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 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
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Extra Credit: True or False?
Mustaches were once a mandatory part of the uniform for NYC police
officers.
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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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