Saturday, February 16, 2013

Dogs (But No Dogs) & Cats (But No Katz) - Part Two



[This photo - copyright Daryl Edelstein, by the way - is screaming for a caption. Give it your best shot. Don't be afraid. Ray and I are grown men. We won't cry, no matter what you say. Well, we won't cry too much. And I might give a prize for the one I like the best, so fire away!]


This is the story of our recent trip to New York. If you missed Part One, lucky you! No, wait, that's not what I meant to say. If you missed Part One, and you'd like to read it, go HERE and you can enjoy it (but only if you promise to come back.)

Sunday, February 10th

This was the day we were to meet up with Daryl and Ray Edelstein.

Daryl, in case you've never traversed my sidebar and visited the many wonderful people I have listed over there, is the author of the blog Out & About In New York City. Her specialty is the taking of photographs of New York City, mostly Manhattan, to which she adds a few choice words. Her choice of subject matter is often whimsical (for instance, every Wednesday she finds a new water tower to show us) and when she writes, the words are usually just right, in both temperament and amount (something of which I cannot often be accused. Take this blog today, for example, because Daryl wrote about our meeting in about a hundred words and I passed that a sentence or two ago and still have another 1,100 to blab at you before I let you off the hook.)

We entered the subway in Brooklyn and rode into Manhattan to meet at Daryl & Ray's place. Daryl gave us wonderful directions, right on the money as it turned out, but she forgot to take into consideration that MY WIFE and I come from Boston. Daryl had included such things as "Turn north and go three blocks." Nobody in Boston ever gives directions that include such straightforward compass-inclined steps. This is because, while New York is laid out in a North-South-East-West grid, Boston is... well, take a look at the following graphic and you'll see what I mean.





We eventually figured out which way to go because, unlike Boston, every New York street actually has a sign on the corner telling you what street it is and most of them are labeled WEST Whatever Street or EAST Whatever Street, so that left us with a 50-50 proposition for North or South and we guessed correctly. Daryl and Ray and Harry and Jack welcomed us into their home.

Oh, yeah, here's where I blow off part of the title. Harry and Jack are their cats. Harry was glad to see us and accepted various pettings of his fur and skritches of his noggin. Jack was a bit more reticent. As a matter of fact, he bolted for another room upon sight of us and didn't get within ten feet of us at any time thereafter. But, although Harry was a nice fellow and enjoyable company, Jack was probably the more entertaining of the two. He is a cat with OCD and he goes through the most amazing ritual when it's feeding time, going into the kitchen, climbing up on the kitchen drawers, towards the counter, hanging there for a second or two, then jumping down, going back out of the kitchen, and repeating, over and over again, until such time as the food is ready. Back some 25 years ago, while I was still doing cocaine, I used to do much the same thing while the lines were being chopped, so I understood.

It was a trip to meet Ray. He contributes to Daryl's blog once a week, with his Toonsday feature, and it's always a fun bit. That wasn't why I was excited to meet him, though. You see, he and another fellow, by the name of Andrew Johns, make some of the funniest videos I have ever had the pleasure of watching. I've touted them here before, once or twice, but it never hurts to let the world at large (if you can be called that) know, once again, where to find them. There are way more videos than I'll list here, but these are probably my favorites. Do yourself a favor and click onto the links. These are two very funny men. The humor is unique, the dialogue superb, and all is done with a fine sense of subdued absurdity.

Rainy Day Old Maid

The Titwillow Affair

West Of Limbo (which is one of a continuing series with the characters in it, so you will want to see them all, especially one entitled Slappin' Leather, for which I have a personal love and you'll understand why if you watch it and listen carefully.)

OK, if you have any sense you're ready for me to wrap this up so you can scour You Tube for more of their stuff. Here's a photo of Daryl and me. I have absolutely nothing weird or off-color to say about this shot. She is a lovely woman and I almost look human.





We all went out to eat at a nice restaurant. Here are the four of us after the meal.





What more can I tell you? It was a lovely and enjoyable visit with two swell folks. I hope we get to do it again someday in the near future.

Soon, with more better stuff (which is to say, Part Three, which will be the finale, and in which you'll find out about the dogs part of the title.)

P.S. To finish off the "Katz" part of the title, that refers to Katz's Delicatessen, which we did NOT visit during our trip despite the fact that I had three pastrami sandwiches overall. I would have preferred that one (or all) of them came from Katz's because their pastrami sandwiches are legendary (and deservedly so) but we never found ourselves on the Lower East Side and so the only cats we encountered were Harry and Jack, who were wonderful but not filling.

P.P.S. The blow off of the "Dogs (But No Dogs)" will likely be more clever, but you never know with me.



18 comments:

Jenny Woolf said...

Ah! I have been to Katz's delicatessen. Lovely friendly photos. And the graphics made me laugh! look forward to episode 3.

Daryl said...

dont know if they show commercials about broadway shows in boston or elsewhere but there's one running .. cant recall the show .. but an interview with an actual new yorker who saw the show goes: 'even i, a jaded new yorker ...'

so when i paraphrase you'll get it .. maybe .. but as a jaded new yorker i laughed and laughed and laughed ... thank you for all the linky love for Ray and Andrew ...xoxoxo

joeh said...

Ahh so...man on right eat at Jewish deli, man on left eat too much lo Mein and General Chow's chicken.

Maggie May said...

Suldog....... you are sooooo funny!!!!!!!
Lucky you meeting Daryl. I'm sure she is as lovely as I imagine her to be.

The photo is an advert for *Soppy Grins* You could start a weekly *Soppy Grin* meme.

Maggie x

Nuts in May

Karen said...

Sounds like fun... so neat that you get to meet up with your online friends!

Sueann said...

That's it?? You met..you ate...you scratched a noggin? Sheesh! A little more excitment please!! Ha
Actually it is great to me nice people..esp. during a blizzard.
Hugs
SueAnn

Sueann said...

that is meet nice people...duh

messymimi said...

Meeting up with online friends IRL can be a blast.

The picture almost screams, "Hey, honey, come look what me 'n Earl did!" ;)

Eddie Bluelights said...

Great to see such a distinguished bloggers meeting.

Now here's a caption for you:

"Tell me was it you who farted, or was it me?"

LOL

lime said...

i had no idea that daryl's ray was your mickey. whaddya know?

as for the streets of boston vs nyc...oddly enough i feel really comfortable getting around boston but not at all in nyc. go figure. of course, maybe it just tells you something abotu the way my mind works...or doesn't.

so glad you all had such a fun visit.

Buck said...

Hey... I left a bag o' pot on the table, did either of you guys see it?

Pot? What pot?

(not necessarily your) Uncle Skip said...

Joe stole my theme for the pic.
Ahhh so indeed.
Although my comment was going to be related to sushi.

Michelle H. said...

Too bad you couldn't make a guest appearance in one of their YouTube movies. It still must have been great to meet such wonderful people. Patiently awaiting part 3.

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous that y'all got to meet each other, but as I told Daryl, I'm surprised it hasn't happened before now! I'm glad you finally did! That graphic of the streets made me laugh out loud even though I've never visited either city. I'm off to watch Ray's videos. I never knew he made these! How did I miss that?

Three Hundred Sixty Five said...

I want to thank you for the fabulous laughter (I love the New York/Boston thingy) after having been down with the flu for the past 5 days. This is what friends are for, even if you were blissfully unaware! You rock!

CiCi said...

"Mine is bigger than yours, smile that is."

Hilary said...

Awww.. I loved this. I'm thrilled for you and YOUR WIFE that you met Daryl, Ray, Harry and Jack as I'm thrilled for them that they met you two. Two of my favourite bloggie people. Love that.

Chris said...

Sorry you missed out on Katz's. Great food, nice environment (mostly).

And this clears up the mystery on Daryl . . . she donated to my marathon charity, and I wasn't familiar with the name. Until now. So Daryl, if you're reading this . . . THANKS!!!!