#New York Public Library Main Branch

[rabbitcruiser]

Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8, 1984.  

[redgoldsparks]

I've got a few events upcoming next month! 

LUMACON- February 3 2024, 10am-4pm Petaluma Community Center, 320 N McDowell Blvd Petaluma, CA 94952. This event is free and open to the public!

PRIDE IN PANELS- February 18 2024, 12pm-5pm, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102. This is the first of a new annual queer comics event partly hosted and organized by publisher Silver Sprocket. In addition to the show day, there will be a queer comics reading at Silver Sprocket Friday February 16 from 7-9pm, and a showing of the documentary No Straight Lines at the at the Hormel LGBTQIA Center Reading Room in the SF Public Library’s Main Branch from 2-4:30pm. More info on those other events here. 

I'm also speaking at the SF Writer's Conference on February 17, but that event is extremely expensive. If you are going, find me and say hello!

I'm also going to be honored with an Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Bravery in Literature in a ceremony on February 17. The award ceremony will be held at the Fisher Center at Bard College in New York. I decided not to attend the ceremony in person, but when I saw the lineup of other authors being honored that evening, that decision was sorely tempted... Judy Blume, Laurie Halse Anderson, Mike Curato, Alex Gino, George M Johnson, and Jelani Memory will also receive awards. I wish I could meet all of them in person! If you want to attend, tickets are on sale now for the ceremony.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

OMG, this 1928 Tudor mansion in Akron, Ohio is absolutely magnificent. It has 4bd., 5ba. -  $925K.

The lions at the entrance are amazing aren’t they? They remind of Patience & Fortitude, the lions in front of the New York City Public Library. 

And, look at the black stones on this home.

The original door looks like a castle entrance.

Wow, look at the patina on this wood- it’s light in the middle and branches out to a darker tone. The carpeting looks new.

Isn’t this elegant? I would call it a ballroom, but it looks more a magnificent sitting room. 

Castle-like symbols on the leaded glass doors.

And, check out the stunning kitchen. Marble counters, gorgeous cabinetry with leaded glass doors, a wine cooler, and a professional Viking stove, to name just a few features.

Rich wood of the arched doors.

Wouldn’t this make a fabulous conservatory? Notice the balcony above the doorway. 

I don’t think that this beautiful staircase is the main one, but it’s so pretty.

Look at this feature. I wish they would’ve shown more of interior- so frustrating.

And, I also wish they didn’t take the exteriors photos on a dreary, rainy day.

The home is on 3.83 acres.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/871-Merriman-Rd-Akron-OH-44303/35443672_zpid/

[kaiyves-backup]

On Monday, my Mom and I went into the City for dentist’s appointments. Our teeth were in good shape, so we were done in there pretty quickly and got to spend the rest of the day hanging out in the Bryant Park area in the nice weather.

We had Indian food for lunch and we got to play mancala in the park (there was a cart where you could borrow board games for free as long as you played where the attendant could see you!) with the tulips blooming all around us. We walked up to West 44th Street to peep in the windows of the New York Yacht Club (shhhh), and then got to say hi to the lions at the New York Public Library’s main branch and see their art exhibit about the Arctic. It was just a really, really fun day.

[cult-of-the-girl-offensive]

Find someone who talks about you like Lenin talked about the New York Public Library:

"I have before me the report of the New York Public Library for 1911.

That year the Public Library in New York was moved from two old buildings to new premises erected by the city. The total number of books is now about two million. It so happened that the first book asked for when the reading-room opened its doors was in Russian. It was a work by N. Grot, The Moral Ideals of Our Times. The request for the book was handed in at eight minutes past nine in the morning. The book was delivered to the reader at nine fifteen.

In the course of the year the library was visited by 1,658,376 people. There were 246,950 readers using the reading-room and they took out 911,891 books.

This, however, is only a small part of the book circulation effected by the library. Only a few people can visit the library. The rational organisation of educational work is measured by the number of books issued to be read at home, by the conveniences available to the majority of the population.

In three boroughs of New York—Manhatten, Bronx and Richmond—the New York Public Library has forty-two branches and will soon have a forty-third (the total population of the three boroughs is almost three million). The aim that is constantly pursued is to have a branch of the Public Library within three-quarters of a verst, i.e., within ten minutes’ walk of the house of every inhabitant, the branch library being the centre of all kinds of institutions and establishments for public education.

Almost eight million (7,914,882 volumes) were issued to readers at home, 400,000 more than in 1910. To each hundred members of the population of all ages and both sexes, 267 books were issued for reading at home in the course of the year.

Each of the forty-two branch libraries not only provides for the use of reference books in the building and the issue of books to be read at home, it is also a place for evening lectures, for public meetings and for rational entertainment.

The New York Public Library contains about 15,000 books in oriental languages, about 20,000 in Yiddish and  about 16,000 in the Slav languages. In the main reading-room there are about 20,000 books standing on open shelves for general use.

The New York Public Library has opened a special, central, reading-room for children, and similar institutions are gradually being opened at all branches. The librarians do everything for the children’s convenience and answer their questions. The number of books children took out to read at home was 2,859,888, slightly under three million (more than a third of the total). The number of children visiting the reading-room was 1,120,915.

As far as losses are concerned—the New York Public Library assesses the number of books lost at 70–80–90 per 100,000 issued to be read at home.

Such is the way things are done in New York. And in Russia?"

- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, "What Can be Done for Public Education" (1913)

[barid-bel-medar]

Fun fact about libraries and NYC; there's actually three different public library systems.

Best known one is the NYPL or New York Public Library. Aka they of the marble lions. They service Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. The best known part of it is the Main Branch Building (where the marble lions are), which is at present a research library.

Queens is then served by the Queens Public Library. It's existed in some form or other since about 1858. For all I live in Queens I think I've only been in a Queens public library location three times in eight years. Large swaths of the collections are in languages other than English; Queens is actually one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world.

Brooklyn is served by the Brooklyn Public Library. It's been around in some form or other since the 1850s. I have never actually been in a branch location since I've never had the need to use a library while in Brooklyn. The main branch of the BPL is the Central Library and has over a million items catalogued between various collections.

(You don't need to have a library card for each system; they're independent but if you have a card for one you can use it at the others)

[ariel-seagull-wings]

FICTIONAL CHARACTER ASK: RAY STANTZ

Asked by anonymus

@amalthea9 @angelixgutz @thealmightyemprex @goodanswerfoxmonster @spengnitzed @bixiebeet @themousefromfantasyland @stantzed @filmcityworld1 @professorlehnsherr-almashy

Favorite Thing About Them: Ray is one of the first dorky geeks that was proud of his geekness in visual mass media. He is optimistic, resilient, outgoing, curious, sometimes shows concerns and reservations, but when pushed into a new situation, he jumps with entusiasm at the adventure, and he loves to share his passion about the supernatural with people, and even if he appears at the wrong hour, or some people are just not interested and may judge him as a "weirdo", he never looses his entusiasm or acts ashamed of who he is. A lot of people in the audience would love to have him as a friend because of how quick he is to embrace new people into his life, and he is also one of the first plus size characters that many fans to this day consider phisically atractive, wich should be considered an important mark in the Body Positivity movement.

Least Favorite Thing About Them: When in the novelization of the 1984 movie, there was an insertion of "Innocent Insensitivity" in his character in a scene where he reacts surprised for Winston being black, saying that "the supernatural reacts more strongly in the presence of black people". I hope Winston had a talk with Ray about the concepts of positive discrimination and exotification, and why they are harmfull, in private after that.

Three Things I Have In Common With Them:

*I enjoy the taste of roasted marshmallows as a comfort food;

*I love comic books;

*I have a fascination with mithology and folklore from around the world;

Three Things I Don't Have In Common With Them:

*I'm too easilly frightened to want to make physical contact with a ghost;

*I don't drive;

*Both of my parents are still alive;

Favorite Line:

From the October 1983 Script Draft:

"Drop everything; Venkman. We got one."

"Peter, at 1:40 this afternoon at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, ten people witnessed a free-roaming, vaporous, full-torso apparition. It blew books from shelves at twenty feet away. Scared the socks off some poor librarian."

"No, this one's for real, Peter. Spengler went down there and took some PKE readings. Right off the top of the scale. Buried the needle. We're close this time. I can feel it."

"Spengler and I have charted every psychic occurrence in the Tri-State area for the past two years. The graph we came up with definitely points to something big."

"What do you mean by "seen?""

"Well, I was at an unexplained multiple high-altitude rockfall once."

"I told you it's real."

"Okay. Okay. I got it. I know what to do. Stay close. I have a plan."

"Okay, now do exactly as I say. Everybody ready?Okay... GET HER!!!"

"I guess I got a little overexcited. Wasn't it incredible! I'm telling you, this is a first. You know what this could mean to the University?"

"Then we were right! This is great. And if the ionization rate is constant for all ectoplasmic entities, I think we could really kick ass - in the spiritual sense."

"You said you floored ‘em at the Regents‘ meeting."

"My parents left me that house. I was born there."

"But at nineteen percent interest! You didn't even bargain with the guy."

"Wow! Does this pole still work?"

"Are you troubled by strange noises in the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? Have you or your family actually seen a spook, specter or ghost? If the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. Just pick up the phone and call the professionals —— Ghostbusters."

"Everybody can relax. I found the car. How do you like it?"

"Just needs a little suspension work...And a muffler...And maybe brakes."

"You know, Peter, this could be a past life experience intruding on the present."

"I just realized something. We've never had a completely successful test with any of the equipment."

"All right. Let's cool the negative vibes. These things can sense them."

"Sir, what you had there was what we refer to as a focused, non—terminal repeating phantasm or a Class Five Full Roaming Vapor...A real nasty one, too."

"I couldn't help it! It just popped in there!"

"It can't be! It can't be!"

"It's...It‘s...It's the STAY-PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN."

"I tried to think of the most harmless thing...something that could never destroy us...something I loved from my childhood."

"The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! He was on all the packages we used to buy when I was a kid. We used to roast Stay-Puft marshmallows at Camp Waconda!"

"Either way we're history."

From the novelization of the 1984 movie by Richard Mueller:

"It's not a car, it's an Ectomobile."

brOTP: Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, Dana Barrett, Louis Tully, Slimer, Jake, Buster, Louise, Irena Cortez, Bryan Welsh, Ilyssa Selwin, Melanie Ortiz, Kylie Griffin, Eduardo Rivera, Walter Peck.

OTP: Winston Zeddemore, Elaine Phermon, Jenny Moran, @amalthea9 OC Peggy, @spengnitzed OC Michelle.

nOTP: Kylie Griffin.

Random Headcanon: In the 2009 videogame, Ray briefly mentions that he went to study in a Seminar, so I assume he was raised Catholic.

Unpopular Opinion: I wish he made use of the camera that he appeared at the beggining of the 1984 movie more often, as a way of documenting the ghosts behaviours, maybe even interviewing them. Is a pity that this filmaker side of Ray never went furter explored.

Songs I Associate With Them:

Frankenstein Twist

Monster Mash

I'm a Believer

The Night

Ghostriders in the Sky

Favorite Picture of Them:

Dan Aykroyd in the 1984 movie

His design in the pilot and first two seasons of The Real Ghostbusters

[seriouslycromulent]

I went to see the new Ghostbusters movie today and ...

... I just want to make a quick correction mentioned in the dialogue.

Minor Spoilers lie beneath --

.

.

.

The two lion statues outside of the main branch of the New York Public Library (aka the Stephen A. Schwarzman building) are indeed named Patience and Fortitude.

However, when Winston was yelling at her at the police station, he said it was Fortitude that got destroyed. It was in fact Patience that got destroyed (which when you think about it, was apropos of the scene).

If you're facing the front entrance along 5th Avenue, it's Patience on the left and Fortitude on the right. An easy trick to remember this is Fortitude is the lion closest to 42nd St.

That is all.

[flyingwide]

hello i have been up and writing for 2 hours. it is 6:30am. have a snippet of our Miss Frey’s curiosity getting the better of her

She’d scored some tape off of the teller and had secured the dust jacket in place. Nothing to think about there. The book probably wasn’t even still in the library, if it had ever been referring to the NYPL in the first place. It had probably been weeded before she was born. Waste of time.

Sat at a cafe patio, she carefully peeled back the newly-applied tape to check the numbers, plugging them into the New York Public Library’s catalog. A generic colored rectangle with the name in white print stared up at her, the real cover unavailable. There was no ebook or online access but it was available and on a shelf at the Main Branch.

Well. It wasn’t like Midtown was far. She could be in and out in 15 minutes. Just to see. It was probably just a trashy 80s romance novel about fucking a fallen angel or something. That had been in fashion in the mid-00s and had probably been popular before. Just to check and then she’d never have to think about it again.

[rabbitcruiser]

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day

For hundreds of years, lighting a candle has been a way to show respect for those that have died. This beautiful gesture shows that although someone may be gone from this world, their memory will endure, and the light of their flame will continue to inspire and guide others.

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day is a celebration of solidarity and memory. It’s a day on which people around the world gather to light candles for children who have died and to show that they will always be loved and never forgotten.

The candles are lit at the same time in every time zone, meaning that a consistent warm glow passes around the planet for a full 24-hour day.

Learn about Worldwide Candle Lighting Day

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day is a day where friends and family come together to remember children who have left this world too soon. There is no greater loss than that of a child, and this day brings together everyone who has experienced the heartbreak of losing a child. It is a day of understanding, support, and friendship. While it may be a sade day, it is also a day of hope, helping people to realize that there is still life after losing a child too soon.

The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives.

As the name of the day indicates, everyone on this day comes together to light a candle. This is a symbol of life lost. Everyone lights their candles at 7.00 pm in their local time zone. This results in a beautiful wave of light, traveling around the globe from time zone to time zone. It is believed that this is the biggest mass candle lighting in the world. It had humble beginnings, starting as a very small observance, but now there are hundreds and hundreds of formal lighting events that take place, as well as thousands of informal ones.

History of Worldwide Candle Lighting Day

Worldwide Candle Lighting Day was a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friend. The Compassionate Friend’s Worldwide Candle Lighting Day started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance in honor of children who lived tragically short lives for any number of reasons, from sickness to accidents, to war, but has since spread throughout the world.

Nowadays, hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held in many different countries and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.

Many organizations join in to observe this holiday, some f which are local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers, and remembrance services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand over the years since the creation of this special day. All of this just goes to show how necessary it was to set this day aside for this purpose.

How to Celebrate World Candle Lighting Day

As mentioned before, this day is celebrated with a quiet elegance: at 7 p.m. local time, people light candles for one hour to remember their loved ones. It is a moving occasion that bypasses geographical and cultural divides. As everyone lights their candles at seven pm local time, far-flung parts of the world get illuminated in turn, so that eventually the light has moved all around the globe.

If you have experienced the loss of a child in your lifetime, this is a good moment to honor his or her memory by taking part in the candle lighting. You could also invite some close family members to spend this time with you and light their own candles for the late child.

This doesn’t only have to be a sad occasion, however. Children’s lives are mostly filled with fun and laughter, so reminiscing about all of the things the child you are honoring managed to enjoy before he or she passed may serve to lighten the atmosphere up a little bit.

Of course, nothing will ever make up for the loss of a child, but there is some solace to be taken in the fact that the child’s life was a good one, however short. No matter whether you’ll be lighting a candle at home or joining a gathering Worldwide Candle Lighting Day it is a way to show love and community.

You can take a look online to see if there are any events that are going on in your local area. If there are, this is something that you should be able to find online with ease. Simply do a quick search for events happening in your local area. If your community has a local Facebook group, you should also be able to find the information on here. If there are not any events going on in your area, why not be the person to organize one?

If you have not had the awful experience of losing a child, whether your own, a grandparent, a friend’s child, or anyone else, you can use this day to provide support for people that have. You may know someone who has lost a child. If not, you could show your support by providing friendly and caring messages to people who post their personal accounts of tragedy online. There are also charities that have been up to help parents cope with the loss of a child, and so you may decide to donate or fundraise for one of these charities. You can also volunteer your time.

Finally, it is always good to raise awareness about the event itself. You never know who may not have heard about Worldwide Candle Lighting Day, and this day could end up bringing some hope to a lot of people’s lives, so it’s good to spread the word. People may not feel as lonely when they get together with their community to embrace this act. You can post messages on social media with information about the day in general, as well as including any information about candle lighting events that are happening in your area.

Source

[ebookporn]

A Degenerate Assemblage

Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America 

by Anthony Grafton

New York​ was a great book town in the 1960s. You could buy new books in English at the elegant Scribner shop on Fifth Avenue, new books in French at the Librairie de France or Rizzoli, and old books in German at Mary S. Rosenberg’s austere, packed shop on Broadway, where neither I nor another obsessive friend could afford $100 for a first edition of Winckelmann’s history of ancient art. You could pick up New Directions poets in the Village, Hebrew seforim in Brooklyn and German magazines in Yorkville. If you wanted rarities, you could browse the dusty, chaotic secondhand bookshops on Fourth Avenue and Broadway. At the dustiest and wildest of them all, Dauber and Pine on Fifth, one of the owners sold me a 17th-century Latin book on Druids that I couldn’t afford at half-price (‘rainy day special’, he explained). Higher-end bookshops offered incunabula and Aldines, first editions of Gibbon and Austen to discriminating buyers who had real money.

If you didn’t, you could explore the riches available in public collections. New York Public Library branches were stuffed with new fiction and old treasures, which anyone could borrow or read. Anyone over eighteen could explore the marble labyrinths of what is now called the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building: a palace of the people on 42nd Street, traditionally known as the Main or Central Branch, with its encyclopedic holdings. In the reading room, battered but still grand, readers waited for their number to appear on the indicator – the library ran on steampunk systems, which supposedly included ‘pages’ on roller skates traversing the stacks at high speed. There I inched, pen in hand, through the huge folio volumes, bound in buckram, of the 18th-century edition of Erasmus’s complete works. An untidy man who studied the racing form with equal care sat at the same varnished table, warmed by the same fading beams of the pale city sun. When my father felt depressed, he would visit the print room and look at a Dürer. The Morgan Library, the New York Academy of Medicine and Columbia’s rare book collections served those with more specialised needs.

New York couldn’t compete with London or Paris: it had no bouquinistes, no Farringdon Road, no British Library or Bibliothèque nationale de France. It lacked the quaint bookshops of Boston, where the staff seemed to know not only the books they sold but their 18th and 19th-century authors, not to mention Harvard’s Widener Library. But it was still a city of books, collectors and readers. Every good secondhand bookshop offered guidance for neophytes: A. Edward Newton’s chatty books about his bookish adventures; Holbrook Jackson’s erudite Anatomy of Bibliomania, a comprehensive treatment of obsessive book-buying in the manner of Robert Burton; and sometimes even a copy of Carter and Pollard’s Inquiry into the Nature of Certain 19th-Century Pamphlets, the exposé that dished Thomas J. Wise, forger of rare editions. It all seemed to contradict the rants of intellectuals about the barrenness of American culture. Many of the angelheaded hipsters whom I met busied themselves in learning Old Church Slavonic or translating Rimbaud. Meanwhile, pioneering scholars like Barbara Tuchman, Frank Manuel and George Whalley mined gold year after year from the lodes of ore in the libraries.

READ MORE

[kaiyves-backup]

New York Public Library Main Branch, including the Awe of the Arctic exhibit. (That’s Robert Peary’s sextant!)

[mariacallous]

If you proposed it now, at any town council or city hall meeting, you would be laughed from the room. The concept is almost unthinkably indulgent, in our austere times: an institution, open for free to anyone, that sells no products, makes no money, is funded from public coffers, and is dedicated solely to the public interest, broadly defined. And it’s for books.

If the public library did not already exist as a pillar of local civic engagement in American towns and cities, there’s no way we would be able to create it. It seems like a relic of a bygone era of public optimism, a time when governments worked to value and edify their people, rather than punish and extract from them. In America, a country that can often be cruel to its citizens, the public library is a surprising kindness. It is institution that offers grace and sanctuary, and a vision of what our country might one day be.

To the eyes of a modern American, it can be a strange, even disorienting vision. For one thing, public libraries are unusually beautiful places, the kind of buildings that make you feel underdressed. In many American cities, the public library ranks among the most ornate and stately fixtures of downtown. They’re erected in early-20th century high style, like the Egyptian revival building at Los Angeles’ Riordan Central Library, or Boston’s neoclassical McKim building. Or sometimes they’re modern monuments to an ongoing investment in public services, like Seattle’s fantastic main branch, a gleaming structure in glass enmeshed in steel latticing.

How different these buildings are from the architecture of other American government buildings – from the flickering fluorescent hells of the DMV, or the windowless, prison-like encampment of many public schools. The only public buildings that rival our libraries in beauty are courthouses – but what happens in libraries is much nobler and less vulgar.

Over the past year, I began working in the public library for the first time in my freelance career, regularly making the subway commute from my apartment in Brooklyn to the 42nd Street flagship branch of the New York Public Library. No matter how often I went, every time I mounted the steps to the entrance, passing between the two famous marble lions – nicknamed Patience and Fortitude – that gaze out across Fifth Avenue, I was always a little nervous.

The building felt beyond my station, as if I was about to get caught doing something I shouldn’t. As I settled into my seat at a broad hardwood table and opened my laptop beneath the chandeliers, I always half expected a suited security guard to arrive and ask me politely but firmly to leave. But what is so precious and stupefying about the public library is that no one ever does. I have a right to be there – not because of any institutional affiliation or job or paid subscription, but because I’m a New Yorker, a regular person, in a city that has decided to honor its people with this place.

There are a lot of indignities to American city life, and maybe there are especially indignities to life in New York. There is the indignity of the crowded and dysfunctional subway system, where the cars are packed so tightly at rush hour that my face is regularly crammed into the armpit of a stranger just as the conductor comes over the speaker to tell us we’re being rerouted impossibly far from where I need to go. There is the indignity of the city’s dirtiness, where huge heaps of garbage emit nauseating smells in the summer, and where in winter the streets are filled with brown slush and puddles of mysterious liquid whose provenance you don’t want to know. There is the indignity of the price of rent.

But the public library offers an almost otherworldly dignity, a sense of purpose and seriousness that falls over you when you enter. The silence of the reading rooms begins to feel like the reverent hush of a temple.

The majesty of library buildings is matched only by the nobility of their purpose. The public library does not make anyone money; it does not understand its patrons as mere consumers, or as a revenue base. Instead, it aspires to encounter people as minds. The public library exists to grant access to information, to facilitate curiosity, education, and inquiry for their own sake. It is a place where the people can go to pursue their aspirations and their whims, to uncover histories or investigate new scientific discoveries.

And it is available, crucially, to everyone. It costs nothing to enter, nothing to borrow – in New York, and in many other cities, the public library system has even eliminated late fees. All the knowledge and artistry of its collection is available to the public at will, and it is a privilege made available, without prejudice, to rich and poor alike.

There’s nothing inevitable about this egalitarianism; it was perfectly possible that libraries could have remained permanent bastions of the elites, as they were before a wave of public and charitable investment – and democratic sentiment – established public libraries across America in the decades after the civil war. And the kind of dignified, edifying sanctuary for thought and curiosity that they provide could easily again become the sole provenance of the rich.

Library budgets are constantly being cut; in New York, Mayor Eric Adams has proposed draconian, multimillion-dollar year-over-year reductions to the public library system’s operating costs, the kind of drastic withdrawals of support that will inevitably force some locations to close.

But the optimism and respect for the people that is represented in the public library is worth taking into the future with us. The public library makes a proposition that’s still radical: that learning, knowledge and curiosity are for everyone, and that the annals of history, literature, science and art might not be just an indulgence of the privileged, but an entitlement of citizenship.

[anthrofreshtodeath]

I’m going to Boston in a few months. Any recs on must-sees and food spots?

Hmm, if it’s your first time, do all the touristy stuff. Here’s what I’d recommend sight-seeing/event wise:

1) Fenway Park - no brainer! Even if the Sox aren’t in town or it’s the off-season, take a tour. The history is rich and it ends with a pretty cool museum walkthrough.

2) the freedom trail - this is a lot of fun and some of the tour guides are super funny and knowledgeable. This is a nice primer for the most famous lore of Boston.

3) Boston Public Library (main branch in Copley Square) - the library is huge and the architecture is a lot of fun to look at. Best part? The Triumph of Religion mural by John Singer Sargent.

4) Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and MFA Boston - the Gardner is great for more Sargent pieces, as well as the heist that took place there decades ago! You can see where the missing paintings used to hang. The MFA has a stunning Kehinde Wiley in addition to lots of great exhibits.

5) the USS Constitution - this is a cool thing to see on a trip to Charlestown, especially if you’re already there to see the Bunker Hill monument. The Consitution has a cute interactive museum that’s pretty informative about the ship and its travels.

6) the Museum of African American History - right in the heart of Beacon Hill! Learn about Beacon Hill’s history as a Black neighborhood and the legacy of Black resistance in the city of Boston.

Honorary Mention: TD Garden - a sports cathedral (go to a C’s game if you can!), a day trip to Salem (I named my kid after the place it’s so much fun!), Jamaica Plain’s Latin Quarter (patronize some local latine businesses and eat some bomb Dominican food), the North End (little Italy - cultural hub!)

And some food places I’d recommend:

1) Archie’s New York Deli in Downtown Crossing (by Macy’s) - go for breakfast. Their deli sandwiches are good, too, but the yahoo breakfast sandwich is like an egg McMuffin on crack. So tasty. They even have homemade ketchups and sauces!

2) Bova’s bakery - I’m a simple bitch for this one but oh god is this place good. Gotta go for: a lobster tail, a cannolu, or ricotta pie. Or if you’re like me, all three and a cookie on the side.

3) Carmelina’s- another famous North End place. What can I say? I’m a sucker for good Italian. Get the Sunday macaroni. You’ll thank me later.

4) Parziale’s bakery - time for more baked goods. And while you’re at it, grab a slice of Sicilian style pizza to go. It’s so fucking good.

5) Zoe’s Chinese Restaurant- go out to Somerville for these bomb soup dumplings.

I’m sure there’s so much more food out there to try! These are the best things I remember eating off the top of my head. And if you’re at Fenway, have a Fenway Frank, please. And a sausage and peppers from one of the carts outside. The guys’ll be sure to tell you how much cheaper it is to buy from them than inside the stadium.

Have tons of fun!

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

A Different Kind of Magic - chapter one: a quiet beginning

a Doctor Strange x OFC fic

(based on roleplay with @doctorstrangeaskblog)

summary: A fascinating stranger enlists the help of librarian Beauty Lincoln for some research he is doing on a some haunted pieces of property in New York City's Hell's Kitchen. They eventually strike up an unlikely friendship, which strengthens once he decides he can trust her, and she inadvertently discovers his day job involves magic and mysticism. And all the while Beauty is falling in love with the charming, albeit enigmatic man. Will Stephen Strange catch on to the many ways she tries to tell him what she's feeling--and will he someday come to feel the same way for her? This story is based on an ongoing role play with a Doctor Strange blog, @doctorstrangeaskblog. Occurs pre Infinity War.

characters: Stephen Strange, Beauty Lincoln (OFC)

rating: general audience

word count: 2.1k

Alone in the fourth floor stacks at the end of her work day, Beauty’s mind had gone woolgathering, thinking about the very handsome, very distinguished looking gentleman who had so well occupied a portion of her afternoon.  His interest in those reference books-–which she was now shelving–-had been both rare and unusual, piquing her curiosity as to exactly what he’d needed them for.  Those particular texts were some of the oldest in the Library, and as such, they could not be lent out, let alone be removed from the fourth floor.

Moreover, the man had seemed to understand their intrinsic value without needing an explanation or word of caution, and he had handled them much more carefully than most patrons she had previously assisted with similarly aged materials.  Beauty realized this was due in part to the tremors evident in his badly scarred hands–-but she believed it was more out of respect for the age and nature of the books themselves.  Which, of course, would have been enough to make her like him-–even if their initial interaction hadn’t already intrigued her.

She’d been typing up the monthly figures on patron usage and materials circulation, when a man stepped up to the desk and cleared his throat to get her attention.  “Ms. Lincoln?” he had asked in a deferential tone (having read the name plate on her desk), and she had looked up from her laptop screen into a pair of blue-green eyes that immediately struck her as both wise and patient.  And which had somehow made her sit a little straighter in her chair, as though she wanted him to see that she was worthy of her title as Head Archivist of the main branch of The New York Public Library.

Her fingers paused their tapping of their own accord as she turned her full attention on him.  “Yes, that’s…that’s me.”  The left corner of his mouth ticked up into the precursor of a smile, and that made her want to smile back.  “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Yes, please…” he had begun, and Beauty had listened to him describe in detail what he was looking for.  Even as her mind began to formulate the search parameters she would need to locate what he required, she was watching him, surprisingly entranced by the fine crinkles at the corners of his remarkable eyes and the extraordinary angles and planes of his finely chiseled face.  Intelligent, well-spoken, exceptionally polite, on top of being tall, dark-haired, and handsome–why she couldn’t remember the last time she’d encountered a man in this hodgepodge of a City that ticked off so many of the qualities on her wish list, and on first impression, no less!  

The streaks of white at his temples and his meticulously trimmed mustache and goatee added an air of sophistication that reminded her of the romantic leads in some of her favorite romance films.  Olivier’s Maxim de Winter.  Plummer’s Captain Von Trapp.  Colin Firth in just about anything.  And even Branagh’s Roman Strauss from the 90′s flick, Dead Again.  Beauty could only hope those very uncharacteristic thoughts did not flit across her face.

She had nodded once he had concluded, confident that she could gather the reference books he wanted in short order.  She already had a fairly good idea of the general area to look, and hitting the search bar on her laptop confirmed her hunch.  She closed her computer and stood up as she explained, “Those stacks are for library personnel only, Mister…”

“Strange,” he replied, without missing a beat,

“…Mr. Strange,” she continued, a little surprised at his unusual surname, “But you are welcome to wait here while I track down what you’re looking for.”  She motioned to a set of four, evenly spaced tables at the center of the room, only one of which had been currently occupied.  “While I can’t allow the materials to leave this floor, as long as I or one of my assistants is manning this desk, you can study them at length”

“Sounds perfect,” he nodded, and this time he did smile--crookedly, genuinely, and in Beauty’s humble estimation, quite charmingly.

“This will probably take me about ten minutes or so, Mr. Strange--if you’ll excuse me?”

“Of course.”  He had tilted his head as an acknowledgement and headed over to take a seat at the table nearest her desk.

It had actually taken Beauty a bit longer to collect the books than she had expected, including two trips up the five step, rolling access ladder to retrieve items from the top shelves of separate rows.  No one’s looked at these in years...at least not during my tenure, she thought, wondering if Strange’s interest in the buildings in Hell’s Kitchen was architectural.  She couldn’t imagine any other reason, except that his request for land ownership records going back before the American Revolution didn’t fit with that theory.

Task accomplished, she wheeled the small book cart containing the materials out to the public area of the Reference Floor, where she found Strange perusing a recent copy of The Lancet--which he must have found in the unbound periodical section.  That seemed curious--unless he was a 21st century version of a Renaissance man, with interests and skills in multiple areas of study.  

Beauty parked the cart beside Strange’s table, and then laid a pair of white cotton gloves before him.  “If you wouldn’t mind,” she told him, eyeing the dark network of scars marking his hands.  Hands which otherwise would look like an artist’s--a sculptor’s, a painter’s, or perhaps even a surgeon’s--leaving her to wonder what sort of accident or event could have wreaked that level of damage.  “Some of those pages are quite fragile, and we like to keep them protected from even the slightest contact with the oils occurring naturally on skin.”

“Right,” he said quietly, almost to himself, picking up the gloves, “A wise precaution...”

Although he had looked determined to follow her request, Beauty quickly realized the gloves she had provided would be a tight fit, “Oh...hold on a moment, Mr. Strange.  I think I’ve got a larger pair in one of my desk drawers.”  She moved swiftly to check the bottom drawer, and was relieved to find exactly what she needed, returning to him with a fresh pair, wrapped in cellophane.  “These will probably be better for you,” she told him, offering a conciliatory smile and tearing open the packaging to save him the trouble.

Strange looked up at her gratefully as she handed the gloves over, though he also looked a little sad, “Thank you, Ms. Lincoln...for everything.”

Beauty’s heart went out to him; she supposed his days must be filled with little moments such as this, when someone overlooked that his injuries might require a different approach to everyday tasks.  “You’re very welcome, Mr. Strange--and please don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything more I can do for you.”

“Will do.”  When he smiled this time, it seemed to Beauty as though sunshine had broken through cloud cover.  She could well imagine there were few women--like herself, anyway--immune to that sort of easy charm.

Over two hours later, her newest patron appeared to be finishing up his research.  While going about her work, Beauty had been sneaking occasional looks his way, checking on his progress as he’d been taking notes on a small legal pad.  Now, Strange set his pen and paper aside, and stripped the gloves from his hands; he’d closed his eyes and was stretching his neck to either side after being hunched so long over those old texts.  She meandered over, on pretext of collecting several periodicals which another patron had discarded on a neighboring table.  They were now the only two people in the room.

“So--were any of those materials helpful?”

He opened his eyes, and even before he answered, Beauty could tell he was pleased with the results he had gotten.  “Absolutely--exactly what I needed,” he stressed.  “You know, far too many people think that everything can be solved with a quick Google search.  But I’ve found that--old-fashioned as the concept may be--books really are irreplaceable.”

She had grinned, exclaiming, “Right? Too few people get that these days.”  Beauty perched on the edge of the table, close enough for a cozy conversation.  “I get at least a half dozen kids a week--college age and high schoolers--who have no idea that Wikipedia isn’t the be-all, end-all of research.”

“Well, they’re missing out,” he agreed, “There’s a lot to be said for the tactile sensation of book in hand, as opposed to studying off of a computer screen or even a tablet.  And something quite comforting about the idea of generations of students before us having succeeded by using the very texts we hold in our hands today.”

Here was a man speaking intelligently about one of her passions--however was she too resist?  Beauty wanted to know more about him.  “It sounds like you’ve experienced that close at hand.”

“Oh, yes,” Stephen chuckled, angling his chair to face her more comfortably, “Years and years.  Undergrad.  Medical school.  And years later...a, uh...well, let’s just say an unexpected change in careers.  All made possible by the knowledge collected in countless copies of these...”  He patted the pile of books on his table.

Hmmmm...well that explains The Lancet...but he also said ‘change in careers’.  Intuition told her that such a change might have had something to do with his hands--and about that, Beauty felt it would be poor of her to pry.  “Well then...Doctor Strange...”  He favored her with a wee, sideways smile.  “I’m very glad for the opportunity to have helped you today.  Especially considering that you have such an honest appreciation for the written word.”

“And I’m glad to know that the City has such a savvy, dedicated guardian for some of its most valuable--albeit hidden--treasures.”  Strange stood up, and extended his hand to Beauty.

She felt a sudden flush color her cheeks as she realized he was likely offering a unique opportunity.  That given the way his hands shook, and that their disfigurement might also come with some level of discomfort, his proffer might be a rare thing indeed.  Beauty smiled shyly and gave a little shrug before gingerly taking his hand.  “You’re very kind to say so, Doctor...”

Quietly amused, he leaned a little closer to her, his voice dropping low and confidential, “It’s Stephen...please...”

“Of course...Stephen.”  Beauty lowered her eyes; she felt a little breathless, with such a charming, handsome man so close to her.  So close, and with her hand still softly cradled in his.  No need to let go, anytime soon, she was thinking, this is really...really...nice.  She dared look back to him, and could have sworn from the look in his mesmerizing eyes that he had caught a drift of her thoughts.  “Um,” she swallowed, “Please do come by again if there’s anything...anything more I can do to help.”  And maybe we could grab a cup of coffee in the cafe downstairs...

Strange gave her hand a little squeeze before releasing it.  “You can count on that, Ms. Lincoln,” he grinned, “If not for research, then perhaps we can talk books some more.”

Beauty had nodded, feeling a little tongue tied, and he had turned to go--but at the elevator just outside the glass doors past her desk, he turned around and gave a little wave, an she waved back.  A quiet departure, to be sure, but one that left her rather wistful and wishing with all her might that this fascinating gentleman would have a reason soon to revisit the sanctum of the fourth floor.

Having finished returning his materials to their proper places, Beauty saw that there were only minutes left to closing time.  Her preoccupation with Doctor Strange (Stephen, she reminded herself dreamily), and wishing that she’d had the actual courage to invite him to join her for coffee, had caused her to lose track of time.  Back at her desk she began to shut down for the evening, planning to hit the lights just before she locked up.  She took one last look around, to be sure that everything was in order--and spotted a yellow legal pad sitting on the table that Stephen had vacated.

Well now, isn’t that lucky for me?  I suppose he’ll have to come back sooner or later to collect his notes.  She picked it up, vowing not to be nosy, though she did notice his note-taking appeared rather sparse--and in the tradition of doctors, barely legible.  More hopeful than curious, she tucked his notepad in the top drawer of her desk, grabbed her handbag from the bottom drawer, and headed off for home.

To be continued...and yes, Beauty is her actual name.

My heartfelt thanks to @doctorstrangeaskblog - for all the fun we have together and for providing a Muse for this story. Oh- and for the gorgeous edit of Stephen and Beauty together, at the top of this post. Don't they make a handsome couple! xx

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