Thursday, November 28, 2013

SPIT

Happy Thanksgiving.  It is a day of overindulgence , over eating, feeling so stuffed that one can't even move.  Well, that's how I feel ,, Like , why? why? why?
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Let's talk about  spit.  When I was maybe  11 years old I had a nickname Spit.  I've had several nicknames throughout my life. Some were, Chops, Spit, Fog, Dart, Fingers, Wigout, Qtips, Lip, Colonel,
   Anyway back to Spit.  There was a weird time when something hit me, that  spit was dirty and not to be swallowed.  So i would spit every ten seconds I think.  Hence the name of Spit. I had developed many techniques of spitting.  If you are going to spit you have to be cool about it, not gross about it. Did you ever see these gross dudes, hocking and getting up balls of phlegm. Then they spit and then hold their nostril and shoot a  snot rocket. Pretty damn disgusting.
  I was a cool spitter. I could spit between my teeth. It's not that easy to do. You kind of push your tongue behind your front teeth and it makes a sound and spit shoots out.  By the time I got to the 7th grade I lost the nick name spit. But didn't stop spitting. Just not as much. I mastered many techniques of spitting.  Dotting, was a very cool way to spit. It was like pitching underhand.  You lifted the spit out from that reservoir in your lower mouth and gracefully pushed it up  through or past your bottom teeth and a dot of spit would come out and fly a good distance. My friend Manny was the best dotter I've seen.  It is an almost silent spit.  Manny used to dot a lot on the guy sitting in front of him in class. It was  pretty cool at the time.  Now in a spit fight, you really want to get  some  phlegm up and really shoot it out.  I think I could shoot a phlegm ball a good 12 feet.  Some would  call it  "hocking a louie or loogie".Spitting was an important  skill in East New York.  Spit balls were popular. Where you spit a tiny piece of  notebook paper.  In any case my favorite type of spitting was the  thru the top teeth making that  squeeshy sound.  I  have lost most of my skill over  years of not practicing. But I can still make the sound, just the projectile is weak.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Cool you tube of Brooklyn 60's gang called Ellery St. Bops

below are  two you tube videos i found. and enjoyed very much . Featuring the Brooklyn gang of the 1960's called the Ellery Street Bops. They were famous and tough in Bushwick area, but known all over.  The photos are  great and the background Doo Wop is awesome.

video credit goes to rtoledo who did a great job with these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ijxFG2QBU&noredirect=1

and  movie  2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVC-JKM-zkM

Thursday, November 7, 2013

2 posts in one

Hi All,  I haven't been here in a few months.
Anyway,
The other  day I went to the cemetery to visit my dead relatives. I figured it might bring some good luck. The cemetery is an old one in Queens. Some of the tombstones have cool old pictures on them.
Rather than ask where my people were buried , I wandered around until I found some. I can't believe I actually found most of the graves I was looking for.  In my Jewish tradition, you're  supposed to put rocks on the graves,to show you were there.  I have no idea of how this tradition came about , but  I will say there is a scarcity of rocks in the cemetery.  They should have a vending machine for rocks.
I noticed one tombstone with about   30 rocks on it. I was thinking that was very greedy of them, but probably it was  little kids, playing  "steal the rocks from other graves".  So I figured if I stole some rocks from them, it wouldn't be a sin or anything. So I stole several rocks.  I hope it wasn't a sin, because  I was  about to commit another sin.  I had to pee.  So I found a secluded spot behind some graves, and  peed the longest pee ever.   Oh boy,  two sins.  Then a giant rat ran by.
Meanwhile, the sun was going down it was the day before  Halloween. I was still searching for my grandparents graves. They were in an area , where everyone buried was from  Volochisk, Ukraine(Russia).  I finally gave up because it was almost dark. Some rabbi looking guy waved me down, to give an old lady a ride to the grave of a famous rabbi. The roads are quite narrow in the cemetery . I think i hit two graves or a pole and a grave.  Anyway, it was weird picking up a stranger in a cemetery. I dropped her off and headed for the front gate.  Just my luck,  it was locked.  I wait for a while and then start to drive around looking for someone to let me out.  The office was closed.  I didn't see anyone. So I go back to the gate, it's dark and scary. Scary thoughts going through my mind . Ghosts and  goblins. Crazy stuff.  Then someone taps on my window and scares the daylights out of me. It was the security guard. He was wearing an NYPD hat , to look official.  He started yelling at me.  "what are you doing in here?" . I was pissed off that he was yelling at me and I told him if he kept yelling he would  end up  in here permanently. That didn't help my cause to get out.  The argument went on, and he points to a sign that said  "cemetery closes at  4:30".  He asked me if i could read.  Finally  he  opened the gate and let me out.  Very crazy experience.
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Tonite after dinner, while  walking to my car, a gentleman stopped me and asked "where can I get some ice cream around here?".  The man had an Italian accent and confirmed that  he was from Italy. I had just returned from  Italy and they have the best  gelato there. So, I figured this guy knows his ice cream.  So I gave him directions to a good gelato place a few blocks away.  He says" it's good ice cream" I say, " yes it is gelato". He puts on a sad face. He says, in his thick Italian accent "  I no wanna gelato, I want ice-a cream".  " You know , Ben and Jerry".  Oh my goodness. The guy comes from a place with the best ice-cream/gelato ever, and he wants Ben and jerry.. I was thinking the next person will approach me and  want some  pastries.  I'll direct them to Veniero's for good italian pastry and they'll say  "no no  I want  Hostess twinkles".    
   And that's what  makes the world go 'round.