Infinite America, Part 5: On the joys of being Captain Asoh
Where we've been so far:
Part 1: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018825480
Part 2: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018825709
Part 3: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018825986
Part 4: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018826315
Captain Kohei Asoh was a World War II veteran of the Japanese air force who was employed as a captain for Japan Air Lines. On November 22, 1968, he landed a DC-8 in San Francisco Bay - so gently they were able to fish the plane out of the ocean, repair it and fly it for 32 more years. He then ended the NTSB investigation of the incident by telling the panel, "as you Americans say, I fucked up."
I tell you about Captain Asoh because I pulled an Asoh while writing this: I had a really nice post going, and then I closed the window and erased it all. Aargh! So...attempt number two follows.
I left Boston at 8:30 in the morning and arrived in New York about four hours later. Unfortunately, the sky was so cloudy and dark along the route I couldn't get any good pictures. (Note to all: ISO 400 film is Good.) I arrived at Penn Station just in time for lunch, and visited NY Pizza Suprema, which is right across the street from Madison Square Garden. There I learned the real reason genuine New York slices taste so much better than "New York Style pizza" anywhere else: it's the oven. Bake greasy pizza in a cast-iron Real Pizza Oven for fifty years, and the aromas from those millions of pies will saturate the pores in the metal to produce a flavor you'll never get from one of those hot-air atrocities people who've never been to New York attempt to make "New York style" pizza in. Word to the wise: Never eat New York pizza if you aren't in New York.
Manhattan is a Las Vegas Casino Buffet for the eye. The hardest part of photographing there isn't finding photos, but in holding yourself back.
Another of the (very few) pictures I preplanned: the Brooklyn Bridge - which everyone knows about - is in the foreground, the relatively unknown Manhattan Bridge in the background.
This is the side of the Brooklyn Bridge's Manhattan approach. Does anyone know why there are doors in it?
How do you get a "different" look at Yankee Stadium, one of the most-photographed things in New York? Set up in a side window of the subway station, of course!
(And be sure to get a ground-level picture of it too...)
Under the subway is also...well, interesting.
The moral of this story: New York really needs a full week.
Tomorrow: Off to Denver.
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ETA: Aren't the doors the entrance to Robert Moses' former headquarters, a.k.a. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority ?
