. Ed Koch, 1924-2013.

He was 88 I always liked Ed Koch; he fit as Mayor of NYC in a way that a lot of his predecessors and successors (particularly that idiot running the city into the ground now) never could manage. And he had a good time doing it, too.

Godspeed, Hizzoner. Take a couple of days before you start planning your primary challenge to St. Peter, all right?

#rsrh More tales from Bloomberg’s NYC: couple arrested for dancing.

(Via Fausta) Actually, that’s not true: they were hassled for dancing on an empty subway platform at midnight. They were arrested for pulling out a camera.

When [George] Hess began trying to film the encounter, things got ugly, [Caroline] Stern said.

“We brought out the camera, and that’s when they called backup,” she said. “That’s when eight ninja cops came from out of nowhere.”

Hess was allegedly tackled to the platform floor, and cuffs were slapped on both of them. The initial charge, according to Stern, was disorderly conduct for “impeding the flow of traffic.”

You know, Rudi Giuliani never gave a tinker’s dam if people danced on the subway platforms. But then, Rudi generally left people alone if they weren’t, I don’t know, defecating on police cars or something. Mike Bloomberg has a lot more of a burning need to regulate the City of New York to a fare-thee-well.

Oh, well, maybe the next Mayor will have more sense. Or any, really.

Moe Lane

NYC Comptroller John Liu’s (D) campaign disclosure problems.

“Irregularities.” That’s such a fun word to hear in newspaper stories about elected officials, particularly ones from political parties that aren’t yours. So it is here, with regard to Democratic/Working Families Party Member John C. Liu: this NY Times article reports that a survey of Mr. Liu’s most recent campaign finance reports resulted in allegations of:

“…instances in which people listed as having given to Mr. Liu say they never gave, say a boss or other Liu supporter gave for them, or could not be found altogether. “
Donor cards for contributions being filled out by people other than the ones doing the donation;
‘Bundling’ (a practice where one person goes out and collects money from others, then delivers it to the campaign) going on, absent information on the individual donors.

Continue reading NYC Comptroller John Liu’s (D) campaign disclosure problems.

Atlantis tsunami!

…No, almost certainly not: 300 BC is well within the historical era. Still, this is interesting:

Ancient tsunami ‘hit New York’

A huge wave crashed into the New York City region 2,300 years ago, dumping sediment and shells across Long Island and New Jersey and casting wood debris far up the Hudson River.

The scenario, proposed by scientists, is undergoing further examination to verify radiocarbon dates and to rule out other causes of the upheaval.

Sedimentary deposits from more than 20 cores in New York and New Jersey indicate that some sort of violent force swept the Northeast coastal region in 300BC.

…if only because I don’t think that there are contemporary reports of anything happening on the other side of the Atlantic, although at that latitude… no, the Iberian peninsula had cities at that point; somebody would have noticed, say, a big honking asteroid hitting the ocean.

Ach, well: link it up with the legend of Ys and hope that your players only half-remember their Poul Anderson. Or that they like big honking asteroids more than they do accurate mythological references.