Comments for John Rambow http://johnrambow.wordpress.com Travel, Books, Invective, Cooking Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:26:13 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on The Best Was the “Young” Part by czar http://johnrambow.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/the-best-was-the-young-part/#comment-7 czar Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:26:13 +0000 http://johnrambow.wordpress.com/?p=4#comment-7 Ah, the Strand. I'm not sure how long you've been in or around New York, but as a teenager I was a denizen of the three or four huge used bookstores that used to be on Fourth Avenue, between about 10th and 13th Streets, if memory serves (the mid-70s). These places were cavernous, and by no means fancy, well-lighted, well-organized, or crowded. If you were looking, as I was at the time, for Philip Wylie fiction, you'd go to the Ws under fiction and hope for some vague attempt at alphabetization. Then after looking at the first row of books on the shelves, you'd pull all those off and look at the entire row of books lurking behind that row. And sometimes there'd be a third row. I guess it's not really even correct to call them "shelves." They were more like stacked pallets. And I remember, also about 1976, going to J&R Records on Park Row when it was (a) just a record store and (b) in the basement of one of the many storefronts it now occupies under its various guises. I was doing my usual Saturday walk up from the Staten Island Ferry, passing Ann Street in the process. I had about $80 in my pocket from a recent birthday windfall and saved-up allowance money, and I was on my way to J&R to blow it all on jazz albums (@ $3.99 per). I dropped into this small used book and antique store on Ann Street that caught my eye that day (I think there was a brothel upstairs), where in the window they had an autographed copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for $75. I thought about it for about 5 minutes, and with the lack of wisdom of youth, went around the block to purchase the coveted vinyl. Big mistake. Ah, the Strand. I’m not sure how long you’ve been in or around New York, but as a teenager I was a denizen of the three or four huge used bookstores that used to be on Fourth Avenue, between about 10th and 13th Streets, if memory serves (the mid-70s). These places were cavernous, and by no means fancy, well-lighted, well-organized, or crowded. If you were looking, as I was at the time, for Philip Wylie fiction, you’d go to the Ws under fiction and hope for some vague attempt at alphabetization. Then after looking at the first row of books on the shelves, you’d pull all those off and look at the entire row of books lurking behind that row. And sometimes there’d be a third row. I guess it’s not really even correct to call them “shelves.” They were more like stacked pallets.

And I remember, also about 1976, going to J&R Records on Park Row when it was (a) just a record store and (b) in the basement of one of the many storefronts it now occupies under its various guises. I was doing my usual Saturday walk up from the Staten Island Ferry, passing Ann Street in the process. I had about $80 in my pocket from a recent birthday windfall and saved-up allowance money, and I was on my way to J&R to blow it all on jazz albums (@ $3.99 per). I dropped into this small used book and antique store on Ann Street that caught my eye that day (I think there was a brothel upstairs), where in the window they had an autographed copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass for $75. I thought about it for about 5 minutes, and with the lack of wisdom of youth, went around the block to purchase the coveted vinyl. Big mistake.

]]> Comment on Peter Greenberg by David http://johnrambow.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/peter-greenberg/#comment-2 David Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:42:50 +0000 http://johnrambow.wordpress.com/?p=6#comment-2 I like the greenberg check out his best <a href="http://petergreenberg.com/2008/07/23/greatest-hits-from-peters-speeches" rel="nofollow">clips from his speechs</a> I like the greenberg check out his best clips from his speechs

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