A monthly blog about the sensory experience of New York City

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

SIGHT: Seven Random Delights

This month, I offer a smattering of small sights around the city that make me happy every time I see them.


1. 167 Concord Street, Brooklyn

White picket fence, white “clapboard,” white birch tree; red shutters, red car, and red no standing sign: perfection.


2. Clothesline poles at sunset, Carroll Gardens

Few people use these poles—or clotheslines—anymore, but still they climb into the sky, rusty pulleys and scraps of rope still clinging to them.


3. PUSH door handle

On art deco building on Fifth Avenue in the Forties, the letters nestle so neatly.



4. Old subway-line names

On the platform at the Dekalb Avenue station in Brooklyn is an illuminated sign (which still works) listing these old names: recite them out loud and they roll off your tongue like poetry: “Fourth Avenue Brighton Sea Beach West End.”


5. “Brown”stones on St. Felix Street, Fort Greene

Colors like a box of macaroons.


6. Arrow-theme wrought-iron fencing

Complete with fletching.


7. Construction workers’ breakfast orders

Scribbled on a two-by-four scrap: “Bagel Jelly Iced Cup French Vanilla Bagel Butter” for these hardworking men.