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thepettymachine · 5 years

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Zodiac Legacy Challenge for the Sims 3

If you’re like me, I like a good legacy challenge with nice themes/aesthetics to place/plan out with each heir with enough wiggle room for creative interpretations. No. Well I’ve always wanted to do a zodiac legacy challenge but could never find the rules for TS3 or most of them were made for TS4. So I guess I thought I would just make one then.

This was all made on a whim but it’s a strong whim. So enjoy the whim. “@” me if you use the rules since I didn’t come up with a tag for this.

Credit:

I like to credit @tainoodles‘s TS4 Astrology Legacy as an inspiration/base for this, as well as many others I’ve found online.

A buttload of astrology sites

@starplumbob and @bravetrait for feedback. Thank you alot!

Without further ado

General Rules:

Finish the goals provided for each sign

You can move onto the next generation when all goals are met or you maintain them until the heir has aged up or both. Up to you.

You can start on any sign but you must go in order afterwards.

If I were to start on Leo, I would have to do Virgo next.

You can select any of the careers provided for the generation.

You don’t have to use all the traits assigned to a sign, but 1-2 are required.

You can use colors for aesthetic purposes/berry purposes, but they are not required.

Generation Aries: The Ram

♈︎ - Is everything a game to you? Well of course it is, you’re an Aries. First sign in the zodiac that also might be banned from playing simopoly. We admire a courageous spirit that knows what it wants, is driven, and is bluntly honest with us but can you let some of us, you know….win?! Not everything has to be a competition. Geez

Aesthetic Color(s): Red Traits: Workaholic, Ambitious, Brave, Hot-Headed Careers: Firefighter, Athlete, Military, Sports Agent

Goals:

Excel and reach the top of their career.

Fall In love and marry their first love fast

Has to do something athletic once a week

Master the athletic and handiness traits

Have them battle someone once a week

Generation Taurus: The Bull

♉︎ - What’s wrong with a little luxury in life. Food, art, sex, and your favorite snuggle blanket made of some high cotton that was not cheap is the lap of luxury for you. You can be really stubborn sometimes but once you set your mind on something, you aren’t changing it. It’s all because you know what’s best for you and nothing else matters. Aesthetic is key but you can also be a little bit greedy with your stuff. Sharing is caring Taurus

Aesthetic Color(s): Earth Tones, Pink Traits: Natural Cook, Loves the Outdoors, Frugal, Hopeless Romantic Careers: Gardner, Cook, Nectar Owner

Goals:

Master the cooking and gardening skills

Be best friends with their future spouse before dating

Learn at least 20 new recipes

Must have twins (can have more children than that)

Have very expensive/luxury items worth more than $500 in your home (it’s all about that aesthetic)

Woohoo with your spouse once a day

Generation Gemini: The Twins

♊︎ - Wow, how does it feel to be a twin. You look every bit like each other except for your dual personalities. Charming and youthful, you both are ahead of the curve as your quick wit and curiosity keeps you moving forward in life. You have alot of skills and talents and love communicating your ideas with others. Just remember where the brakes are at , as some of us can’t keep up. Tough luck you say.

Aesthetic Color(s): Yellow, mint green, Orange, neons Traits: Charismatic, Childish, Genius, Schmoozer Careers: Teacher, Writer, Private Investigator, Magician

Goals:

Both twins have to be heir

Have a very close relationship with your twin

Master 5 skills, including charisma

Spend most of their YA dabbling in different careers before deciding on one in their adult years.

Have multiple lovers before choosing/finding the one

Have to teach their children all of their skills and help them with their homework

Generation Cancer: The Crab

♋︎ - Why so crabby? I’m sorry had to throw that one in there. You tend to be a loyal compassionate creative person who wears their heart on their sleeve. Sometimes that sleeve might be drenched in your tears as you can be considered a little bit moody but we love you Cancer. You sense what a person is feeling and you help them through it. What a great lover and friend you are!

Aesthetic Color(s): Light Blue, Gray, Orange Traits: Nurturing, Family-Oriented, Over-Emotional, Brooding Careers: Sculptor, Daycare Profession, Resort Owner/Bed&Breakfast

Goals:

Sim must have a full relationship bar with their significant other before proposing

Have a lot of handmade items in your home

Have 5 children

Master the sculpting skill

Be best friends with all their children.

Get out of the house once a week

Generation Leo: The Lion

♌︎ - Royalty must be in your blood cause obviously you are the Queen/King and we are all just your royal subjects. With a mighty roar, you demand your spotlight and capture our attention with your spontaneous passionate heart. We follow your lead, my liege. For you will not make us forget it!

Aesthetic Color(s): Gold, Purple Traits: Snob, Brave, Dramatic, Star Quality Careers: CEO, Actor, Singer

Goals:

Live in a mansion/large house with more than 4 bedrooms

Become a five star celebrity

Marry a big time celebrity

Go on a big dates with your lover/spouse at least once a week

New Me each week - go to the spa and change your boring outfit at least once a week

Master the social networking skill

Generation Virgo: The Virgin

♍︎ - The modest stylish Virgo is always the hardest worker that delivers the best because they expect the best. You love to serve others and always pay attention to details with such an organized perfection towards the things you do. But sometimes that perfection creates high expectations of yourself and let’s just say judgement and criticism is not your color.

Aesthetic Color(s): Green, Brown, White Traits: Perfectionist, Perceptive, Neurotic, Neat Careers: Doctor, Journalist, Bookstore clerk

Goals:

Have a part-time job, make straight A’s, and join a club as a teenager

Have a college degree

Spouse must be compatible and must share at least 2-3 traits with them.

Can only have woohoo after marriage

House must be clean all the times (no outside help is allowed)

Must learn something new every week

New Recipe, read a new book, learn a new skill, take a class

Generation Libra: The Scales

♎︎ - You’re a giant balancing act, trying to keep everything fair and just. You love being around all kinds of people and also trying to make the world a better place. As much as you are a great mediator and friend, you’re also a great people pleaser. Please take time out of your day not to be around people and just focus on you.

Aesthetic Color: Green, White Traits: Friendly, Good, Social Butterfly, Party Animal Careers: Architect, Stylist, Musician

Goals:

Get Married to a sim that is complete opposite of you, then divorce them

Remarry a more compatible sim

Have 10 best friends

Host a party once a week

Complete 3 social opportunities each week

Master the guitar, bass, drums, and piano skills

Generation Scorpio: The Scorpion

♏︎ - Ah the mystery of the Scorpio. You have an intimidating front but behind that is an emotional side only certain people are allowed to see. You’re kinda into some dark occultist stuff and you’re also secretive about things. But you’re a passionate lover that can see love as a game of trials. Just a couple of tests to make sure that this is the right person for who you can finally put your guard down around.

Aesthetic Color: Black, Gray, Red Traits: Loner, Daredevil, Irresistible, Inappropriate Careers: Ghost Hunter, Law Enforcement (Forensics/Super Spy), Cemetery,

Goals:

You have a 3 dates policy before asking a sim to be in a relationship with you

Has at least 3 enemies (stop holding grudges)

Become an supernatural/occult sim

Master the martial arts and alchemy skills

Woohoo in 5 different places with your spouse

Do something inappropriate once a week

Generation Sagittarius: The Archer

♐︎ - Sagittarius you love your freedom and the adventures that come with it. You keep choosing the nontraditional path of life because you love to move past your horizons and set your own tradition. You’re brutally honest with everything and can tend to put your own desires above your own needs. As you constantly strive to be independent, you may grow distant from those who care about you the most.

Aesthetic Color: Red, Purple, Blue Traits: Adventurous, Easily-Impressed, Flirty, Animal Lover Careers: Adventurer, Equestrian, Photographer,

Goals:

Max out a visa in one country (if WA is applicable)

Have 20 friends

Have multiple partners throughout their life but only commit once as an adult

Have multiple kids from different partners (one has to be from another country if WA is applicable)

Have a horse, dog, cat, and/or other small animals in the house.

Be apart of all 3 social groups (nerd, jock, rebel)

Generation Capricorn: The Goat

♑︎ - Baaahh, you’re a goat. Smart and hardworking, Capricorn, you have a “get stuff done at the expense of your health and other things for the sake of achievement and financial gain” -breathes in- kind of motto. You’re so focused on reaching the top, you forget about the other things in life. But your disciplined perseverance and patience will reward you later in life.

Aesthetic Color: Black, Gray, White Traits: Workaholic, Unflirty, Computer Whiz, Bot Fan Careers: Inventor, Bot Arena/Bot Builder, Politician

Goals:

You don’t date until you’re an adult

You don’t get married until you reached the highest point in your career

Master the logic skill and a tech skill (inventing, bot building, or advanced technology)

Have more than 25,000 in savings (without cheating)

Have your children be straight A students throughout the childhood/teen years

Generation Aquarius: The Water Bearer

♒︎ - Individualistic Aquarius runs on it’s own beat. You have a strong desire for change and evolution to come to the world which is why you have a strong sense for social justice in order to make the world a better place. You care for others and that care might cause you to create a system of prioritizing them above all other things. While love is always a nice thing, you just don’t like the idea of being dependent on each other, so it would be nice if you don’t have to commit.

Aesthetic Color: Electric/Light Blue, White, Violet, Traits: Rebellious, Eco-Friendly, Avante garde, Commitment Issues Careers: Astronomer, Game Designer, Scientist

Goals:

Master the Street Art skill

Create a Utopia for the future and get a statue in Legacy park.

Have a friends with benefits relationship with your closest friend that results with a child

You never marry

Must live an eco-friendly lifestyle. (no dryer, bikes > cars, salvage everything, grow everything)

Generation Pisces: The Fish

♓︎ - You’re a fish out of water and the last constellation of the zodiac. You’re a dreamer, creative and very intuitive which makes you empathetic and open to other’s feelings. Your symbol is two fish because you tend to constantly swim back and forth between conflicting desires and have a bit of escapism problem . You can’t help it sometimes, it just how it makes you feel.

Aesthetic Color(s): Aquamarine, Sea Green, Lavender Traits: Artistic, Sailor, Supernatural Fan, Loves to Swim Careers: Fortune Teller, Lifeguard, Scuba Diver

Goals:

Become a mermaid/master the scuba diving skill

Marry a supernatural sim

Master the painting and writing skills

Have 2 childhood friends and keep in touch with them throughout your lives

Thank you for trying out this challenge. Feedback is always welcomed thing on this challenge.

#this took me 2 days to do #im tired now #will try it out later #sims #sims 3 #ts3 #ts3 challenge #ts3 legacy #ts3 legacy challenge #zodiac legacy challenge #anime scenery background for the win

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cloverorgan83-blog · 5 years

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QUEENS 1930s

I’ve begun to think about “stuff” lately.

Forgotten New York celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and I didn’t start on it until 1998, when I was 40 years old. This was just a few years after the World Wide Web started getting really popular; had the internet been around in the 1970s, think of how large Forgotten NY would be by now. If you’re keeping score there are 3,715 separate posts, which consist of tens of thousands of images, if you estimate ten images per page (many posts have one image but many have 100!) To cut to the chase, I’m thinking about legacy. In the immediate offing, I’m covered by the Greater Astoria Historical Society, which will continue the hosting if I’m run over by a streetcar or something. Long-term? I’m 61 now (in 2019), and hope to do this as long as I’m physically able. My energy levels are still as good as ever — I do a lot of walking and bicycling, though I can’t walk 20+ miles a day like some friends (to my frustration).

How will Forgotten New York be remembered when it ceases everyday production? Well, as a photographer and chronicler of New York city infrastructure, I’d be honored to be whispered about in the same breath as photographers Percy Loomis Sperr, Eugene Armbruster, Edgar “E.E.” Rutter, and the anonymous photographers who shot every property in New York City for tax purposes; their work can be found in the New York Public Library archives and in the NYC Municipal Archives. Their photography was primarily documentarian over esthetic: there wasn’t a budding Ansel Adams in the bunch. For esthetics, you’d be advised to turn to Berenice Abbott, who deftly managed to combine both everyday chronicling and beautiful photography, having been influenced by the great Parisian art photographer Eugene Atget and by artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. I don’t aspire to Abbott’s artistry, but I certainly aspire to the great documentary powers the other photographers I mentioned were able to achieve.

Remember, photography was an expensive, cumbersome business for all mentioned above. I have a camera with a small, thin chip in it that can record over 1,000 pictures depending on its setting, as well as a portable telephone that has an excellent camera almost as an afterthought. Street photography has never been easier. As far as modern work goes there’s Matt Weber, one of the best New York street photographers, and for night photography the best I’ve seen is Mitch Waxman, who sticks mainly to western Queens, especially the Newtown Creek area.

A few years ago, I got my mitts on nearly 1,000 photographs taken all over Queens between 1929 and 1940 primarily as a method of recording recent street paving jobs. Thus, the focus is on roadways, either those recently repaved or are about to be repaved. Everything else seemed to be done as a sidelight though, as you’ll see, some fascinating building interiors were also recorded as part of the project. I have a somewhat busy weekend with a tour scheduled, so I thought I would take a few of these and scribble something about what I’m seeing in each.

164th Street at Jewel Avenue, looking north, July 7, 1936

In the late 19th and early 20th Century, a trolley line connected Flushing and Jamaica, running originally through the farms and fields of Fresh Meadows. The above image was captured at 164th Street and Jewel Avenue in 1936, just a few months before service ended in 1937. In short order, the tracks were pulled up, the weeds paved over, a center median added, and 164th Street became the fast and furious stretch we know it as today between Flushing Cemetery and the Grand Central Parkway.

South of Grand Central Parkway the trolley line veered off 164th and rode on its own right of way to a terminal on Jamaica Avenue at about 160th Street. In the decades since, most of this trolley route has been either eliminated or hidden pretty well, but the four-lane width of 164th Street is a legacy of the route. As you can se there was one lane of traffic on the east side of the street, with the rest taken up by trolley tracks. This photo was about a year before service ended, and the line seems to be in decline, with plants and weeds sprouting between the tracks. For more information see Stephen Meyers’ book, Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island.

In the photo, the lengthy building seen on the right distance is still there in 2019.

Jewel Avenue is an unusual named street that runs from Forest Hills across Flushing Meadows-Corona Park all the way to Fresh Meadows. It’s the only remnant of a group of streets east of Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills named in alphabetical order that turn up on maps from the early 20th Century. The streets in sequence were named Atom, Balfour, Chittenden, DeKoven, Euclid, Fife, Gown, Harvest, Ibis, Jewel, Kelvin, Livingston, Meteor, Nome, Occident, Pilgrim, Quality, Ruskin, Sample, Thurman, Uriu, Verona, Webb, and Zuni; it’s likely the streets were only on the planning boards till they were built mid-century, by which time they carried the numbers (68th Road, 68th Drive etc) they do today. I don’t know why the Jewel Avenue name was kept; it’s one of the few non-numbered streets, along with Northern Blvd. and Roosevelt Avenue, that cross Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The above photo was taken by the Somach Photographic Company, which also did a large amount of work recording what NYC streets looked like in the 1930s.

Ocean Promenade (Rockaway Beach Boardwalk) at Beach 101 Street

I cropped out the date on this photo to get my optimum width, but again, it’s sometime in the mid-1930s in late April. The season is just getting started at Gobel’s hot dog and hamburger stand. Note the barrel that was used to dispense Hires’ Root Beer. Silex coffeemakers debuted in 1915 and merged with Proctor Electric in 1960, creating the Proctor Silex company, which merged with Hamilton Beach in 1990.

The photos have largely yet to see the light, but in October 2018 I walked the length of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, which aside from a short section by Riis Park near the Marine Parkway (Gil Hodges) Bridge, runs continuously from Beach 126th to Beach 9th Street (numbered streets on the peninsula get bigger from east to west). In 2012, Hurricane Sandy did a number on the old wooden boardwalk and it needed to be rebuilt virtually for its entire length. It’s now a state of the art seaside walk, but at the loss of the old “boardwalk” feel as synthetic materials were used instead of good old wood planks.

What is also missing are boardwalk-side vendors like this; I have a wealth of photos depicting these stands which numbered in the dozens. What happened to them? The closure of the Rockaway Playland amusement park in the early 1980s didn’t help, and today, not one remains. Also: “Specifically [Robert Moses’] 1939 road to nowhere called Shore Front Parkway. As part of the construction, no businesses or dwellings were allowed within 200′ of the boardwalk and a lot of homes, businesses and about half of Playland.

Capitol Diner, Lawrence Street, February 18, 1932

This E.E. Rutter photo of a roadside railroad-car style diner was taken in an era when fast food franchises such as Starbucks and McDonalds did not exist. Yet it can be said that the Dunkin’ Donuts of the world are the direct descendants of such road food stands, which evolved into steel and chrome diners. Such diners are now themselves dying out, as their owners retire and developers prefer to build multistory buildings in their footprints.

Yet, these small diners, the earliest of which were located in decommissioned railroad cars, were nearly ubiquitous even in downtown areas in the 1930s and 1940s; they’re all over scenes in the Municipal Archives linked above.

In 1969, the Department of Traffic (now Transportation) decided to rename 122nd Street, College Point Causeway, Lawrence Street, and Rodman Street under the single moniker College Point Boulevard. a short stub still bears the name Lawrence Street in Queensboro Hill. You have to be a little careful with the labeling on these photos; the “College Point Causeway” moniker only applied to the current stretch of College Point Boulevard on the diagonal stretch between 26th Avenue and the Whitestone Expressway; south of that, the bulk of the road was called Lawrence Street and that’s where this photo was likely taken.

On the ads, the Willys-Knight Company produced autos between 1915 and 1933. Willys, named for John Willys, developed one of the first “jeeps” used in World War II and the brand name survived until the late 1950s and a series of mergers. The Whippet was a popular model named for the racing dogs, in production between 1926 and 1931. And,

The Scranton & Lehigh Coal Company was one of Pennsylvania’s large coal companies, supplying the Northeast with anthracite and other coal products. The engines that powered Brooklyn ran on coal; everything from heating homes and apartments, to heating the offices, schools, and churches of the borough, to the huge boilers that powered the many factories in the city. Coal was the fuel that kept it all going until well after World War II. Even today, a coal furnace still turns up here and there; they were long lasting, powerful, but simple heat producers. [Brownstoner]

“Theater building,” Lawrence Street, February 19, 1932

Another Rutter photo from the same period, also labeled College Point Causeway, shows a former domicile that has been turned into a billboard for several local movie theaters and the features playing at the time.

On the top floor are bills advertising the Taft Theatre, opened on Main Street in 1917 Flushing and renamed after President William Howard Taft, who passed away in 1930. It was a first run theater, but could not compete with the nearby RKO Keiths and Prospect Theatres, and closed in 1955. Both the Keiths and the Prospect survived until the mid-1980s: the RKO Keiths shell building is still on Main and Roosevelt Avenue, awaiting redevelopment. The Loew’s Valencia in Jamaica has been a church for several decades, but its near-phantamagorical detail has been preserved.

As far as the features go, The Champ was a 1931 film directed by King Vidor about a broken-down boxer played by Wallace Beery (who won the Best Actor Academy Award) and his son, played by Jackie Cooper, who had a lengthy career: he played Daily Planet editor Perry White 47 years later in the first Christopher Reeve Superman. Little-remembered today, Marie Dressler earned a Best Actress nomination in Emma.

Newsstand, Cross Island Boulevard, July 22, 1938

This photo is slugged “Cross Island Boulevard” which is the former name of Francis Lewis Boulevard; when the Cross Island Parkway was built in the late 1930s, Cross Island Boulevard was renamed shortly afterward to avoid confusion.

Depicted is a typical newsstand of the period. The top shelf is full of romance and movie magazines, few of which survive today. Titles such as Popular Science, Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping are still in business today, but none of the newspapers shown, The Long Island Daily Star, The New York Sun, and the North Shore Daily Journal, are. The New York Sun was revived as a daily in the 2000s and still exists in online form.

Laurel Hill Boulevard and 47th Street, March 28, 1938

Nothing in this photo remains; the buildings on both sides have long been razed, and Laurel Hill Boulevard is now the service road on either side of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Changes were soon to come to this placid scene as the first Kosciuszko Bridge was spanning over Newtown Creek and the BQE was planned to connect Brooklyn and Queens. Once in Queens, the BQE was slated to follow the diagonal route of Laurel Hill Boulevard between the creek and Queens Boulevard, whereupon it would turn north to fork into two sections at Grand Central Parkway.

Laurel Hill Boulevard, named for a small neighborhood in Queens between Calvary Cemetery and 50th Street north of the LIRR Montauk tracks, dates back to the colonial era when it was paved with shells and known as Shell Road. It skirts the right end of Calvary Cemetery before following the BQE to Queens Boulevard.

James Gilder Bar & Grill, March 30, 1938

The James Gilder bar was located in one of the buildings depicted in 1938 that would soon give way to BQE construction.

Interborough Parkway, Cypress Hills Cemetery, January 27, 1932

The Jackie Robinson Parkway along with the Grand Central were the first of NYC’s “parkways” providing express (more or less) auto through-routing built within New York City. The “Jackie” unusually begins at the confluence of Jamaica and Pennsylvania Avenues in East New York, twisting through a convoluted route through the “cemetery belt” and Forest Park at the Brooklyn-Queens border, meeting the Grand Central at Flushing Meadows.

Here it is pictured as it was constructed in Cypress Hills Cemetery on January 27, 1932 in an E.E. Rutter photograph. Rutter chronicled the “Jackie,” which was called the Interboro Parkway until 1997 when it was renamed in honor of the first African American major league baseball player, who himself is interred in Cypress Hills. The parkway was rebuilt to handle modern traffic volumes from 1987-1992, eliminating the last traces of the original railings and overpasses seen here.

Metropolitan Beer Gardens, Metropolitan Avenue at Union Turnpike, June 28, 1933

Before the Interborough Parkway opened in 1935, narrow, two-lane Metropolitan Avenue was one of the main traffic routes connecting the Brooklyn waterfront and Jamaica. It was constructed as the Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike during the James Madison presidential administration in the 1810s and renamed Metropolitan Avenue after the Civil War. Union Turnpike (its name suggests it was originally tolled, as Metropolitan avenue had been) is a somewhat newer route and remained incomplete until the early 20th Century as an extension of Union Avenue, originally a short route in Glendale.

In the early 1930s, the Interborough Parkway was under construction, paralleling Union Turnpike for a portion of its route. No trace of the Metropolitan Beer Gardens exists today, and either the parkway construction or Prohibition (repealed in December 1933) may have done it in; beer gardens around town either went the speakeasy route or sold “near-beer” containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

PS 63, October 30, 1929

Public School 63, which still exists today in a newer building (a massive edifice at Sutter Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets in Ozone Park) is pictured in a 1929 photo by E.E. Rutter. Though it’s slugged “Linden Boulevard” I can’t be sure it was located on that street as in the early 20th Century, Linden Boulevard, which has its origins miles to the west in Flatbush, was extended east through Queens in a halfhearted fashion; today Linden Boulevard exists in a number of separate pieces in Ozone Park, regaining traction for good in South Jamaica, where it runs continuously into Elmont in Nassau County along the former route of Central Avenue.

I suspect this photo was taken on Old South Road which decades ago was renamed in sections as Pitkin Avenue and Albert Road. Indeed, the present PS 63 is called the Old South School, which might cement it for you.

Soda Candy, Rockaway Beach Boulevard, April 26, 1938

Though Rockaway Beach Boulevard was rerouted in the 1970s a block north of this location and given extra lanes, a short, one-block stretch was left over and actually this portion of the road still exists. One thing you notice about this corner grocery is the Meadow Gold Ice Cream “privilege sign” in which a company would pay for a sidewalk sign, provided its product was prominently shown on the sign (several Coca-Cola signs around town in this category still exist. Meadow Gold, which also distributes other dairy products, is still found in several parts of the country.

Smith Brothers Ice Cream, Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, East Elmhurst

One such Coca-Cola “privilege sign” can be found at this roadside grocery at Ditmars Boulevard and 23rd Avenue near Glenn Curtiss Airport, now LaGuardia Airport. In the forefront is a placard for Smith Brothers Ice Cream, a popular brand in the early 20th Century. This brand was not originated by the bearded fellows on the cough drop boxes, but company scion Richard Smith developed the Früsen-Gladjé, Chipwich, Eskimo Pie and other dessert brands.

Van Wyck Expressway at 95th Avenue, September 7, 1934

The furiously mustachioed Robert Anderson Van Wyck was the first mayor of Greater New York, serving from 1898-1901. His involvement with American Ice, a monopoly in the necessary commodity before the age of universal refrigeration, cost him his political career. Nonetheless when a major route was built between Jamaica Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard in the early 20th Century it received his name, Van Wyck Boulevard.

In the early 1950s, NYC traffic czar Robert Moses built the Van Wyck Expressway along this route from Flushing Meadows south to Idlewild, now JFK Airport. The west side of Van Wyck Boulevard was retained, while everything on the east side was demolished; the buildings ween on the right side of the photo at 95th Avenue still stand. Since hundreds of residences were retained this is one of the few Expressways in NYC that have numbered addresses.

Van Wyck likely pronounced his name with a long “why” but today, most locals use the WICK pronunciation.

Lawrence Street (College Point Boulevard) at 36th Avenue, February 18, 1932

The Flushing Main Street station is so-called because there used to be a Flushing Bridge Street station located on the Long Island Rail Road Whitestone Branch, which operated from the mid-1800s to 1932, branching from the Port Washington line at Flushing Meadows and running north and east to Whitestone Landing at the East River at 152nd Street. After the LIRR unsuccessfully tried selling the line to NYC to operate as a subway line (presumably a connection would be made to the Flushing Line, today’s #7 train) the LIRR shut it down for nonridership.

This photo shows the branch as it crossed Lawrence Street, now College Point Boulevard; the Flushing Bridge Street station was just east of here. When the tracks and signals were cleared away, the one-block stretch of King Road would replace them.

Gas station, Whitestone Parkway, July 27, 1937

Among the items seen are a coin-operated public telephone, a Gulf calendar, and an ad for the upcoming World’s Fair to be held in Flushing Meadows in 1939. The Parkway gained expressway status some years after the Whitestone Bridge opened in the mid-1930s.

I’ll get back to recent photos — but from time to time, I’ll be showing some of these classics to indicate how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. You can find much more in the book I wrote with GAHS, Forgotten Queens.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

5/19/19

Source: https://forgotten-ny.com/2019/05/queens-1930s/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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elizabethherzmann-blog · 5 years

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Week 10

If I got the choice in choosing whether or not I could be a woman in the Etruscan society or in Greece, I would choose the Etruscans every time. Unlike the Greek culture the Etruscan women attended events with their husbands, they wore nice clothes, and even jewelry. Although the quality and appearance of the jewelry depended on their social status, they were still allowed to wear it. Even the mirrors that women used were bronze and decorated with mythological scenes. Another thing that differs from Greek culture is that when women were shown in art they were sometimes seen as more powerful than men, whether that be in their divine status or age. One example of art back then that depicted a woman dominating a man was on the back of a mirror. It showed Uni nursing off her breast Herakles, in front of other Gods. Nowadays a scene such as this one would seem quite odd, but in today’s society we show women domination in other ways. It is more seen in photographs now, there are tons of women models.

One thing from the Etruscan culture that still occurs in today’s society is what they did with their deceased. The Etruscans believed in an afterlife, when someone died they kept with them most of their belongings. Such as their mirrors, jewelry, clothes, and even their weapons. Common today, Etruscans often cremated their loved ones, and put the ashes many different places. Some were placed in tombs and others were put into urns. I know a lady in a cemetery where my grandma is buried that had both her and her dog’s bodies cremated and placed in a tomb. That cemetery is the only one I have ever seen to have a tomb. They also had urns in many different styles. Many were in the shapes of houses, but all the houses looked different. A person’s ashes could also be placed in a human headed urn, which was made to look like the person that was dead. Nowadays there are many different ways people can be buried. And there is a problem arising with all the caskets in the ground. It isn’t good for the environment. A company has emerged that allows people to have their ashes used as fertilizers for trees, your family gets the tree, and it is planted wherever you wish. This is done in hopes to eliminate use of caskets and help the environment by planting trees.

The Etruscans also did many tomb paintings. Frescos have come to be my favorite art work that each culture does. I love how it shows their life story. The frescos show what they do such as their rituals, or what they do for fun, the dancing, or even when they’re morning their loved ones. Sometimes the frescos are done simply for enjoyment. But most of the time they always represent something. That’s what I love so much about ancient art. It all has a purpose for being done and everything has a meaning, even the animals found in the frescos. They aren’t just animals their life represents something in each culture. I can’t imagine how much time each fresco must take, they always have great detail and many colors.

To me the Etruscans seem to be the kindest culture. They valued their women and didn’t keep them to do house work. Their dead were laid to rest peacefully and respectfully, they buried them with their belongings so that way their afterlife was enjoyable. Their jewelry was beyond beautiful and they made many great crafts such as bridges and even dentures. The dentures allowed people to live better and feel better about how they looked.

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travels-with-chris · 7 years

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Krakow We left our apartment in Warsaw and caught the tram three stops to Warsaw East station and caught the train to Krakow. It was very busy but for less than €10 each we were in comfortable seats and had wifi. Quite a few people were enjoying g alcohol but not us as we were saving ours for arrival at the apartment. It took just under four and a half hours to reach Krakow and once off the train disaster struck, the carrier bag gave way and our litre bottle of vodka from Belarus smashed, soaking the phone charger and headphones amongst other things in the process. Once sorted we caught the tram a couple of stops, asked for directions a few times and found our apartment. After drying our adaptor we went to charge the phone and ping, the earlier vodka incident had both burnt and blown it, as well as cut all electrics. Luckily after some fuse box work we were up and running again but in need of a new adaptor. Once in and settled, we took a stroll past the river and into the Jewish Quarter. Being a Sunday night, it was busy and there was a good vibe, we stopped off for one, but that was all as a busy next day was planned. Up and out the next day, the first stop was the tourist office for a map and then to the Old Synagogue. After a stop for coffee at an impressive independent with coffees and teas from all over the world, we crossed to the other side of the river, entering the Heroes Getto Square, with giant chairs as a monument to the past. Not far from here was Schindler's Factory. It is currently two museums, the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow and Museum of Contemporary Art. As it was a Monday entry was free, though we were lucky as that days allocation had gone, but two suddenly became spare, talk about good timing. There was a short film about life at the factory, then lots to take in regarding the city itself but not too much more on the man and his work in saving 1200 Jewish lives by employing them in the factory. Heading out of the city by foot we arrived at the former Nazi concentration camp of Plaszow. Located on the site of two former Jewish cemeteries, some 30,000 people are believed to have died here at the hands of both men and women. The Nazis destroyed the camp before the Soviets reached it, there was just barren land, all bodies had been exhumed and burnt. Today it is a nature reserve, with a commemoration monument as well as ones to the Hungarian Jews and to the Polish Jews as well as Polish prisoners murdered. After a freshen up at home, we headed out for the evening and a walk along the river. We passed a statue to a dog that after his master had died whilst walking him, had stayed close to the spot for neatly a year, waiting his return, sad but at least recognised by the statue. We had seen online that there is a dragon near Wawel Hill, which breathes fire into the air and we timed it just right to get a picture. We carried on seeing the castle and cathedral lit up at night that we would visit the next day. As we walked up a busy street we arrived at Rynek Glowny, Europe's biggest square at 200 metres by 200 metres. We left the old town through what was the main entrance for many years, dating from the13th century, St Florians Gate now had a busker and a few drinks around it, whilst in front was The Krakow Barbacan, impressively lit up and also dating from this time. On our last full day here after a relaxing morning, we headed back to the Jewish Quarter for a massive slice of pizza bread, which more than set us up for the day. On our way to Wawel Hill we passed an impressive church where we were invited to listen to a free audio commentary, something new for us in our many churches. After a not too steep climb we reached the Cathedral, with free entry but no photographs allowed inside, it was still worthwhile to see the tombs of various kings and queens. Across from here is an artillery tower that for the equivalent of €1 gives access to the top and views across the city. Back at the bottom we looked in on St Mary's Basilica, containing the worlds biggest Gothic carved altarpiece. From here on the hour, a bugler plays a melody which is briefly but abruptly cut short, some say this is as a tribute to a piper was shot through the throat in 1241, when the Mongols besieged the city. After all this walking it was time to return to a tea and coffee shop for just that. Richard proclaimed his lemon tea to be the best ever and even went in to buy some loose leaf tea, the cake wasn't bad either. It was a hot and muggy day and after a quick break at the apartment, we went out to a local street food bar. The final walk saw us find a nice bar lit with fairy lights for one final drink, a good end to our stay.

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81scorp · 4 years

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Constructive criticism: Alita Battle Angel (2019)

(Originally posted on deviantart June 9, 2019)

Back in the early 2000s, when good superhero comicbookmovies were few and good live-action manga movies were non existing, I read that James Cameron was gonna turn Battle Angel Alita into a Live-action movie. It sounded cool, so I waited and waited... and finally... we got Dances with smurfcats in the wind, in spaaace, a movie that I have to admit that I like. (But then again, I like Suicide Squad.) After that movie he was gonna make Alita right? No. Now he`s making Smurfcats 2 to 4: Electric Boogaloo. I stopped waiting for Alita and looked at other movies instead.But then things started to move forward. Robert Rodriguez took over the movie and got it made before our sun died.Now... I do like this movie, it`s not bad... but it could have been better.It was very sequel baity. The romantic subplot was pretty weak but have been better if it had had more room to develop properly.If I could use Skynet`s time machine to travel back in time, avoid being arrested for public nudity and buy the movie rights from Yukito Kishiro before James Cameron got his hands on it, what would I have changed?

They could have given Nurse Gerhad some more lines, made some of the dialogue less cheesy, removed the motorball part (it wasn`t bad, just not very necessary), given Hugo some backstory, not made Vector a puppet of Nova whom they should have saved for a Mid-credit scene.It would make the plot seem less crammed, more self-contained while still have enough left to justify a sequel which should not be hammered in, but just teased without intruding on the main story. With these changes the story could have played out like this:

I will not stand by in the presence of SPOILERS! (Small warning: contains one F-word.) Plot Ido finds Alita in the scrapheap, realizes she`s alive, takes her home and gives her a robot body that he already had prepared. She wakes up, realizes she has limbs, puts on clothes, goes downstairs to meet Ido and nurse Gerhard who have just helped a patient who pays them with oranges. Alita turns out to have no memory of her past, Ido says she can stay for a while, till her memory comes back. She goes out to get more acquainted with the city that she`s gonna live in for a while. She sees Zalem, Ido explains that food comes from farms outside the city and is transported to the factories in Iron City from where they are sent to Zalem. Zalem gets most of the food and the people of Iron City get the rest. He offers her a job as an assistant and gives her a name: Alita. We get a short montage of her helping out in the clinic, moving boxes, organizing things, typical assitant job. Lunch break: She relaxes on the roof, eats an orange and meets Hugo, a boy in his late teens who does some maintenance job. It`s not love at first sight, the two talk a little and form, at most, a platonic relationship. Hugo admires the view (Zalem) and looks nostalgically at his wristwatch. Ido wants Alita to go to an address to pick up a thing that he needs. As she leaves Alita passes a woman (Chiren) who gets a good look at and recognizes her arms. Chiren talks to Ido, she wants him to join her, come work at her new lab at the better part of Iron City, she thinks his talent is wasted in this place. Ido refuses, he`s heard some bad things about the people running things in those parts. Chiren is about to leave, takes out a pendant necklace with an angelmotif, looks at it nostalgically and mentions "that girl" (Alita), she recognized Ido`s handiwork on her arms. Chiren wonders "Are you trying to replace her?" She leaves, a fancy car arrives and picks her up. Before the door closes we see Vector who looks at Ido. Alita has found the thing that she was supposed to get and is heading home, she notices something that looks like a pet cemetery, or more like a bird cemetery. She is back at Ido`s clinic, relaxing outside, eating a burrito. A dog shows up, she shares her burrito with him. Somewhere in the distance we see a spiked ring come spinning down one of the tubes connected to Zalem. (It`s in the background, Alita doesn`t pay attention to it, she`s too busy with the dog.) Later that night a woman gets killed. Ido comes home with a bloody wound, Alita sees this from her room. Following morning: Ido helps a patient, Alita wonders about his wound, Ido explains that he was clumsy, a toolbox fell on him. That same night he leaves again, Alita follows him. She bumps into Zapan. "Hey, watch it ya bimbo!" She keeps following Ido. She stops him from killing a woman but it turns out that the woman (and her two friends who show up, one of them a hulking monster named Grewishka) are murderers themselves. This life or death situation triggers Alita`s martial arts skills and she opens a can of whoopass and kills two of the bad guys. Grewishka`s arm is damaged but he survives and flees. Ido and Alita goes to a Hunter-Warrior central and Ido explains as he leaves the heads for his reward that in the old days there used to be something called the police who took care of criminals. But the way things are in Iron City that just won`t work so instead there`s Bounty hunters who takes down the criminals. He himself became a Hunter-Warrior because he needs an income and many of his patients just don`t have the money to pay him. Vector`s place: Vector talks to Chiren, he thinks it`s too bad that Ido didn`t take the offer, Grewishka crashes the apartment (literally) and needs Chiren`s help. Alita registers as a Hunter-Warrior (it`s super easy, barely an inconveience). Ido: "You did what?!" They argue, Alita storms out. Nurse Gerhad tells Ido that he`s overprotective, that girl can take care of herself. Ido says nothing. He takes out a photograph and looks at it. Alita walks through the city, she comes to an old abandoned factory with a big hole in the roof. She goes inside, lays down on the grass and stares up at the sky. Hugo shows up and tells her that the view is even better from the roof. He goes up to the roof, Alita follows him, they get a good view of the city and of course Zalem. Hugo talks about how he wants to go to Zalem, Alita finds his aspiration endearing. She opens up about how she has no memory of her past. Hugo wants to help her and remembers that once when he had an errand to do outside the city he saw something interesting. It might trigger her memory, or maybe not. They hop up on his moped and as they leave the city their faces are caught on a security camera. Outside the city Alita notices something that wasn`t in the city: birds. Hugo explains that nothing is allowed to fly within the city walls, (outside is okay but not inside) not birds or flying machines. Birds are shot down by deckmen. No one from the surface gets to Zalem for free. They come to a lake where a spaceship has crashed. Alita jumps into the lake, walks on the bottom, enters the spaceship and gets short flashback hallucinations where she sees the ship`s crew (half of them are male, half of them are female). One of the crew members opens a door through a five digit code, Alita remembers the code, she opens the door and finds a female berzerker body. She emerges from the lake with the berzerker body in her arms. Elsewhere: Chiren fixes and upgrades Grewishka`s body. Hugo gives Alita a ride home, he drops her of at her street, she smiles and looks at him as he drives away. Later: Alita wants Ido to install her into the berzerker body, he refuses, it could be dangerous. Alita understands but is disappointed. She goes to Kansas and tries to recruit a few HWs to help her take down Grewishka. (But none of that "I call to you my fellow Hunter-Warriors!", It`s a simple, straightforward request. One of the HWs is McTeauge, a cyborg with three cyborg dogs. There`s also a HW with a face tattoo and a red scarf, let`s call him Lee.) None of the HWs are interested. Zapan introduces himself and tells her why she won`t get any help. First: there`s no bounty on Grewishka, he`s checked. Second: HWs don`t join forces because the more you share a reward the smaller it gets, and HWs don`t work for free. Third: she`s a halfbaked rookie. He takes the opportunity to brag about his Damascus blade then he provokes her, she provokes him back, he wants to throw her out, she beats him, a fight breaks out, Ido intervenes. He`s angry and wants Alita to come home. An upgraded Grewishka arrives and challenges Alita to a duel, makes a hole in the floor and jumps into it, Alita jumps after him. Warpaints her face with some red mud she finds in the tunnels and fights Grewishka. Despite her courage and combat skills, Alita`s body is sliced up by Grewishka's chain-bladed fingers. He says that he`s gonna wear what`s left of her as a necklace so that he can everyday hear her pleas for mercy. Alita breaks free and jabs her remaining arm into one of his eyes. Alita: "Fuck your mercy!"

Ido and McTeague come to the rescue and force Grewishka to retreat. Ido is heartbroken when he sees Alita`s broken body in pieces on the floor. He carries her home and transplants her into the Berserker body. (In my version the Berzerker body can`t heal itself or shapeshift, It`s just very strong, durable, agile and can generate plasma from the fingers.) Ido and Gerhad rests after the procedure. Gerhad tells him that he can`t force her to live someone elses life. Ido realizes she`s right, takes out a photo and looks at it. Alita has woken up and wonders who the girl on the photo is. The girl is Alita, Ido`s late daughter. She was in a wheelchair. Ido made a robot body for her (the body that cyborg-Alita had before it was destroyed in the fight with Grewishka). One night one of Ido`s former patients broke into his clinic looking for drugs and painkillers and killed human-Alita. His wife, Chiren, took it the hardest and left him. Ido became a HW and went out on the streets at night to kill criminals. He apologizes to Alita for trying to make her live someone elses life, she understands him. A little later they run some tests on her new body, it is mentioned that she could over 300 years old. We see how her upper arm absorbs surrounding air, tranforms it into energy and lets it out through her finger tips in the form of a blue plasma flame. A cyborg (let`s call him Emmet) walks the streets alone at night. A masked gang attacks him, uses an electroshocker device to paralyze him so they can steal his backbone. The gang runs away to leave Emmet to die but one of the gang members stops, phones Ido`s clinic, tells him a cyborg is dying, gives him the address and tells him to save his life. The gang member turns out to be Hugo! Someone shows up to help Emmet, it`s Alita. Next day: Emmet is alive but he`ll have to wait until they can find a backbone for him. Till then he`ll have to stay at Ido`s clinic. Alita sits on the roof and watches Hugo drive by on his moped. Later that night: she and Ido hunts criminals. She seems distracted, one of the guys she hunts gets away, she catches up with him and kills him easily with just one punch. She realizes how dangerously strong she is and fragile the human body is. Ido suggests that they should call it a night. Alita agrees but tells him to go on ahead, she`ll catch up with him later. She jumps off into the night sky. She sits on a tall building and stares out over the city. Meanwhile: Hugo`s out walking, a fancy car stops next to him, the door opens, inside it sits Vector. He wants to have a talk with Hugo. Morning: Alita wakes up, goes for a morning walk, comes to Hugo`s place, he`s not home, she sits down and waits for him in the company of a gang of old people who seem to know him. They are worried about his obsession with Zalem. One of them asks Alita to "Knock some sense" into Hugo`s head. Vector`s car arrives, Hugo stumbles out of it half drunk, Alita takes care of him and gives Vector an angry look before he leaves. Zapan has been watching all of this from afar, still pissed that Alita broke his nose. Inside his tiny apartment Hugo is being looked after by Alita. He remembers the conversation he had with Vector last night. Flashback: Vector offers Hugo a job in the transportation business, more specifically: food transportation from the farms to the factories, an overall better choice than what Hugo`s doing now. Hugo protests and says that he`s very close to reaching his goal of collecting one million credits for his trip to Zalem. Vector asks him to reconsider, let`s say he did get there, then what next? To the people of Zalem he`d be a stranger, an outsider, there are too many things Hugo hasn`t thought of, he`s taking a big risk. Food transportation is safer. Hugo looks at his wristwatch and declines Vector`s offer. His mind is made up. Vector admires his stubborness. Flashback ends. Hugo discusses his dream of getting to Zalem with Alita. Montage of her killing some bad guys. On her way to the nearest HW central to cash in the heads she tells Ido that she plans to go to Zalem with Hugo.

Ido: "Wait, What?!"Elsewhere, Chiren`s lab: Vector wants Chiren to follow Alita around, keep an eye on her. He needs to know more about her. If she does this for him he`ll might send her back to Zalem. Grewishka is also there, pissed after having been beaten by Alita... again. Vector: "Patience, your time will come. Watch the furnitures." (In this scene we find out that it`s because of Vector that Grewishka doesn`t have a bounty on him.)Elsewhere: A lone cyborg walks the streets and gets attacked by Hugo and his gang. The cyborg turns out to be Zapan. Zapan kills Van and Tanji (Hugo`s friends). Hugo himself escapes but not without injuries. Hugo calls Vector who tells him to collect all his chips and get to his office where he`ll be safe. Elsewhere: Alita has cashed in the heads for chips, Ido talks to her, she reveals that she hasn`t told Hugo how she feels. She also opens up about her fear of literally hurting Hugo. Her berzerker body is a weapon built for combat... but not for falling in love. Zapan shows up and tells Alita that Hugo has a prize on his head, she refuses to believe it, but it`s true. She runs through the city. It rains. Chiren follows her from a distance. The abandoned factory with a hole in the roof: Hugo looks at all the chips he has collected, not enough to get to Zalem. Great, now what? Alita finds him, they discuss what Hugo will do next. He refuses to give up his dream of reaching Zalem. Alita confesses her love for him, but Hugo brushes it off. Desperate to know how he feels about her, she confronts him. Hugo admits that they are now partners in crime, Alita kisses him. A little later we see Chiren eavesdropping as Hugo reveals his past to Alita. He was raised by his brother and sister-in-law. His brother was always curious and eager to explore new things. He wanted to know what it was like in Zalem so he decided to build an airballoon. His wife (Nana) protested, not only was it illegal to build flying machines but it was also too risky, he could die. He still built his balloon in secret, in the abandoned factory that Alita and Hugo are now currently in. One day Nana asked Hugo to go to the market to buy some things, when he came back the balloon was on fire and his brother was dead. A HW was there: Lee (guy with face tattoos and red scarf). His brother`s body and head was taken away, but not his wristwatch, Hugo picked it up and kept it as a memento. Present time: Alita gives Hugo the chips she`s earned. Listening to Hugo`s story seems to have changed Chiren`s mind. The rain has stopped. Hugo goes outside and looks at Zalem. It`s finally happening, he`s finally gonna get to- STAB!

He is stabbed by Lee. Lee`s about to decapitate him when Alita comes to the rescue. They fight. Chiren watches fight from a distance. Alita defeats Lee with her plasma cutters. Alita holds a dying Hugo in her arms, someone shows up, it`s Chiren.Iron City: Alita jumps from rooftop to rooftop holding Hugo`s body over her right shoulder and something in a sack in her left arm. Zapan stops her. He`s brought a deckman with him to act as a witness. Alita opens the sack with her mouth (her hands being full) and shows Hugo`s head. The deckman confirms that Alita has done her duty. Zapan thinks someting`s fishy and throws away Hugo`s body. He sees tubes going from Alita`s chest to Hugo`s head. The deckman warns Zapan from stealing another HW`s prey. Alita steals Zapan`s damascus blade and cuts his face off with it, he stumbles backwards from the shock and falls from the roof. Alita tells the deckman that she`ll bury the head instead of cashing it in. Vector`s place: Chiren tells him Hugo was killed by a HW and that Alita`s hard to find, she`ll need more time. As she is about to leave, Vector tells her that he`ll send her to Zalem. Ido`s clinic: Hugo`s head is on a robot body. Alita tells Ido that connecting Hugo`s head to her chest was Chiren`s idea. Flashback: Chiren has already performed the procedure. She looks at her angel necklace nostalgically and tells Alita that she helped her because she`s a doctor and deep down, not that different from her: a sentimental fool. Flashback ends. Hugo wakes up, sees his robot body and that his wristwatch is gone. Ido tells Alita that the idea of buying passage to Zalem is a lie, he knows, being a former citizen of Zalem. Hugo hears all of this. Alita goes to have a talk with Vector, she takes her damascus blade with her. Vector`s place: Alita barges in and confronts Vector. He reveals that he CAN send people to Zalem, (he opens a container filled with human organs in preservation tubes) just not in one piece. Vector reveals that this is to fulfill a monthly quota that comes down from Zalem. Alita sees Chiren`s necklace, realizes who`s organs are in those tubes and wants to kill Vector. Grewishka shows up, Vector flees, Alita fights and kills Grewishka. She returns home, Gerhad tells her that Hugo is gone, Alita thinks she know where he is.The nearest factory connected to a tube that leads to Zalem: Alita has arrived and sees three giant rings with spikes on them. A deckman explains that those are Defense rings (AKA: "rat rings") an automatic defense system that keeps Zalem safe from rats and other vermin from the ground. This one has made it through three rings. Halfway to Zalem: Hugo has lost both his feet but he keeps on crawling, determined to reach Zalem. Alita has caught up to him. She tries to reason with him and eventually convinces him that they can find a way to live in Iron City together. A defense ring comes hurtling down the tube. Hugo is shredded by it and thrown into the air. Leaping after him, Alita manages to grab his remaining arm and use her blade to secure herself to the tube. His elbow joints can`t hold however and break loose, but not before he says his goodbye, leaving her on the tube clutching his forearm. The next day: They found a backbone for Emmet so now he can walk again. Alita and Ido travel outside Zalem, they place Hugo's forearm and Chiren's necklace into a basket attached to a balloon, and release it in the direction of Zalem. Mid-credit scene: A secret lab: a scientist watches the security camera footage of Alita and Hugo leaving Zalem, he focuses on Alita and eats his flan. It`s Desty Nova.

If you like Alita that`s great. This is not meant to persuade you to not like it. I like it myself.

#81scorp #alita #battle #angel #movie #editorial #constructive #criticism

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dinafbrownil · 4 years

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‘Baby, I Can’t Breathe’: America’s First ER Doctor To Die In Heat Of COVID-19 Battle

At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals.

“It’s busy ― everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,” he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. “So they are angry and disappointed.”

Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) — the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. Gabrin said he had no choice but to don the same mask for several shifts, against Food and Drug Administration guidelines.

“Don’t have any PPE that has not been used,” he wrote. “No N95 masks ― my own goggles — my own face shield,” he added, referring to the N95 respirators considered among the best lines of defense.

Frank Gabrin’s messages to Eddy Soffer.(Courtesy of Eddy Soffer)

Less than two weeks later, Gabrin became the first ER doctor in the U.S. known to have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

He is one of numerous medical workers across the U.S. who have succumbed to the virus, from doctors and nurses to paramedics and hospital food service employees. The Guardian and Kaiser Health News are launching a new project, “Lost on the Frontline,” to track them and tell their stories.

New York City-area hospitals have been particularly hard-hit. More than one-third of all U.S. cases have occurred in New York state. At a hospital in the borough of Queens, patients have reportedly died while waiting for a bed, and a temporary trailer morgue was set up outside. Physicians at another hospital system created a GoFundMe drive because they had insufficient masks and gowns.

Gabrin knew the stakes of his job. “Inside the emergency, the angel of death is in the room,” he wrote in his 2013 book, “Back From Burnout.” “The pressure is intense, yet there is a calm, a peace, like being in the eye of the storm.”

His own resilience was hard-won after several close brushes with mortality, and his marriage to a special man only seven months prior to the COVID-19 spike in New York. But circumstances around the coronavirus unsettled him. “I have to admit,” he posted on Facebook, “I am having some anxiety.”

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‘He Showed Me The Light’

Toothy and energetic, Gabrin, 60, was adored by colleagues at hospitals in Ohio, New York and elsewhere. He was loud. He always arrived at work bearing food to share. He was “a ray of sunshine,” said physician assistant Lois-Ann Welsh, and possessed the “emotional intelligence” that differentiated a great doctor from merely a good one.

“I don’t hold any fancy titles and I am not the director of anything,” Gabrin explained in his book. “But I can say that I have spent the last quarter of a century at the bedside of America’s sick, injured, intoxicated, impaired and disenfranchised.”

Born in Pennsylvania, Gabrin was a physician by calling, and his mother had photographs of him as a child tending to neighborhood dogs. His commitment to his profession was strengthened by his own illness. During his first year as an attending physician, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He survived, but it returned when he was 38. Both testicles were eventually removed ― he called it “the mutilating surgery.” Even so, he resolved to offer others the second chance that he himself received twice.

This, and an incident when a man tried to kill Gabrin at his ER, choking him so that he “started turning purple in the face,” helped lead to Gabrin’s unique professional philosophy. He described it in his book, explaining how medics can overcome burnout and feel greater compassion for their patients.

A huge shift in his life came a few years ago, when at a nightclub he met Arnold Vargas, a Peruvian who had lived in the U.S. for a decade.

Arnold Vargas and Frank Gabrin. ‘I saw [Gabrin] the happiest with Angel,’ says Eddy Soffer.(Courtesy of Arnold Vargas)

“I saw [Gabrin] the happiest with Angel,” said Eddy Soffer, using Vargas’ middle name, as Gabrin did. “All his fear dissipated and he became his true self.”

“I think it gave me a second chance,” said Vargas, now 28. “He showed me the light — how beautiful my life can be.” He had been miserable, in a rut, yet Gabrin pushed him to train in massage therapy and to apply for U.S. citizenship. There was an age difference, but to Vargas, who felt enriched by Gabrin and his experiences, it was irrelevant. “I was always thinking, ‘I just want to make you happy,’ and he did the same for me.”

They married in August 2019 at City Hall in New York.

‘It’s Not Going To Be This Way Forever’

When infections in New York surged in March, Gabrin posted a picture of ambulances crowding a hospital bay on Facebook. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is the moment Armageddon happens,’” said Debra Vasalech Lyons, another old friend. “He said, ‘No, it’s still manageable, but it’s not going to be this way forever.’”

In fact, St. John’s Episcopal in Queens, one of two hospitals where Gabrin worked at the time, was among local facilities “dealing with challenges around PPE,” said New York City Council member Donovan Richards. The hospital says it has always had enough equipment for staff.

Richards linked difficult conditions there to historical discrimination and underresourcing in the largely African American and Hispanic district. “When America gets a cold, black and brown communities get pneumonia,” Richards said. “But in this instance, we are getting death sentences.”

The other hospital at which Gabrin was employed, East Orange General in New Jersey, served a majority African American community, and also had a devoted staff that before the virus had struggled to maintain care standards.

In conversations with his husband and friends in mid- and late March, including in text messages shared with The Guardian, Gabrin said he had to reuse his PPE because he did not receive replacements. He told Lyons that he was attempting to wash an N95 mask to make it last several shifts, and that the only gloves available were too small for his hands and ripped.

When America gets a cold, black and brown communities get pneumonia. But in this instance, we are getting death sentences.

Donovan Richards, New York City Council member

Lyons mailed him gloves in the correct size from Florida, where she lives, and ordered 4 gallons of hand sanitizer for him. On Facebook, Gabrin wrote about concocting his own sanitizer from vodka and aloe vera plants.

The heads of the two emergency rooms where Gabrin worked both said they had sufficient supplies of protective equipment.

“I know for one thing he wasn’t speaking about a lack of PPE at St. John’s,” said Dr. Teddy Lee, the ER chairman there.

“If for a second I thought that was our problem at East Orange, I would tell you otherwise,” said ER chairman Dr. Alvaro Alban.

On March 25, when Gabrin arrived home, “he said, ‘Baby, something bad happened tonight,’” Vargas recalled. A coronavirus patient with whom Gabrin formed a deep connection had passed away. Gabrin took a shower and cried, then he and Vargas offered a prayer for the person’s soul.

Frank Gabrin’s messages to Debra Vasalech Lyons.(Courtesy of Debra Vasalech Lyons)

The next morning, a Thursday, they both had symptoms and self-quarantined. “It was me using the same mask for four days in a row that infected me,” he texted Lyons. Through the weekend, their cases seemed mild. Gabrin coughed and had joint aches but didn’t have significant respiratory issues. On Monday, though, Gabrin was in greater pain and spent the day in bed.

At around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, he woke Vargas and said, “Baby, I can’t breathe, help me.”

He was gasping for air in great, hoarse breaths, but could not get enough oxygen. Vargas called Lyons and 911. But by the time paramedics arrived, Gabrin was on the edge of death, or had already gone. His face had turned purple.

Frank “passed away in my arms,” Vargas said. “He was looking into my eyes.”

Vargas himself eventually recovered. On Tuesday, two weeks after his death, Gabrin will be buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens.

Owing to the need for physical distancing, Vargas was told, only 10 mourners will be allowed.

The headstone, Vargas expects, will bear a middle name that Gabrin adopted through his decades-old interest in Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. That name, Pinchas, now seems poignant.

It comes from a biblical figure who halted a plague.

This story is part of Lost On The Frontline, a project from The Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the life of every healthcare worker in America who dies from COVID-19 during the pandemic. We’ll be sharing more about the project soon, but if you have a colleague or loved one we should include, please email [email protected].

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/baby-i-cant-breathe-americas-first-er-doctor-to-die-in-heat-of-covid-19-battle/

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