15 Comments

Tob, you are just having The stime zof Your Life! It’s visible in all the photographs, in the joyous madness of what’s speaking to you as well as the crazy visual language it uses. Your editing of all the history into your local journals is so much fun and enlightening . I look forward to every new installment. Joel

Expand full comment

Thanks Joel! So happy you are following along and for your encouragement on the project. Coming for our old neighborhood next!

Expand full comment

Beautiful Christmas letter I as well raise some (non acholic) eggnog to you your daughter is sooooooo cool koolade man is very inspiring

Expand full comment

She is pretty kool

Expand full comment

Wonderful stuff - I'm so glad to have stumbled across your newsletter! I raise an eggnog to you.

Expand full comment

Thanks so much Richard - I'm glad you did too! Cheers!

Expand full comment

Dear Rob,

I really enjoyed the latest Christmas Neighborhood edition. The photos were stunning! What camera did you use? Please keep up the great work!

Expand full comment

Thanks Nino! Newer pictures are shot on a Fuji GFX and older stuff is mostly 4x5

Expand full comment

Fantastic work, thank you. I do want to point out that you might be spreading misinformation about Edgar Allan Poe. It recently has been discovered that he may have been waylaid and intoxicated by someone else prior to his death. I certainly couldn't say definitively but the wrong clothes and his temperance, among other facts about that time in his life, lead to some questions about what actually happened.

Thanks again for your research and photography.

Expand full comment

Thanks Linda,

I know there are a few theories on the cause and his condition at the time of his death, but he definitely had his problems with alcohol. One popular theory, which you probaly know, is that he was a victim of cooping, which involved getting voters drunk and bringing them around to several different polling stations to cast multiple votes for the same candidate. I'll try to do a little more research when I cover the Poe Cottage in Fordham. Thanks for reading and keeping me honest!

Expand full comment

I sit down every Sunday morning and read The Neighborhoods over breakfast and it’s always a delight. I’m here in the UK but part of me (possibly the part that remembers where my keys are) is wandering around the neighborhoods too, enjoying the crazy architecture and wonderful history. Thanks.

Expand full comment

So nice of you to say Will, thanks! Honoured to be part of your Sunday routine! I’ll let you know if I come across your keys.

Expand full comment

Finally- something from the borough people outside of NYC rarely talk about...

I greatly admire Charles Mingus' music, but, as I don't drink alcohol, I don't thinking I'll be sampling his eggnog anytime soon.

Kool-Aid Man had his own comic, and he fought an evil computer? Well, it WAS the '80s....

Expand full comment

MIngus is great egg nog or not!

And Staten Island is in the regular qbbsm rotation, every 5 neighborhoods is from the borough

Expand full comment

I think the Funk building might be even stranger than the seminary.

Surprised you didn't mention the Kool-Aid man's regular appearances in Family Guy.

Expand full comment