Iowa's Largest Fryin' Pan

As I’ve said before, “World’s Largest” claims are sometimes dubious at best, but the large frying pan in Brandon, Iowa, only claims to be the largest in Iowa. The makers of the Brandon pan did have high aspirations, however, and it was originally designed to be the world’s largest frying pan. But the final pan turned out to be three inches smaller than the actual world’s largest frying pan at the time, located in Long Beach, Washington (which itself has since been usurped, and I’m unclear where the North Carolina contender ranks here).

Brandon’s slogan is “A Little Town We’re Proud to Call Home,” and you could just about fit the entire town inside of their large pan—according to the 2010 census the 0.32-square-mile town had a population of just 309 people. The post office is housed in what looks like a temporary construction site trailer, and despite being promised that the “Brandon Kwik Stop has a variety of “Fryin’ Pan” souvenirs for sale,” the clerk informed us that they were out of souvenirs, and had been for some time (the much-needed bathroom was also out of order).

The “Fryin’ Pan” was built in 2004 by locals to promote the annual Brandon Cowboy Breakfast, held the third Sunday in September. One thousand people a year have eaten the breakfast since 2000, which comprises “scrambled eggs, ham, sausage, pancakes, fried potatoes, sausage gravy and baking powder biscuits.” Proceeds from the breakfast initially helped to fund the construction of the Brandon Area Community Center and additional funds help with its maintenance. While the food is not actually cooked inside of the large pan—it’s purely for decoration—the 9’ 3” x 14’ 3” pan could theoretically hold 528 eggs, 352 half-pound pork chops, and 88 pounds of bacon.

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Iowa’s Largest Fryin’ Pan
800-850 Main Street,
Brandon, IA 52210

Happy Friday!

Bodega cat illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

Is there any better way to describe the current state of things than the Mars Rover’s sad last words, “My battery is low and it's getting dark.” Here’s a good visualization of how it’s spent its 14 (lonely) years on the planet.

This is a fascinating look at the science of addiction, written by a former addict turned professor of psychology. 

Good news: Amazon has canceled its plans to build a corporate campus in Long Island City and we’re not sad about it. Bad news: it’s been a year since the Parkland shooting and nothing much has changed. Unsurprising news: Men are still trash.

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Things to do in New York this week:

The Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 exhibit opened this week (and runs until July) at the main building of the New York Public Library.

The H. H. Biddle House, a NYC landmark constructed on Staten Island in 1845, is having an open house on Saturday from 1-4pm, which is also opening day for their new exhibit, “Time in a Bottle, a rare collection of Staten Island’s historical past etched in glass.”

One of my favorite New York City parades—the Chinatown Lunar New Year parade—takes place this Sunday at 1pm.

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Things I’ve discovered recently:

The latest additions to my obsession with #influencer culture: these destinations are being destroyed by tourists, why food made to be Instagrammed is problematic, inside the Instagram mafia, what not-to-do when photographing private homes and are we already post-lifestyle?

Interested in dinosaurs? Skip Jurassic Park (the book) and read this fascinating account of fossil hunters and the people who collect them (yes, Nicholas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio are mentioned) instead.

A good (and sad) look at the history of prefab diners in Manhattan.

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Depending on when you’re reading this, I’m either on my way to, or have already arrived in Mexico City! Upon returning from Egypt I vowed never to travel to a country where I couldn’t drink the water and then the next trip I booked was to … Mexico. But I already got my Hep A and Typhoid vaccinations out of the way for Egypt so I’m packing the Imodium and hoping for the best 🤞! My friend Francesca is spending six months in Mexico City and my friend Jim is flying in from California to meet us so I’m excited to spend a few days in the sunshine (highs forecasted into the 80s) with two of my very favorite people. I’ve been uncharacteristically loose with my itinerary for Mexico, so if there’s anything you think I should see—or eat, sans cilantro—let me know! I have a few posts scheduled for next week and some exciting news to announce next week, so I’ll see you back here soon—have a great three-day-weekend!

Monticello Manor

In 2008, the New York State Department of Health ordered the closure of Monticello Manor, an adult home located upstate in Sullivan County. Health inspectors found several violations in the for-profit home, housed in a former hospital building, and ordered that all of the residents be evacuated within 24 hours.

Safety violations included roof leaks that caused ceilings to partially collapse, peeling plaster walls, rusting steel supports, mold and bed bugs. The operator of Monticello Manor, Charles Benson, owned an additional nursing home located about 30 miles away in Roscoe, New York. The DOH order barred Benson from moving any Monticello patients to Roscoe Manor, which he closed voluntarily in 2009. But Roscoe Manor wasn’t much better than Monticello—that home was cited for 149 violations of its own since 2001, and left unsupervised, two patients wandered away and died.

Considering the shape it was in when it closed, I’m surprised that anything remained of Monticello Manor when we visited last year (despite my paralyzing fear of bed bugs). It was definitely one of the more structurally unstable buildings that I’ve ever explored, and the area appears to be frequently patrolled by the police.

Without knowing it at the time, we also visited Roscoe Manor (after exploring the Dundas Castle nearby) but that building was in even worse condition—the floor was partially collapsed so we just peeked in a window and left. The horrible conditions discovered in both homes are probably far too common—especially in for-profit care institutions—and I can only hope that the remaining residents eventually found the peace and safety they deserved.

Temple of Edfu

The Temple of Edfu is located on the West bank of the Nile, about halfway between Luxor and Aswan. The temple, dedicated to the god Horus, was built between 237 and 57 BCE, during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, and is a mix of traditional Egyptian styles and Greek influences.

The enormous pylon—which, at approx. 120-feet-tall, is one of the largest in Egypt—is decorated with remarkably preserved battle scenes of King Ptolemy VIII smiting his enemies before Horus (the Ancient Egyptian version of propaganda). Beyond the pylon you enter the Court of Offerings, surrounded by columns elaborately decorated with reliefs.

The temple at Edfu is so well preserved because over the years it was covered with drifting sand and silt from the Nile floods. Like other famous Ancient Egyptian sites, locals built homes on top of the buried temple, and by 1798 only the upper reaches of the temple pylons were visible. In 1860, the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette began uncovering and excavating the temple and in the early 2000s new lights and a visitors center were added.

Horus is a very important Ancient Egyptian god, most often depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon head. The son of Isis and Osiris, Horus is basically the Egyptian Jesus (or rather, Jesus is the Catholic version of Horus, the latter predating the former by thousands of years). After Osiris is murdered, Isis reassembles her husband’s dismembered body parts—using her powers to remake his penis, which had been thrown into the Nile and eaten— and brings him back to life in order to conceive Horus, as one does.

The streets of Edfu are so narrow that we couldn’t travel to the temple in our usual tour bus. From our cruise ship, which was anchored in the Nile, we boarded a horse-drawn carriage (known as a caleche) and the drive through town was chaotic to say the least. We had the option to purchase a souvenir photograph after we returned to the ship and—although it’s a classic tourist scam—I think the photographer captured my essence perfectly.

Cholera Cemetery

A cholera epidemic hit North America in the mid-1800s and it reached Sandusky, a town located in Northwest Ohio, in 1849, lasting into the early 1850s. Thousands of people fled the city in fear of the disease and half the population either left town or died. 357 people were buried over just 68 days from July to September of 1849, 60 of which are buried in a mass grave.

Cholera, an intestinal infection that usually comes from a tainted water supply, came to Ohio via unsanitary conditions on ships traveling the Erie Canal. During the 1849 epidemic, doctors and nurses traveled from all over Ohio—and some from as far as Philadelphia—to help out, sometimes working in makeshift hospitals. As the townspeople fled, the bodies piled up and according to local folklore, the town drunk (less susceptible to the disease because of his alcohol consumption, allegedly) volunteered to help bury the victims.

The Harrison Street Cemetery, now known officially as the Cholera Cemetery, was closed in 1850 when the much larger Oakland Cemetery opened three miles away. Over the years, the Harrison Street lot was neglected and most of the tombstones were lost. The only tombstones currently standing are three markers for Revolutionary War veterans who survived the war, but not the epidemic.

Today the site is designated as a memorial park with a central monument “erected in memory of the pioneers of Sandusky, Ohio who gave their lives during the cholera epidemic of 1849 to 1854 AD. During this great tragedy, half of the 4,000 population either fled or were called by death. Those remaining rendered worthy service—to their unselfish faithfulness we owe this tribute of reverence and love.”

The grounds were restored in 1924 and given a spruce last year to coincide with Sandusky’s bicentennial. There isn’t much to see in the small cemetery but it’s worth a stop just for the gate alone. I had seen photos before I visited, but the arching letters that spell out “Cholera Cemetery” look like something straight from a Tim Burton movie set.

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Cholera Cemetery
445-487 Harrison Street
Sandusky, OH

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances | Prints available here

Things that happened recently:

This is a fascinating look inside of the Westbeth Artists Housing complex, the last remaining artists’ housing in New York.

In preparation for the State of the Union Address, a giant inflatable Trump Rat (a nod to the infamous union strike rat, Scabby) was erected in Columbus Circle. I didn’t watch the SOTU, but I did love Stacy Abrams’s response and it’s hard to decide who had a better reaction: the Democratic women, 11-year-old Joshua Trump, Nancy Pelosi or this woman.

Billy Eichner is writing and starring in a new romantic comedy and I wish I could buy tickets already. Speaking of strike rat, I miss Difficult People (RIP).

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Things to do in New York this week:

Saturday is the Flushing Chinese Lunar New Year Parade (it’s the year of the pig!) and while I’ve never been to the one in Flushing, the Chinatown celebration is one of my favorite parades in the city.

Sunday is the Til Death Do Us Part oddities market hosted by JC Oddities in Jersey City. This is the market where I found Flapjack and some other great pieces for my curiosity cabinet and it’s usually much better than the overpriced and overhyped Oddities Flea Market in Brooklyn.

The 143rd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes place Monday at Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. My mom and I went last year and it was really fun but you can also watch the live stream here.

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Things that I’ve discovered recently:

When I’m old and racked by dementia, I’ll still be able to sing Stick Stickly’s address (which apparently isn’t valid anymore, sad!) and I laughed out loud when I saw this tweet.

Why it’s ok to be bored.

I love making fun of millennials as much as anyone (submitted for your approval: a yacht influencer) but I recently finished this book and it was a fascinating and sobering look at all of the factors that have made us the way we are.

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We’re finally going to see They Shall Not Grow Old (after seeing the trailer ten thousand times, it finally has a wide release) on Saturday and on Sunday I’m trying to decide if I want to go to IKEA or to the Jersey City oddities flea market—either way I’ll probably be buying things I definitely don’t need and can’t fit in my tiny apartment. I’ve been rearranging some things in my apartment in anticipation of some new projects, so I might do an updated apartment tour post when that’s all finished. Next week I head to Mexico City for a few days and I’m being uncharacteristically loose with my itinerary but I’m sure it will be a good time. After a January that seemed to last for much longer than it was supposed to, February (the most expensive month to live in an apartment) seems to be speeding by. Have a great weekend and happy Lunar New Year (I’m an ox, but the pig is my favorite of the Chinese zodiac signs)!

Strawberry Point

Strawberry Point, Iowa, is located about an hour west of Dubuque and an hour north of Cedar Rapids. It has a population of under 2,000, but it is home to the Franklin Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Wilder Museum, home to an heirloom collection of over 800 dolls dating from the 1700s, Iowa’s oldest state park and the world’s largest strawberry.

The town of Strawberry Point was founded in 1853 and named for the wild strawberries found in the area. The Franklin Hotel was built in 1902 and we had coffee in the hotel restaurant, which is unsurprisingly decorated with a strawberry motif—I love a town that really leans into a theme (like Roswell or Sleepy Hollow).

Strawberry Point is the very definition of a one-stoplight town and I love exploring small towns in the middle of America just as much as—and sometimes even more than—I like visiting more popular tourist destinations. The Wilder Museum was closed for the season, we were the only people in the hotel restaurant aside from our waitress, and the ‘bakery’ we saw advertised was just a table in the grocery store manned by a handless mannequin.

The 15-foot-tall, painted fiberglass sculpture was designed by a local ad agency, and it has been on display in front of the City Hall and police station since the 1960s. It’s incredibly detailed, much larger than I expected and appears to be well cared for (although it could use a little touch up at the bottom). This big roadside attraction is comparable to the world’s largest pistachio—neither are real examples of the food, which is an entirely different (and probably highly competitive) area of distinction.

‘World’s Largest’ designations are sometimes dubious at best—you might remember that I’ve already visited what claims to be the world’s largest strawberry, located in Ellerbe, North Carolina. While they do have the url worldslargeststrawberry.com, the Berry Patch farm stand could more accurately be called the world’s largest strawberry-shaped structure, while Strawberry Point’s version—unfortunately saddled with strawberrypt.com—could be more specifically described as the world’s largest sculptural strawberry.

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World’s Largest Strawberry
111 Commercial Street,
Strawberry Point, IA

Governors Island: Off-Season

Sometimes, the Internet is a magical place that connects like-minded strangers who wouldn’t have otherwise met, like me and my new friend Hollis. Through a friend of a friend, we were connected via Instagram a few years ago, but we recently met up in person for the first time. Hollis volunteers a few times a week with the Earth Matter NYC organization and goes to Governors Island to tend to the chickens that live there year-round. The island is not open to the public in the winter, but there is a ferry that takes workers back and forth, and Hollis generously offered to take me along with her on a recent Sunday afternoon.

Earth Matter was started in 2009 to promote local composting of organic waste, and they educate the community on composting as well as water conservation practices. The site on Governors island is home to several huge compost piles, along with chickens and (seasonally) baby goats, rabbits, worms and beehives. The chickens need to be fed daily by volunteers, so I helped Hollis spread out fresh food scraps and even fed them some chicken feed out of my hand (a first for me, despite growing up in Ohio).

The chickens are all hens and they lay eggs year-round, although they do produce less in the winter months. We went around and collected the day’s haul (some were still warm), which totaled nearly a dozen eggs in all shapes, sizes and colors. The chickens are all different breeds—some have elaborate headdresses, some look like they’re wearing feathered pantaloons and some have iridescent feathers and feet—and produce a wide variety of eggs. I had never eaten a farm fresh egg before, but I’m happy to report that they tasted just as good as they looked.

The Coast Guard left Governors Island in 1996, and they left behind a huge amount of infrastructure that currently sits mostly empty and abandoned. The island has undergone a drastic transformation in the last few years, and more buildings are slated for demolition or development in the near future. There are manicured hills, a grove of hammocks, a lavender field, art installations and even a glamping site on the island, with possible plans to add a hotel or spa (sigh). I’ve been to Governors Island several times in the summer, but getting to explore the island when it was essentially empty is an experience I won’t soon forget (thank you again, Hollis!).

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Want to help out with Earth Matter? Check out their volunteer and apprenticeship opportunities here.

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

Yes, it’s cold: at least 20 people have died because of the subzero temperatures in the Midwest, the USPS suspended mail delivery in some areas, and here is the difference between climate and weather (Anyone Who Understands This 2020, please).

Praise Bhagwan—a movie based on the Wild Wild Country documentary about the infamous 1980s cult and Ma Anand “tough titties” Sheela is in the works.

A bit of sad news: a 22-year-old mother died after falling in a (non-ADA-accessible) subway station. And a bit of good news: this 11-year-old is making nursing home patients’ wishes come true, Julie Klausner has raised thousands of dollars for Planned Parenthood in the name of MAGA trolls who have been attacking her after former Ohio Governor John Kasich (and all-around garbage person) stole her seat on a recent flight, and I’m loving that formerly vilified women from infamous ‘90s scandals are finally getting to tell their stories.

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Things to do in New York this week:

Saturday is Groundhog Day, but Mayor de Blasio won’t be attending the annual festival at the Staten Island Zoo because of the infamous 2014 Staten Island Chuck scandal.

Sunday is the Super Bowl, which I don’t care about, but I do care a great deal about Super Bowl snacks. Randy’s Donuts recently received a pretty drastic makeover for the big game, but I hope they return to their classic look soon.

There is one more week left of New York’s Winter Restaurant Week, which actually lasts three weeks.

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Things I’ve discovered recently:

Dream job alert (“fasten your meatbelt” 😂 )

I recently finished this book, a surprisingly readable and enjoyable book about blood. This review in the New York Times says that the author, Rose George, “rips open her topics as if they were bags of chips,” and I’ve already put this book of hers on my library hold list. Speaking of books, here is an interesting look at how Instagram and Amazon have influenced book cover design, and the cover for Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments, was revealed this week.

This is 100% what I imagine Mozart’s days look like when I’m at work.

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January always feels like the longest month of the year, but we made it - Happy February! The weather here in the city is supposed to warm slightly this weekend and then it’s back into the 50s next week (where is our snow??). On Saturday I’m headed to Brighton Beach with some friends to fill up on hearty Eastern European foods (hopefully we can find this Georgian cheese bread). On Sunday my friend Trent has generously invited me over for brunch and I know whatever he makes will be amazing, so obviously I’m working hard on my winter body this weekend. I’m currently reading this book because it was recommended by my fantasy best friend, Samantha Irby—I love a good missing person(s) thriller but I hate not knowing the twists so I’ll either plow through it or flip to the end (I know, I’m a monster). Have a great weekend and stay warm!

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This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on a link, I may receive a ~very small~ commission in return, which I will probably use to buy more books because I have a book hoarding problem.

Dickeyville Grotto

The Dickeyville Grotto and shrines were created from 1925-1930 by Father Matthias Wernerus, a pastor of the Holy Ghost Church and Parish. Located in Dickeyville, Wisconsin, about 15 minutes northwest of Dubuque, Iowa and the Mississippi River that divides the two states, the shrines were built from materials collected from all over the world, including stones, shells, colored glass, fossils, jewelry, pottery, dishes, precious metals and sea creatures.

The main shrine is home to the Grotto of the Blessed Virgin and there is a shrine dedicated to patriotism, a shrine of the Holy Eucharist, a Sacred Heart shrine, a Christ the King shrine and a Fatima shrine. The centerpiece of the main grotto is an Italian White Carrara Marble statue of the blessed virgin, sculpted in Europe. The interior is protected by transparent panels to deter theft and protect the artwork, but it also makes it nearly impossible to get a good photo (another argument for seeing these roadside gems in person).

The site is visited by more than 40,000 people every year, although we were the only visitors on a very cold Friday in December. There’s no admission fee but donations are appreciated. There is a gift shop (of course) that sells Bibles, rosaries, religious statues, medals, prayer books and CDs, but its hours vary seasonally and it wasn’t open when we visited. In addition to the obvious religious themes, the patriotic shrine also includes depictions of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Liberty Bell.

I’m not in any way religious, but I do love passion projects and these shrines are incredible works of art—even more so when you consider that they were essentially the work of a single man. Wernerus did have help, including benefactors and of course, his faith in God; volunteers pitched in to finish the last shrine after Wernerus died in 1931, and Stations of the Cross were added in 1963, but the artwork you see today is almost exactly as Wernerus intended.

The Dickeyville Grotto is the kind of religious expression that you’d expect to find in a desert setting (like Salvation Mountain or Desert Christ Park), where fanaticism and creativity seem to flourish—but the need to fill the hours of a life with a meaningful task is seemingly universal. According to Roadside America, “a grotto-building contagion struck the Midwest and south in the early 20th century,” a phenomenon they call “dementia concretia,” otherwise known as “the helter-skelter compulsion to cover whatever outdoor space you have with home-made art” (see also: the mosaic house of Brooklyn or Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens).

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Dickeyville Grotto
255-377 Great River Road,
Dickeyville, WI 53808
Gift shop hours vary seasonally, but you can see the Grotto even when the shop is closed.

Handless Jacques

When I visited Ohio after Christmas, I finally got to visit a famous resident of Marblehead, known as Handless Jacques. While he’s not an official Muffler Man, he is a big, strange, roadside statue which is enough to make him a destination by my road trip criteria.

Marblehead is a village on the Marblehead Peninsula in Northwest Ohio, with Lake Erie to the north and Sandusky Bay to the south. It’s a summer vacation destination, close to Kelleys Island, Put-in-Bay, the Cedar Point amusement park and is home to the oldest continuously-operating lighthouse in the Great Lakes region. Like other summer waterfront communities, Marblehead—population of less than a thousand—was quite desolate but beautiful in late December.

Handless Jacques was not always handless. In the late ‘60s, he stood outside of the Jacques Sandwich Shoppe in Marion Ohio and he held a tray topped with a large sandwich. When a fire damaged the shop, Jacques was moved to Marblehead and lost his tray and hands (cast as one piece) somewhere along the way.

Today, the fiberglass giant stands more than 20-feet-tall and advertises nothing but himself on the side State Route 163, between a gas station and a lot with a few rusty RVs. He’s much larger than a standard Muffler Man, more rough in his construction and sparse in decoration but he still adds whimsy to an otherwise unremarkable stretch of road.

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Handless Jacques
6020 E Harbor Road (State Route 163)
Marblehead, OH 43440

Recent Reads

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As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, edited by Joan Reardon

This was the first book I read after I completed my 2018 reading challenge, so I really dug in and allowed myself to savor every single delicious page. Incidentally, I have had this book on my shelf for years—I bought it back when I lived in Ohio—and had tried to read it before, but for whatever reason it didn’t grab me at the time. This time, however, I was immediately drawn into the endearing trans-continental correspondence of two dynamic and fascinating women.

What began innocuously over a fan letter that Child wrote to DeVoto’s husband—one that Avis herself answered—developed into a decades-long friendship, during which the women refer to themselves as “soulmates.” This compilation of letters never feels disjointed, reads almost like a novel and is mostly concentrated during the years when Child is abroad, wrestling doubts while working on Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I already knew I loved Julia Child—whose late-in-life renaissance is my life inspo whenever I’m feeling lost—but the real surprise here is how much I fell in love with Avis DeVoto, who is more than a match for Child in warmth and wit.

I was so eager to pass on my copy to a friend, I forgot to snap a photo but you can see the cover below.

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The Mayor of Macdougal Street: A Memoir, by Dave Van Ronk

After a recent repeat viewing of the wonderful Coen brothers’ movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, I decided it was time for me to finally read Van Ronk’s memoir, which served as the brothers’ inspiration when making their film. Van Ronk was a instrumental pioneer in New York’s burgeoning folk scene in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and by all accounts he should have been as famous as his friends at the time, which included Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Art Garfunkel.

Van Ronk’s story, written mostly by him but finished after his death by a close friend, is always entertaining and several of his anecdotes are laugh-out-loud funny. Van Ronk talks about a time in New York that I’ll always be sad I wasn’t able to experience first-hand, but he also wisely posits that everyone who moves to New York—even him—thinks they arrived ten years too late.

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I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff, by Abbi Jacobson

I’m a huge Broad City fan, and the premise of taking a cross-country road trip to find clarity after a break-up was irresistible to me, but unfortunately I didn’t love this collection of essays, lists and illustrations by Jacobson. There were some good parts but mostly it was a bit boring, which is surprising considering Jacobson’s obvious humor and observation skills. Overall this was a quick read, and I did appreciate the parts relating to her sexuality and her behind-the-scenes look at how Broad City came to be, but I was left wanting more.

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The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah

I had a few issues with how this book was written—Hannah, who has written more than 20 novels, repeated a lot of phrases such as “it was bigger inside than it looked from the outside” and “buttery light” (ew)—but I couldn’t put this book down and raced through the more than 400 pages in just a few days. The story of Leni, fourteen when the book starts, and her parents as they embark on a new life in rural Alaska was riveting (if a bit overly dramatic at times) and by the end of the book I was sobbing. I’ve always been fascinated by Alaska, and Hannah’s descriptions of its wild beauty only made me more eager to visit (a friend of mine currently lives in Fairbanks, so I might just have to go).

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The Library Book, by Susan Orlean

I love anything by Orlean (The Orchid Thief is one of my all-time favorites) and I love libraries, so it’s no surprise that I loved Orlean’s latest, The Library Book. She weaves together a whodunnit story of the 1986 Central Library fire in LA—a fire that raged for 7.5 hours, completely destroying 400,000 books and damaging 700,000 more—with the history and inner-workings of libraries in general.

Because I’m a total nerd, I actually teared up reading a play-by-play of the fire and Orlean’s musings on what books, and of course, libraries, mean to the world were genuinely touching. Although some people might claim that the Internet rendered libraries outdated and even useless, Orlean (rightly) presents an entirely different future—where libraries are not only still around, but more vital than ever.

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This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on a link, I may receive a ~very small~ commission in return, which I will probably use to buy more books because I have a book hoarding problem.

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I’m hoping to read 65 books in 2019—follow along and let’s be friends on Goodreads!

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

We never got our promised snow storm last week here in the city, but in western New York Niagra Falls is an icy winter wonderland (I wonder how the Twist O’ The Mist is doing?)

Season five of Schitt’s Creek started last week and Catherine O’Hara continues to prove that she is a national treasure.

Every day I am more and more OVER white men, but Nick Sandmann is the worst combination of my two least favorite things: white men and teens.

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Things to do in New York this week:

The Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now photography exhibit opens today at the Guggenheim (and Saturdays are pay-what-you-wish from 5-8pm).

We have had a pitiful amount of snow this season, but this Saturday from 11am-3pm you can see the man-made stuff at the annual Winter Jam in Central Park.

There are still a few tickets left for this special screening of one of the best movies ever made, Matilda, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday night.

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Things that I’ve discovered recently:

Kaylah (of The Dainty Squid) recently started making her adorable pouches again and they’re all so great it’s hard to pick a favorite. I use one of her tiny pouches as a makeup bag every day and it’s held up really well but I already want another one.

My dad is a super talented musician and songwriter—but don’t take my (biased) word for it and go hear his latest songs on his Youtube channel or better yet, buy his CD (I designed the cover!).

Sometimes I get grumpy and think that design doesn’t matter but this bike company ingeniously changed their box design and decreased their shipping damages by 80%!

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On Sunday I’m going to Governors Island on a special off-season trip with a new Instagram friend and I’m super excited to poke around the island while it’s closed to the public. Last weekend I went to Staten Island to find a neglected Merchant Marine Cemetery and not only did I find it, but various veterans’ groups found my post and have vowed to clean up and care for the historic space. My love for abandoned places runs deep but I’m so happy that this burial ground is finally getting the attention it deserves and that my strange habit of traipsing through cemeteries may have finally had a small, positive impact on the world (file both under: good things that can come from strangers the Internet). I’ve been plowing through my overwhelming stack of library books and I finished this book and started this one this week (both excellent). I very rarely cook, but I made chili last weekend and it was so good I might make another batch again soon. Have a great weekend!

Karnak

This city of temples, known collectively as Karnak, is one of the most visited ancient sites in Egypt, second only to the Great Pyramids at Giza. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the construction at Karnak over 2,000 years, which began during the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period. The complex is located on the east bank of the Nile, less than two miles from Luxor Temple.

The first thing you encounter at Karnak is an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, representing the god Amun. Each holds a small effigy of Rameses II (this guy, again) between their front paws. Today, visitors to Karnak enter through the last pylon built at Karnak, erected by Nectanebo I (380-362 BCE). The pylon was never completed and remains unadorned—remnants of mud brick ramps used in its construction can still be seen just inside of the entrance.

One of the most impressive sections of Karnak (and probably its most famous feature) is the great hypostyle hall, the construction of which was begun by Seti I and completed by his son, Rameses II. The more than 50,000-sq-ft hall contains 134 papyrus columns set in 16 rows. The columns originally supported a roof, but now stand alone with traces of their brightly colored decorations still visible. In 1899, 11 of the columns fell like dominoes, but they were restored to their upright position in 1902.

Several obelisks were discovered at Karnak and three remain standing today inside of the temple complex—built by Sety II, Thutmose I and Hatshepsut. There are some really wonderful and unique carvings and relief decorations at Karnak (including depictions of the obelisks). Part of one of the only ancient treaties for which both sides' versions have survived, the Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty, is engraved in hieroglyphics on the walls of Karnak (the other part is in the Rameseum).

Egypt came under Roman rule in 30 BCE and Christianity was adopted by the Roman Empire under Constantine the Great (306 - 337 BCE). The emperor Constantius II (337 - 361 BCE) closed all pagan temples in the empire, which included Karnak. Coptic Christians used the Temple of Amun as a church, and you can still see evidence of this time period in the literal defacing of some of the Egyptian gods and a statue (pictured above) that was crudely fashioned into a cross by early Christians.

As a perk of our tour, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, was our guide for the temple of Khonsu, an area of Karnak that isn’t usually open to the public. He dramatically revealed some recently discovered statues in addition to taking us inside of the temple, built by Rameses III. Its elaborately decorated walls are currently undergoing a painstaking restoration process that has revealed the most brilliant colors as if they were just painted yesterday and not more than 3,000 years ago.

Merchant Marine Cemetery

Down a gravel path in the woods behind Ocean View Cemetery in Staten Island, is a hidden cemetery sometimes referred to as the ‘forgotten acre.’ Nearly 1,000 men who served in the Merchant Marine were buried here after they died in quarantine at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in the Clifton neighborhood of SI (now Bayley Seton Hospital, part of which is also abandoned).

The Marine Hospital, dedicated to the care of sick and disabled seamen, was established in the 1880s. In the early 1900s, it became the U.S. Public Service Hospital and they would take in and quarantine sailors who fell ill as their ships passed Staten Island’s shores. A section of Ocean View Cemetery was purchased in 1901, after burial space became limited on the hospital grounds, and burials continued here until 1937.

There are people from all over the world buried here, some who died in their teens or well into old age. The small cemetery is surrounded by houses and several other cemeteries, but judging by the “no trespassing” signs posted around the site isn’t technically open to the public. There is a gravel access road at the northwest corner of Ocean View, and on the path through the woods I passed several rusted cars, small ponds and a herd of white tail deer.

There has been some dispute over the years as to who exactly is responsible for this overgrown plot of land, and on Veterans Day in 2011, volunteers cleaned up the site and placed a flag on each of the graves. Today you can see remnants of the tattered flags beneath the brush and leaves, and it once again seems to be living up to its name as the ‘forgotten acre.’

Muffler Man: Gemini Giant

When I started planning my recent Illinois/Iowa/Wisconsin trip, I realized that I would be able to travel a bit of the beginning of Route 66, which officially starts in downtown Chicago. My flight arrived at O’Hare at 8:30am and I was due in Dubuque by the evening, a 2hr and 40min drive if you drive from point A to point B without stopping—something I rarely do.

I decided that the furthest I could reasonably go southwest on Route 66, before heading back northwest, would be Wilmington IL, home of one of the most famous Muffler Men, the Gemini Giant. By the time I had reached the Giant it was 3pm and I was 3hrs and 30 min from Dubuque, but it was completely worth the detour.

In 1965, John Korelc, owner of the Launching Pad drive-in, paid $3,500 (more than $25k in today’s dollars) for the astronaut-themed Muffler Man. When Korelc retired he sold the Launching Pad, which eventually closed in 2010. The last owner refused to sell the Giant separately from the restaurant and in 2017, Tully Garrett and Holly Barker purchased both. They have reopened the Launching Pad as a souvenir shop and have plans to add food in the future.

The Launching Pad was supposed to be open when I arrived, but the doors were locked. When I reached out via Facebook they told me they had an unexpected emergency and had to close up for a bit. I’m sad I didn’t get to meet the Giant’s new owners or squish a penny, but I’ve come to accept these little disappointments as inevitabilities in life (along with the sun, which is seemingly always in the worst position for photos). Thankfully, they sell some of their Gemini Giant- and Route 66-branded merchandise online and I might not be able to resist buying one of these little guys.

The Gemini Giant stands 30 feet tall and—not counting his rocket and concrete base—weighs 438 pounds. After he arrived at the Launching Pad, a contest was held with local school children to name the giant. Inspired by Project Gemini, NASA's second human spaceflight program from 1961 to 1966, a fifth grade student proposed the name “Gemini Giant.” At least two other astronaut variants were made by International Fiberglass—one stood at Coney Island’s Astroland—but only the Gemini Giant survives today.

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Gemini Giant
810 E Baltimore Street
Wilmington, IL 60481
Store open daily, 9am-5pm, the statue is visible 24/7 in the parking lot outside.

Happy Friday!

Illustration by Lindsey Frances

Things that happened recently:

Women have been told how they should act/look/do literally everything since the beginning of time, but Gillette made a (very good) ad addressing toxic masculinity and surprising no one, men are upset about it.

There are two Fyre Fest documentaries currently streaming (I watched Hulu’s earlier this week and I plan on watching Netflix’s version tonight) and I continue to be obsessed with white, millennial influencer culture gone wrong.

A new report from the WSJ alleges that Michael Cohen tried to rig polls in favor of Donald Trump, but more importantly, he continues to drag Trump down with him. Speaking of Trump, I have to at least mention that millions of Americans voted for a 72-year-old man who can’t even spell the word hamburger (but at least we can all find a bit of joy in the commentary on our National Moron’s incompetence like this, this and this).

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Things to do in New York this week:

Film Forum is screening the classic (and one of my favorite movies) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on Saturday and Sunday at 11 am. It’s part of their Film Forum Jr. series, but if you really think about it, this movie is quite dark.

Saturday is the 2019 Women’s March in DC and there are affiliate marches all over the country, including NYC. Here are my photos from the 2017 march in DC and 2018 in NYC.

Sunday night (into Monday morning) is your last time to catch a total lunar eclipse until 2021.

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Things that I’ve discovered recently:

A co-worker let me know that you can now get a DNA test like 23andMe for your cat.

Samantha Irby, author of two of my favorite books—Meaty and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life—and all-around hilarious human, has started a newsletter and I’ve never hit “subscribe” so fast.

New Orleans is the only other city that I’ve visited that’s made me think “I could live here” (the cemeteries alone!) and this article is making me feel that way even more (ugh, that humidity though).

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Apparently we’re in for some snow (finally!) and I hope it’s a lot—nothing makes me happier than traipsing around the city (or a cemetery) in the snow. It’s been brutally cold here so the lack of snow is making me grumpy about winter. I don’t have any plans for the three-day weekend but I’m sure I’ll find a diner or cemetery (or several) to occupy my time. I’ve been sick this week with my second cold of the season so I’ve pretty much watched everything that Amazon or Netflix has to offer but I’m looking forward to the second Fyre Fest documentary (my mind was blown that it is pronounced “fire” and not “fry,” which my brain had been seeing all along). I started reading this book and I’m already halfway through it in two days because I can’t put it down. My library hold list is daunting, but there is just nothing like a really good book (speaking of libraries, I recently finished and loved this book too). Have a great weekend and stay cozy!

Lake View Cemetery

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m still ashamed of just how little of Ohio I explored while living there for 27 years. I do think that people take their hometowns for granted, but now that I have my distance I’m constantly finding places I want to check out when I’m back visiting friends and family. Lake View Cemetery has always been at the top of that list and I can’t believe it took me so long to finally visit Cleveland’s “Outdoor Museum.”

Founded in 1869, the 265-acre cemetery is home to more than 100,000 people (with more than 700 added each year and 70 acres remaining for future development). It’s Cleveland’s version of Green-Wood or Woodlawn, built at the tail-end of the rural cemetery movement. Located in the neighborhood of Cleveland Heights, a view of Lake Erie can be had when looking north from the cemetery.

20th President James A. Garfield is interred at Lake View inside of an exquisite mausoleum. The sandstone structure, dedicated in 1890, stands 180 feet tall and includes five, terra cotta panels comprising more than 110 life size figures depicting Garfield’s life and death. Garfield was shot by the disgruntled (and probably insane) Charles J. Guiteau at a train station in Washington, D.C. in 1881. After eleven weeks of poking and prodding by a team of well-meaning—but misinformed—doctors, Garfield died of infection, the second of four presidents to be assassinated (this is an excellent book about Garfield’s presidency and his gnarly death).

Unfortunately the monument was closed when we visited (a good excuse to come back in warmer weather!), but the Memorial Hall includes mosaics, marble, stained glass windows, a statue of the President and 64 steps leading to an outdoor balcony. Interred within the monument alongside President Garfield—the only Presidential casket currently on full display—are his wife Lucretia, their daughter and her husband.

Lake View is home to several other famous residents, including John D. Rockefeller, Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major US city (Cleveland) and Alan Freed, the radio DJ who popularized the term "rock and roll." Freed, who died of complications from alcoholism when he was just 43 years old, was initially interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. In 2002, his ashes were moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland but in 2014, the Freed family re-interred his ashes at Lake View, beneath a headstone cut to look like a jukebox.

It was freezing on the day we visited and we didn’t have much time to poke around, but there was one statue I had to see before I left Lake View—The Haserot Angel. “The Angel of Death Victorious,” sits on a marble monument marking the graves of canning entrepreneur Francis Haserot and his family. The life-size bronze angel holds a torch upside-down, symbolizing a life that has been extinguished. Sometimes referred to as the “weeping angel” because of the black “tears” that have formed on her face over the years, the Haserot Angel is even more lovely—and haunting—in person than I expected.

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Lake View Cemetery
12316 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland, OH