Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances \\ Buy prints here

Things that happened recently:

Every week I think the news can't get worse, and then ... it does. On that note, fuck the calls for civility, and FUCK TRUMP: "Don’t behave in a way that will make them turn away from you with sadness. Don’t tell them you stood by silently while atrocities occurred. For God’s sake, don’t say that you happily served these people food with a smile on your face. Be able to say that you said something. Even if it wasn’t especially eloquent. Even if it was just, 'Fuck Trump.'"

In happier news, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the hero we need right now. Here's why she won her primary on Tuesday—if you don't tear up while watching that, or think that these campaign points are bad things, I don't know how to help you.

Another Spanish work of art has been "ruined" by a overzealous restoration (still not as bad/good as this one, though). 

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Things to do in New York this week:

The Broadway Restaurant on the UWS reopened on Wednesday—they had been closed since New Year's Day after a devastating fire. My mom and I were regulars and never found a replacement when it closed (we last ate there the day before the fire). I'm so happy that we didn't lose yet another classic diner forever.

Despite the National Moron signing an Executive Order to halt the horrendous policy that his administration started in the first place, the immigration crisis in this country is far from over—there are protest marches in every state this weekend, including one in New York on Saturday.

Speaking of loss, after 116 years in business, the family-owned UES bakery, Glaser's, is closing for good at 3pm on Sunday (or whenever they sell out of treats, so get there early if you want one last black and white cookie). 

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Things I've discovered recently:

Have you ever wondered why all thrift stores (and the clothes in them) smell the same? Yes, the reason is as gross as you think.

This is a great profile of plus-size model Tess Holliday, written by one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram, Ashley C. Ford.

I've been trying to cut down on buying useless crap recently, but I couldn't resist buying the cutest photo album for my Instax prints and this very necessary jackalope (I named her Waffles). While searching for taxidermy, I came across this very reasonably-priced Etsy store full of beautiful specimens—I wish I would have known about this shop when I was in the market for a bat (maybe I need another one?).

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I have no plans this weekend, but it's supposed to be oppressively hot for the foreseeable future (ugh). Sitting in an air-conditioned theater with a huge popcorn and Jurassic World sounds very appealing to me (I saw Won't You Be My Neighbor last week, and it's so good—bring tissues!). I have some pretty exciting July 4th plans—and I only work one and a half days next week—so this weekend seems like the calm before the (exciting) storm. On thing for sure is that my mom and I will be grabbing breakfast at the newly-reopened Broadway Restaurant and thanking the diner gods for not taking it from us permanently. Have a great weekend!

Rehoboth Mission Cemetery

I couldn't go on a trip out West without checking Kaylah's blog for ideas—especially since the highlight of this trip was attending her ghost town wedding! I always plan a million stops before I start any road trip, but there's always time to squeeze in a few more places, and Rehoboth Mission Cemetery was one of these last-minute additions to our itinerary. 

As much as I love exploring cemeteries, finding the right research source for locating good ones has of yet eluded me. The Find A Grave app is helpful, but I often get annoyed by the lack of information available. If it's not a well-documented cemetery, I'm not able to determine whether the cemetery is going to be interesting, or a total bust. I suppose the unknown is part of the fun of exploring, but I cram a lot into these trips and ain't nobody got time for that.

But thanks to Kaylah's post, I knew that the Rehoboth Mission Cemetery was worth a stop, and we were also prepared for the somewhat strange route we had to take to get there. To access the cemetery, you have to drive through the Rehoboth Christian School campus and it feels as if outsiders might not be welcome, despite a sign literally declaring "all are welcome." Past the parking lot is a winding dirt road that continues up a hillside, eventually ending at the cemetery. There was actually a moment when we wondered if we should park our car and walk but whatever you do, don't do that (just keep driving!).  

The Rehoboth Christian School was started in 1903 by Christian missionaries who came to New Mexico to spread the word of God to the Navajo and Zuni peoples (the white crosses mark missionary graves). In the 1940s, a high school was added and today the school has more than 500 preK-12th grade students, 68% of which are Native American. I couldn't find much information about the cemetery itself, but it's a beautiful place to visit and unlike most of the cemeteries that I frequent here on the East Coast.

Most of the grave markers here are pretty simple, but the graves themselves are elaborately decorated and obviously maintained. This cemetery is exactly what I imagined a desert cemetery to look like—dusty but colorful, both dead and very much alive at the same time. The grounds may have literally felt alive, not because of spirits, but because of extremely fast little lizards that kept darting across my feet—each one startling me more than any spirit ever could.

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Rehoboth Mission Cemetery
7 Tse Yaaniichii Lane
Rehoboth, NM 87322
Once you're on the school campus, follow the signs for "cemetery" and be prepared to drive for a while on a winding, dirt road—just go slow!

Borroum's Drug Store and Soda Fountain

Borroum's Drug Store and Soda Fountain is the oldest continuously operating pharmacy in Mississippi. It was opened in 1865 by former Confederate Army surgeon A.J. Borroum, and moved to its current location in 1873. We found Borroum's somewhat by accident—after visiting the Coon Dog Cemetery in Alabama, we were driving back to Memphis and decided to stop for lunch in Corinth. 

Borroum's is still an operating pharmacy in addition to having a soda fountain and a large collection of antiques on display. They're famous for their Slugburgers—a mixture of pork or beef and extender (mostly soymeal), flattened into a disk and fried—which were invented in Corinth. As inviting as a sack of mystery meat sliders sounds, I opted for my diner lunch staple: a BLT and a chocolate milkshake, with zero regrets. 

As delicious as the food was, the atmosphere of Borroum's is the main draw. The store has been in the Borroum family since it opened, and it's currently owned by Camille Borroum-Mitchell, great-granddaughter of the founding doctor. Camille started working in the store when she was about 14, washing dishes. After she became the University of Mississippi’s first female pharmacy graduate, she moved to the pharmacy and her son and daughter-in-law operate the soda fountain.

Borroum's collection of antique medicine bottles reminded me of the Pharmacy Museum in New Orleans. I will forever love the typography and design of old things—most of these bottles and boxes are tiny works of art. I love the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the labels and taglines such as, "Miller's Oil formerly known as Snake Oil but does not contain snake oil," and "The Doctor in Candy Form." 

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Borroum's Drug Store
604 E Waldron Street,
Corinth, MS 38834
Open Mon-Sat, 9-5

Muffler Man: Flagstaff Bunyan

Everyone that agrees to go on a road trip planned by me knows by now that if there's a Muffler Man within a reasonable radius, we'll be pulling over. Just a few hours after visiting Don Parks and his yard of stuff—including his own Muffler Man—Jean-Marie and I stopped at the Northern Arizona University campus to meet my 18th (!?) fiberglass giant. 

I think I do extensive research before I leave for any trip, but I inevitably either forget a lot of details before we see the thing or I discover something new about a place we visited only after I get back home. The thing I might actually like most about writing this blog (aka my second job that pays me no actual money) is that it gives me the opportunity to research the places I've been. I've always been someone who loves spoilers—who reads a review only after I've seen the movie—and I love immersing myself in information about places after I've had my own experiences with them. 

Imagine my delight when I discovered as I was researching this particular Muffler Man, that he was actually the very first Muffler Man ever created. This 20-foot-tall Paul Bunyan statue was created in 1962 by Bob Prewitt, whose California business, Fiberglass Animals, made a lot of the roadside animals that can still be found around the country. He received an order for the statue, but when the buyer backed out, Prewitt took his Bunyan on a little road trip along Route 66. He was able to sell the statue to the Lumberjack Cafe, where it stood until the '70s when the restaurant was sold and renamed. 

Now the Bunyan and his axe stand outside of the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome (home of the Lumberjacks) and he was looking very fresh when we visited. This particular Muffler Man is built as one piece, while later versions were made of four pieces, bolted together. There is actually another nearly-identical Bunyan statue—also from the Lumberjack cafe—at NAU, but he's located inside of the stadium which was closed when we visited. 

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J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome
1705 S San Francisco Street
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Lumberjack Cafe postcard via Flickr

I hope you've noticed the new navigation at the top of the site—you can see all of my Muffler Man posts now under the "Roadside" dropdown or by clicking the "Muffler Man" tag below.

Happy Friday!

Happy Birthday Meryl Streep! // Photo from the incomparable Simply Streep archive

Things that have happened recently:

It's really exhausting to live in 2018, where every week yet another atrocity worse than the last rolls out of the Trump administration's evil playbook. This week we found out who amongst us could actually justify keeping babies in cages, I found myself once again in the bizarro world where I agreed with a member of the Bush family, and the comparisons of the US to Nazi Germany are no longer hyperbole. Here are a bunch of ways that you can help.

A bright spot amidst the darkness.

The New York Times sent their travel writer to Buffalo and she was as impressed as I was when I visited a few years ago.

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Things to do in New York this week:

Today is Meryl Streep's 69th birthday. Here's something I wrote a few years ago about what it means to be a fan, and I once reviewed all of her movies—the list is missing more recent movies, but here are parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight if you're bored.

Saturday is also the Prospect Park Soiree and David and I have tickets. It's held rain or shine, so pray the rain currently in the forecast holds off!

The Pride Parade kicks of at noon on Sunday, and it has a new route this year—here's a map.

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Things that I've discovered lately:

The New York Times profiled the Grandmas of Instagram, and of course they mentioned my favorite Instagrandma, Baddie Winkle.

John Derian's 18th-century sea captain's house in Provincetown is literally my dream house.

I finished this book this week and started this one (I didn't realize how similar the two titles were until I took a photo of the two for an upcoming Recent Reads post). The latter is so good that it made me buy last-minute tickets to see both parts of the Angels in America revival before it closes in July. TodayTix has some reasonably-priced tickets, and the fees aren't as astronomically high as Ticketmaster.

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I have today completely off—thank you Summer Fridays!—and I haven't decided if I should take the train somewhere or just have a city adventure today. I feel so much pressure not to waste such a gift, but watching a million episodes of Breaking Bad also seems appealing. Tomorrow David and I are going to the Prospect Park Soiree—rain or shine 🤞—and I'm wondering if I want to brave the crowds for the Pride Parade (The Mermaid Parade was probably better). I'm sure there will be a diner breakfast at some point, and I really want to see the Mr. Rogers documentary and of course Jurassic World (David and I watched The Lost World a few weeks ago, and it's terrible but I love it, and Jeff Goldblum). Have a great weekend!

Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery

Sailors' Snug Harbor was established on Staten Island in 1831 as a retirement home for sailors. Noted sea captain Robert Richard Randall—in a will drafted by Alexander Hamilton—bequeathed his property for the creation of Snug Harbor, one of the first retirement homes in the country. The only requirement for the self-sustaining community was that residents have five years of maritime service for the US, or ten years for a foreign country. 

Peak population of the community was more than 1,000 in the early 1900s. By the '70s the population had dwindled significantly—the home was moved to North Carolina and the property was transferred to the City of New York as a cultural center. I have been to Snug Harbor a few times in the past few years, but on my most recent visit I finally found the cemetery. 

The cemetery appears on Google Maps, but on my last visits it had eluded me. The L-shaped graveyard is located beyond the south gate of Snug Harbor, off of Prospect Avenue, right next to Allison Pond Park. The cemetery itself is enclosed by a brick wall, and when you peek through the (locked) gate it just looks like a big open field. In fact, the six-acre site actually contains the graves of 7,000 mariners who died at the Snug Harbor between 1833 and 1975. 

Each grave was once marked with gravestones bearing four-digit numbers, and then metal plates were used when the cemetery began to get crowded. These plates eventually deteriorated and other marble stones were removed and put in storage for their protection. You can see examples of the four-digit marker stones on display in the Noble Maritime Collection (housed on the grounds of Snug Harbor).

What I didn't know when I first tried to find the cemetery is that there are a handful of tombstones left on the property—they're in the back of the cemetery, in an area that the Snug Harbor residents referred to as "Monkey Hill." I'm not sure if this cemetery is ever "open" to the public, but I walked back into the woods of Allison Pond Park and easily found a way over the brick wall. The grass and weeds were nearly knee-high and I was skeptical that I would even be able to find the remaining stones, but I eventually located a few (and emerged with neither ticks, nor a poison ivy rash). 

The Trustees' of Sailors' Snug Harbor retained ownership of the cemetery even after the retirement home was relocated, and as I was getting ready to hop back over the wall, I did see a man at the front gate beginning to mow the lawn. I hesitate to say that this cemetery is truly "abandoned" but it may as well have been for how hard it was to locate and how forgotten it feels.

Mermaid Parade 2018

This was my fourth Coney Island Mermaid parade in five years of living in New York. It's something I look forward to every year and I put it on my calendar as soon as the date is announced. I can't remember why I missed 2015—maybe the weather wasn't great—but this year the weather way perfect and the boardwalk was packed. 

This was definitely the most crowded Mermaid Parade in recent memory, although we were able to get a front row spot on the boardwalk without getting there too early. Since this is a parade, there was inevitably a point where someone tried to squeeze their toddler (and themselves) next to us and I've been to enough parades to give this advice to anyone thinking of doing the same: don't. I understand kids are small and can't see over adults but having a toddler is not a free pass to be an inconsiderate asshole.

I've been attending events like this in New York long enough to start recognizing people (and animals). There are people who change it up every year, people who wear the same costumes and there are also those people that you see at every New York event in the same costume, regardless of theme—the MetroCard man, the wizard, etc.

I'm blown away by the joy and creativity that the Mermaid Parade attracts every year. Most parades are overrun with corporations or politicians pushing their agenda—the only agenda on display in Coney Island is fun. Ok, maybe that's not entirely true—current events-inspired costumes like Ruth Wader Finsburg fighting for "seaquality for all" and "reel justice" have been increasing in frequency the last couple years.

The grand marshals of the parade this year were the writer Neil Gaiman and his wife, The Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer (along with their young son). I will say that I'm still surprised each year at how long the parade is—I don't normally stay to see the end. The pacing of the parade also seemed to be off this year with huge gaps in between marchers. It was so bad that the crowd kept thinning as people mistakenly thought the parade had ended in between breaks.

Every year I say that the next might be the year in which I am no longer just a spectator, but an active participant in the parade, but I think next year really might be my year. I'm planning on taking my Coney Island-themed Halloween costume from last year and modifying it slightly to fit with the sea theme—stay tuned!

Muffler Man: Don Parks

Our second stop on our recent trip out West (after fueling up at a soda fountain) was Don Parks's house. We don't know Don Parks, and we didn't meet him, but his yard in Phoenix is full of fiberglass statues, road signs and other kitschy collectables. Parks, a Vietnam Vet, began collecting treasures in the late '60s, after he bought his first house. 

His first acquisition—and in my opinion, his best— was the Paul Bunyan Muffler Man. He purchased the 23-foot-tall giant from a San Francisco gas station, and later sold it to a shoe store in the '80s. When the shoe store went out of business, the Bunyan moved to a lumber company, which also eventually closed. Parks bought the Bunyan back, but in the process his right eye was damaged by a shotgun blast. 

Parks will reportedly give tours if you call in advance, but you can see most of his collection from the sidewalk. He finds treasures at auctions, swap meets, garage sales and thrift stores. When a local amusement park closed down, he was able to purchase several mannequins, statues, bumper cars and bits and pieces of other rides and attractions. 

Parks's collection grew so large that in 2012, when the house across the street was in foreclosure, he purchased it and began filling its yard with stuff as well. He claims that the neighbors (almost) never complain about his collection—everything technically qualifies as lawn art and therefore doesn't violate city code. 

Don Parks is literally living my Pee-Wee's Big Adventure-inspired dream life with his whimsical collection, and I couldn't love people like him more. Life is painfully short and can be full of disappointments and dark days—but imagine driving through a boring residential street and coming across a yard like Don Parks's and not smiling, if only for a second. 

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Don Parks 
8009 West Weldon Ave
Phoenix, AZ

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is rumored to be leaving her White House Press Secretary role soon—but which one of these highly qualified candidates will replace her? 

I can't get enough of this "daredevil raccoon" that climbed a Minnesota skyscraper. She eventually made it to the top unharmed and was trapped and released on private property in the suburbs.

Aparna Nancherla is one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter (her bio photo never fails to make me laugh), and the Washington Post did a great profile of her recently.

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Things to do in New York this week:

Tonight from 8-9:30 PM the New York Philharmonic is performing a free concert in Prospect Park.

Saturday is one of my very favorite New York events, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Last year it was rainy, but this year it looks like the weather will be perfect. Here are my photos from 2017 2016 and 2014.

Saturday is also the 13th annual Jazz Age Lawn Party at Governor's Island. I've never been to the actual event (it's a little pricey) but I've watched it from outside of the fences and it always looks like a good time and I love the '20s costumes.

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Things that I've discovered recently:

This woman lives in my dream apartment and you can rent it for events!

I've reached the halfway mark of my Goodreads challenge for the year, and I'm comfortably a few books ahead. I'm currently reading this book (thanks for the rec, Lindsey!) and it's so good that I'm trying to savor it and not miss anything.

Before I went on vacation, I realized that I was out of Instax film too late to buy it on Amazon. I ran to Urban Outfitters at lunch, only to discover that their film is more than twice the price of Amazon, so learn from my mistakes and plan ahead or stock up now!

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My mom and I are planning on grabbing breakfast (probably at Tom's on the boardwalk) and watching the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, which has become on of my very favorite New York traditions. We'll probably also swing by the art walls while we're there to check out what's new (here are the walls from 2015 and 2016). Sunday is Father's Day, so don't forget to send a card or tell your Dad he's super cool—although I have to argue that my dad is, in fact, the actual coolest. I'm already sliding into my usual post-vacation depression, although it's nice to get back to my routines for a few days before I start dreaming of and planning for the next road trip. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of photos I took and the amount of delights we packed into five days, so look for those posts to start trickling in soon. Have a great weekend!

Elmwood Cemetery

Elmwood Cemetery was established in 1852 when 50 Memphis gentlemen each contributed $500 to purchase land for a new cemetery 2.5 miles from town. It was expanded to 80 acres after the Civil War, and is now the final resting place for 75,000 people (with space for 15,000 more). Elmwood's design followed the rural cemetery movement, and it reminded me of other grand, beautiful cemeteries from that time period, including Green-Wood and Woodlawn here in New York. 

At the entrance to Elmwood is the Carpenter Gothic Cottage, built in 1866. It is topped by a bell that has rung for every funeral service since it was installed in 1870. It's free to roam the grounds of Elmwood, but like Hollywood Forever Cemetery, you can buy a map for $5. There's also an audio guide available, but I opted to just follow the map on my own, loosely following the audio guide markers. I enjoy exploring historic cemeteries from a purely visual standpoint, but knowing more about the people interred always adds to the experience. 

Beginning in 1831, cemeteries began to be relocated outside of city centers and church yards due to overcrowding and health concerns. This rural cemetery movement created expansive, manicured grounds with a focus on nature. It was not uncommon for people to use these new outdoor spaces as they use parks today—families would picnic in the cemetery on a Sunday or couples would meet up for a romantic walk of the grounds (sounds like the ideal date to me). 

I'm always a bit surprised in Southern cemeteries to see so many monuments to the Confederate dead. It makes sense, of course, but I haven't spent enough time in the South to feel anything but uncomfortable when I see a Confederate flag. Elmwood contains the graves of veterans from all American conflicts, starting with the Revolutionary War, as well as a monument to the more than 300 enslaved Africans buried here between 1852 and 1865.

After Captain Kit Dalton fought for the Confederacy, he rode with Frank and Jesse James, resulting in the offer of $50,000 for his capture, dead or alive. He alluded capture for so long that he was eventually pardoned, promising that he would lead an exemplary life going forward, which, according to his headstone, he did. Virginia "Miss Ginny" Bethel Moon was a Confederate spy, known as an "active and dangerous rebel," who maintained her fierce (aka stubborn) allegiance to the South until her death in 1925.

Other famous inhabitants include politicians, local celebrities and notorious criminals. A marker labeled "No Man's Land," marks a public lot that contains the graves of 14,000 victims of several Yellow Fever epidemics. The Tennessee Children's Home Society has a marker at Elmwood to mark the unknown graves of 19 children, who died "under the cold hard hand" of the adoption agency that was also operating as a black market for babies.  

The two candidates for my favorite headstone at Elmwood are William Eastman Spandow's and Lillie Mae Glover's. Spandow's stone throws some major shade, explaining that he was "killed in chemical laboratory of Columbia University by an explosion due to the carelessness of others." Glover was known as the "Mother of Beale Street," but she referred to herself as Ma Rainey #2, after the blues singer she admired. Her obelisk headstone is inscribed with a very relatable epitaph, presumably said by Glover herself, "I'm 78 years old ain't never had enough of nothing and it's too damn late now." 

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Elmwood Cemetery
824 S. Dudley Street
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
Grounds: Mon-Sun, 8 AM-4:30 PM
Office: Mon– Fri, 8 AM–4:30 PM, Sat, 8 AM– noon, Closed Sun

Recent Reads

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Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer, by Barbara Ehrenreich

Every once in a while I read a book that challenges my perspective on life and forever changes me. Natural Causes was one of those books, and I think it should be required reading for anyone living in a body that will eventually die (aka, everyone). Ehrenreich, who holds a PhD in cellular immunology, begins by explaining that now that she's in her 70s, she's come to the realization that she is "old enough to die," meaning that she has chosen to forgo any unnecessary medical treatment and preventative screenings. This shouldn't be a revolutionary idea, but it seems so in our culture that has evolved to fear and delay death at seemingly any cost. Ehrenreich's views on medical interventions and the facts on screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies—which are costly and probably do more harm than good—were fascinating, and the chapter on what it means to die was nothing short of life-changing for me. 

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Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in England, by Sarah Wise

I wanted so badly to like this book, but to be honest by the end I was just skimming over the long passages to pick out the (increasingly scarce) interesting tidbits. Inconvenient People has an interesting premise—stories of people falsely accused of being mentally ill, committed to asylums against their will and the legal issues surrounding such commitments—but the book could have probably been half as long. Wise is overly wordy and the stories started to get redundant, but her descriptions of the horrible conditions and treatment in poorly-run English asylums made wading through the rest of the unnecessary details almost worth it.

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Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad and Criminal in 19th-Century New York, by Stacy Horn

This was one of those books that was so obviously perfect for me that it was recommended to me by several people after I had already put it on my library hold list. I'm forever fascinated by Roosevelt Island and the horrors that occurred there when it was Blackwell's Island, a home for the city's most derided residents—the poor, sick, mad and criminal. Horn's writing reads like a book report at times, but colorful composition isn't really necessary when the real facts are as horrifying and sordid as what happened in the island's lunatic asylum, charity hospital, workhouse and penitentiary. 

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Manhattan Beach: A Novel, by Jennifer Egan

After David and I took a bike ride to the actual Manhattan Beach, I put this book on hold at the library. Before it was available, I started seeing it everywhere and it was chosen as 2018's One Book, One New York, so I was expecting to be blown away. This was my first book by Egan, and it started off good but eventually I lost interest and by the time I finished I was actively annoyed. I felt like I had been duped by the hype and I genuinely don't understand why this book received so much acclaim. The premise of a daughter haunted by the sudden disappearance of her father was interesting enough, but I just didn't really care at all about any of the characters. Egan's old-timey dialogue was distracting and the details felt overly researched. New York readers don't need a book to unite us in our collective annoyance—the subway does a great job of that on its own.

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I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara

I put this on hold before they caught the Golden State Killer, but having a real suspect in mind made it even more of an interesting read (remember, I love spoilers). It also made it even more heartbreaking that Michelle McNamara died tragically before the publication and subsequent arrest, especially because she was so right about so many things. Her passion and obsession with tracking down the GSK—and the fact that her rebrand of the killer formerly known as the East Area Rapist most definitely helped generate buzz and keep people on the case—made this book even better than if it had been just a straight report of the facts (which on their own are the stuff of nightmares). 

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Rowan Oak

When my dad told me that he was planning on us driving from Clarksdale to Tupelo, Mississippi, I immediately started looking up stops along the way. It's only a two-hour drive but I'm always on the lookout for interesting things to see on any roadtrip, no matter how short—it's always more about the journey, right? I didn't find much, but I'm always up for a historic home so we put Rowan Oak, located in Oxford, Mississippi, on the list.

Known as "The Bailey Place" when it was purchased by William Faulkner in 1930, Rowan Oak is a Greek revival house on 29 acres of cedar and hardwood trees. The home was built in the 1840s by Colonel Robert Sheegog, an Irish immigrant and Tennessee farmer. Faulkner renamed the house after the rowan tree, a symbol of peace and security. 

Faulkner, along with his wife and three children, lived at Rowan Oak until his death in 1962. While living at the house, Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 and the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1954. Anecdotes included in the house brochure make Faulkner sound like quite the pill. He fought with his daughter over her possession of a radio and he hated air conditioning so much he refused to have it in the house—the window unit in his wife's bedroom was installed the day after his funeral.

Faulkner's daughter Jill sold the house in 1972 to the University of Mississippi and you can take a self-guided tour for $5 (students get in free). The house is beautiful but feels lived-in in a way that Gilded-age "houses" like The Breakers in Newport never could. I love touring opulent mansions but I also love seeing places like Rowan Oak—it's historic and grand but it still feels like home for real people.

In fact, my favorite parts of the home were the ones that felt the most ordinary. In Faulkner's writing room, he actually wrote the plot outline for A Fable on the wall in graphite and red grease pencil. In a corner of the kitchen sits a rotary telephone, surrounded by handwritten phone numbers for family, friends and local businesses, including the hospital.

Of course I would move into the house in a heartbeat, but the grounds of Rowan Oak are the real attraction. There are several outbuildings on the property known as Bailey's Woods, including a detached kitchen, barn, servants' quarters, stable and multiple gardens. But it's the walkway leading up to the house that really stole my heart—lined with huge eastern red cedar trees, they were planted after a yellow fever epidemic swept through the South because it was believed that cedars had air cleansing properties.

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Rowan Oak
916 Old Taylor Road
Oxford, MS 38655
Summer Hours: June 1 through August 1, Mon through Sat, 10am-6pm, and Sun 1pm-6pm

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

Kate Spade took her own life this week—her personal depression was seemingly at odds with her cheerful eponymous brand, but was it really?

I'm kind of obsessed with the fact that Melania Trump disappeared from the public eye for weeks—where did she go, what did she do?? Of course, no one could blame her for needing a break from these fine people.

Is the body positivity movement a scam? Speaking of bodies, I just finished this book and I think it should be required reading for anyone that currently inhabits one.

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Things to do in New York this week:

Saturday is the annual Pet Day at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park in Coney Island. There is a costume contest at 2pm (!!) and pets ride the Wonder Wheel (with their owners) for free. 

Speaking of pets, Sunday is the annual Pug Fun Day at the Alice Austen house on Staten Island in memory of Austen's own pug, Punch.

I'm extra bummed I'll be missing this free talk on Tuesday about the fascinatingly strange Carl Tanzler, aka Count Carl von Cosel, a doctor who was found in 1940 to be living with the corpse of his former (beloved) patient.

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Things that I've discovered recently:  

I went to World Market on my lunch break this week to buy this frame with duck feet that Kaylah mentioned, but they didn't have it. So I went down the block to City Cakes (home of the half pound cookie) and bought this Rainbowdoodle instead. A portion of the proceeds from every cookie will be donated to the NYC Anti-Violence Project, so I felt even less guilt.

I know I've mentioned that these are the BEST no-show socks I've ever tried (and it feels as if I've tried them all), but I've been wearing them nonstop lately and they continue to impress me. If you've never bought Bombas before, they're pricey but believe me these are worth it—and first-time customers get 25% with this link (and I will get a discount too, but I wouldn't recommend these if I didn't really want to sing their praises!).

A friend passed along this Twitter account to me and it's my new favorite follow. And if you're not familiar with the best Wheel of Fortune contestant ever, Raymond, you're missing out.

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As you read this I'm on my way to Phoenix for an epic five-day road trip with my road trip bestie, JMP. We're renting a car and making our way to Albuquerque over the five days, with stops in Arizona—including a super special wedding and a stay at my third and final Wigwam Motel—and New Mexico. I'm happiest when I'm on the road with a Google Map full of kitschy stops and even the 100+ degree temps can't make me any less excited (it's a dry heat, right??). I'm sure you'll get sick of hearing about this road trip after a few hundred posts, but I've been planning it so long that I can't believe it's finally happening. I've scheduled a few posts here while I'm gone, but you can also follow along on our road trip via my Instagram stories, if you're interested. Have a great weekend and pray that our pasty, white, indoor bodies survive all that desert sun! 

Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery

After visiting the Crossroads where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil in Clarksdale, Mississippi, we drove about an hour south to pay our respects to Johnson himself. Like a lot of things about Johnson's life, the location of his remains is still up for debate—in fact, three different spots in the same Mississippi county claim to be the blues legend's final resting place.

Even the cause of Johnson's death at the age of 27 is still somewhat of a mystery. The most popular theory says that Johnson, having flirted with a married woman, drank from a whiskey bottle poisoned by her jealous husband. His condition worsened and after three days of convulsions and severe pain, he died on August 16, 1938 in Greenwood, Mississippi. Because death from poison (such as strychnine, which has been suspected in this case) would have occurred within hours, not days, it has also been suggested that Johnson may have died of syphilis.

Three different churches around Greenwood have markers dedicated to Johnson, but we only had enough time to check out one of them. Based on its proximity to the plantation where Johnson died, the Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church cemetery is the most likely of the three locations to actually contain Johnson's remains. 

A Mississippi Blues Trail marker at the church reads: “ROBERT JOHNSON – A seminal figure in the history of the Delta blues, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) synthesized the music of Delta blues pioneers such as Son House with outside traditions. He in turn influenced such artists as Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Johnson’s compositions, notable for their poetic qualities, include the standards ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ and ‘Dust My Broom.’ Johnson’s mysterious life and early death continue to fascinate blues fans. He is thought to be buried in this graveyard.”

The church itself wasn't open when we visited, but it's exactly what I imagined a roadside baptist church in the middle of Mississippi would look like. The churchyard contains a handful of graves—including, coincidentally or not, several other Johnsons—and it was flooded and very muddy. If you're facing the church, Robert Johnson's grave is located in the back corner of the churchyard to the left, but it's hard to miss. His grave was covered in mementos—liquor bottles, beer cans, guitar picks, coins, a string of beads and other fan offerings like Divine's headstone in Maryland—and a donation box sits next to the headstone.

Part of the inscription on the front of the headstone is Johnson's own words, handwritten shortly before his death, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jerusalem / I know that my Redeemer liveth and that / He will call me from the Grave." The back of the headstone is inscribed with lyrics from Johnson's song "Four Until Late," “When I leave this town / I’m 'on bid you fare ... farewell / And when I return again / You’ll have a great long story to tell.”

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Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church
63530 Money Road,
Leflore County, Mississippi.

Staten Island Boat Graveyard

The Staten Island Boat Graveyard—also called the Witte Marine Scrap Yard, the Arthur Kill Boat Yard or the Tugboat Graveyard—is located in the Arthur Kill waterway near the Rossville neighborhood in Staten Island. The scrapyard was founded in the 1930s by John J. Witte and today it is still managed by his son.

To really see the remains of nearly 100 cargo ships and tugboats, you technically have to do a little trespassing. There is no public access to the graveyard and probably for good reason—I've explored some rickety buildings, but nothing compares to the twisted, slippery piles of rusty metal and wood that you'll find here surrounded by quicksand-like muck and mud. I put my faith in the tetanus shot I had less than ten years ago (when I passed out on a pile of rusty antiques ... in my own bathroom) and luckily the only causalities were my sneakers, which will forever be caked in stinky mud.

Although it's still privately owned, the boat graveyard has accidentally evolved into an outdoor boat museum over the years. Notable ships include the first WWII US Navy ship to have a predominantly African-American crew and a New York fireboat present at the 1904 sinking of the General Slocum, the worst disaster in the city's history until 9/11.

You'll see the most at low tide—or if you're really brave, a kayak (or at the very least, rubber boots) would be the ideal accessory. We mostly scrambled along the shore and carefully ventured out onto slimy planks when they were available. In addition to climbing on rusty, unstable piles of scrap, you'll have to do a bit of bushwacking through the tall weeds and brush, but the views are definitely worth the effort (and risk). There was so much more in the scrapyard than I expected, and my only regret is that we couldn't get closer to, or even inside of the ships.

Hillcrest High School Viking

Erik, a 20-foot-tall viking statue has greeted students entering Hillcrest High School in Memphis, Tennessee for nearly 50 years. Several of these statues—some call this style a Spartan—were made for the Viking Carpet chain. Erik was placed on the roof of Hillcrest High (home of the Vikings, appropriately) when he was donated by a family sometime between 1969 and 1971.

Through a hidden speaker system, Erik used to actually speak—saying "good morning" and "good evening" as students entered and exited the building. Originally voiced by the assistant principal, he went silent in the '80s as the school fell into disrepair.

A few years ago Hillcrest became a charter school, and received $600,000 in renovations, including a fresh coat of paint and new supports for Erik. There were plans to make him speak again, but I'm not sure if they ever came to fruition (I visited after school hours). My dad kept insisting that Erik resembled my boyfriend, David, and while I think the similarities are tenuous, at best, it's no surprise that I would seek out my very own, real life Muffler Man.

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances | Prints available here

Things that happened recently:

The Roseanne reboot was canceled after a(nother) racist Roseanne Barr tweet. I was a fan of the original but never watched the reboot—here are two good op-eds about the cancellation from Roxane Gay and Lindy West. Even the dictionary couldn't resist throwing a little well-deserved shade.

This was my first week at my new job (as a Senior Designer at Penguin) and everyone has been very welcoming so far, but here is why office friendships can sometimes feel awkward.

Until I can actually take care of my own rescue dog, I will forever be swooning over available shelter dogs Instagram and I'm not alone—here is how the Internet is changing the way dogs find homes (a purely good use of the Internet for once!).

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Things to do in New York this week:

Shakespeare in the Park started for the season on Tuesday with Othello. I'm not much of a play person but I love Shakespeare in the Park—it just feels so very New York to me. If you can't get to the park early to wait for tickets, you can enter the virtual lottery every day before noon via TodayTix (but don't do that because I'm trying to win it). This is also a good time to remind you that footage exists of a very young Meryl Streep in a SITP production of The Taming of the Shrew and it's fantastic.

On Sunday the Urban Park Rangers are giving a free tour of Historic Coney Island. I haven't been yet this season, but it's one of my very favorite places to visit (all year-round).

Celebrate Brooklyn starts up again on Tuesday with a performance by Common and the line-up for the rest of the summer looks equally promising.

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Things that I've discovered recently:

I'm trying desperately not to buy everything from this Etsy shop.

John Donohue is sketching all of the restaurants in New York and he was recently interviewed about the project on Gothamist. Speaking of restaurants in New York, Lindsey has added a few more to her series (like the Coney Island one above) and you can buy prints of them here.

The first half of the fourth season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (its last!) is now available on Netflix. I still can't stand Kimmy but I put up with her for Titus and Lillian—can they get a spin-off please?? Speaking of cults, here are a few more books I need to add to my ever-growing list.

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The Illuminated Mausoleum tour at Woodlawn got cancelled twice due to rain and rescheduled for this Saturday ... when I can't go :( David and I have a graduation party Saturday night, but the rest of the weekend is open. I'll probably get diner breakfast with my mom at some point—I hear the Neptune in Astoria is living on borrowed time, so we should probably get there soon. I get off work at 4pm today—hooray for Summer Fridays!—and next Friday I have off altogether. I still have a ton of posts left from my Memphis/Mississippi trip but next week I'll be headed on another trip, this time out west for a very special occasion and I still need to find something to wear, eek! I hope you have a great weekend!

Clarksdale

Clarksdale is located in the Mississippi Delta, an hour and forty minutes south of Memphis, Tennessee. It's historically significant in the development of blues music, and Highway 61, or the "Blues Highway" runs through Clarksdale. It's at the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 in Clarksdale that Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play guitar.

Clarksdale is also home to the Delta Blues Museum (housed in the old Illinois Central Railroad passenger depot) as well as several blues and juke joint festivals. Three Mississippi Blues Trail markers are located in Clarksdale, and the museum now houses the remains of the Stovall Farms cabin where Muddy Waters lived during his days as a sharecropper.

We were a little too early in the day to see the devil, but we did have some delicious bar-b-q at Abe's, serving genuine pit bar-b-q in Clarksdale since 1924. I decided in Memphis that I was done with trying to like any meat-on-bone, so I opted for the pulled pork sandwich. According to Abe's, "it’s very possible that Robert Johnson, while sitting on a Coca-Cola case under one of the sycamore trees that was prominent at that corner back then, eating an Abe’s Bar-B-Q made that legendary deal."

The crossroads is, in fact, right next to Abe's, marked by a sign in the middle of a tiny triangle of grass. As is common with legends (and Robert Johnson in particular), there are multiple locations that claim to be the site of Johnson's notorious deal, but only the Clarksdale location has an indisputably rich blues history and a sign. My dad is already a mean guitar player, so he joked that if we saw the devil he was going to convince him to sell his soul to him.

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Delta Blues Museum
1 Blues Alley
Clarksdale, MS 38614

Abe's Bar-B-Q
616 N State Street
Clarksdale, MS 38614

Ground Zero Blues Club
387 Delta Avenue
Clarksdale, MS 38614