ASTOUNDING
AUGUST MAGIC
PASSWORD: ST. MARKS CINEMA
Ice ice baby.
They say that yesterday was the hottest day of 2006. The scariest
day of 1980 was a Friday the 13th, when I was taken to see "Friday
the 13th" at the St. Marks Cinema, a double feature with "Winter
Kills." I was 8 years old. Yes, highly inappropriate for a
3rd grader. But it was 1980 in NYC - a glorious, raunchy, free for
all. Bless those days. The St. Marks Cinema was on 8th Street and
2nd Avenue. It was shut down in the 80s and became a Gap, and now
a pizza place, with sub par pizza. I can't say whether or not "Serpico"
played at the St. Marks Cinema, but it will be playing in the breezy
air-conditioned loveliness of White Rabbit on Monday night. And
massage therapist Alex Fisher (New Lincoln/Source Academy) returns
for a massagefest to cool those sweaty, pesky summer aches. $1 a
minute.
And while we're on the subject of camping, the NYC Parks Department
is sponsoring camp outs in the city parks this month. That means
you can sleep in the park, hopefully without getting attacked! Call
311 and ask for the Urban Park Rangers Family Camping program. Do
it right away to reserve a spot.
You guessed it, another playful quiz. Answers are posted at the
bottom of: http://www.nycmagicgarden.com/Passwords.html:
AUGUST
SERPICORIAN POLICE QUIZ
- New
York's Finest refers to police officers and New York's Bravest
refers to firefighters. Sanitation workers are known as what?
a) New York's Cleanest b) New York's Strongest c) New York's Foulest
d) New York's Feistiest
- Who are known as New York’s Boldest?
a) correction officers b) district attorneys c) teachers d) Duane
Reade clerks
- Who is the current NYC Police Commissioner (in August 2006)?
- In the Al Pacino flick "Dog Day Afternoon" people are
chanting what outside the Brooklyn bank that is being robbed?
a) Attica b) We're Here, We're Queer c) Sonny d) Money for the
Poor
- A 1969 Daily News headline read: "Homo Nest Raided, Queen
Bees are Stinging Mad" when patrons of what Greenwich Village
bar resisted arrest, causing an infamous riot?
- The Astor Place Riots of 1849 involved which of the following?
a) barbers b) bongs c) cigarette taxes d) theaters
- The jail known as The Tombs, built in 1835, is the largest receiving
area in the country. The title character of Herman Melville’s
1853 short story "Bartelby the Scrivener" died in the
Tombs. What was Bartelby’s famous phrase?
a) Thank you for your support b) I prefer not to c) The Queen
is dead d) No more yanky my wanky, the Donger need food
- Until 1973 the NYC police headquarters were at what Manhattan
address?
a) 1 Police Plaza b) 2 Federal Hall c) 240 Centre Street d) 7
Court Street
- Which US President and NYC native (from Gramercy) was once NYC
Police Commissioner? Hint - He is referred to many times in Caleb
Carr's "The Alienist."
- The first recorded death of a police officer in the line of duty
was in 1854. Since then, approximately how many police officers
have been killed in the line of duty?
a) 180 b) 600 c) 2800 d) 9000
- Extra Credit: True or False?
Mustaches were once a mandatory part of the uniform for NYC police
officers.
- Extra Credit: True or Truer?
According to one popular theory, the term "copper,"
or "cop" was coined in 1845 as a nickname for police
offers because of the star shaped copper badge worn as part of
their uniform.
- Extra Credit: True or Trueiest?
Walter Mathau was once a boxing coach for the police department.
And I couldn't resist sharing the following info:
1880s chief of detectives Thomas F. Byrnes was the first person
to create a "mug book" - containing photographs of 7000
known criminals. He focused his energies on the financial district
where money, stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc. were carried
around by hand and thus stolen by criminals with great regularity.
While his contemporaries looked to the obvious brothels and saloons
for payoffs, he thought his wealth could be made with Wall Street
bankers and brokers, who had a lot more money. In 1880 he declared
that any known criminal seen below Fulton Street could be arrested
immediately, whether or not they had committed a crime, if the
officer felt they did not have a proper explanation for being
there. It worked; in 1887 Byrnes said that not a penny had been
stolen in those seven years. As Wall Street continued to prosper,
Byrnes effectively protected these moneymakers, and was undoubtedly
paid back for his efforts. In 1894, when a group of reformers
called the Lexow Committee began a huge investigation of police
corruption in NYC, Byrnes quickly left public service and retired,
living off of a $350,000 fortune that he somehow amassed on his
$2000 annual salary. Gotta love corruption! Gotta see "Serpico."
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