2026-05-31: A FREE AND BOOKISH DAY IN QUEENS

Over the weekend, I spent Sunday mostly in Queens.  With my old friend Dorothy from A.R.R.O.W., I joined NYC H2O in removing invasive grasses at the Ridgewood Reservoir, in Ridgewood, Queens NY.  It was a beautiful day to be outdoor.  Breezy, sunny, clear sky, a great day to be outdoor, before New York muggy summer arrives.

I was going to make a stop in Glendale, Queens to drop off some books for a Little Free Library that was recently cleaned out.  Some people are just horrible.  Take a book, leave a book, or if you cannot leave a book, take a few books, but NEVER EVER take everything.  It's either a little kid who doesn't know any better and needs better parenting, or some evil person who planned to somehow sell the books.  It turned out I couldn't find the post.  I had an idea of where the LFL is, I thought on Cooper Avenue, but without knowing for sure, I scrapped the idea of a side trip.  I was running late anyway, so that sealed the deal.

I still ended up visiting a few bookish places by the end of the day.  The first place was the LFL at American Legion 2414 on Metropolitan, near Ascan Avenue.  I dropped off some books, took two, one was a cookbook, a salad cookbook, that Dorothy liked, so that became a present for her.  Next, after dropping off Dorothy at her home, with a parking spot across the street, such an unusual thing to see in Sunnyside Garden, I walked over to the Sunnyside Books and Media Swap.  The Swap is a book exchange magnified many times!  There were a few tables or books, then more in bins on the ground, then even more on a table labeled Last Chance.  The typical book actually has a suggested donation fee of $2.  Children's books are free, but donations welcomed.  The Last Chance table has totally free books.  There's also a sign that says if you are broke then take the books for free.  It's New York City, at any point in time, there must be someone who is broke.  Free books, what more do you want!  I was hoping to pick up a copy of a DVD by Stephen Chow, ideally Kung-Fu Hustle, but I would settle for Shalin Soccer, too, but that day they only had books and LPs.  The donation bin had some puzzles, but I have no room for that.  On the way to the Swap site, I happened across the Amplify Library.  It's actually part of a small network of LFL-inspired boxes, but focused on black, indigenous, and people-of-color authors.  I actually have been stocking books by Asian authors for my home-grown book exchange, but I didn't have any with me for the Amplify Library.  Lastly, just by chance when I went to visit a friend in Jackson Height, on the notorious 34th Avenue Linear Park, there were some books spread out on two tables, free to take but donation also sought.  It may be there all day already, I was at the friend's apartment for only half an hour or so, when I went back to my car the tables and books were gone.

Four different locations for "free" books!  A bona fide totally free Little Free Library, a little library with the same principle but with a focus on black authors etc, a donation-suggested mega-library, and lastly just some person's attempt to recycle some books with a simple ask for donation.

SOMETHING WEIRD THIS WAY CAME

This weekend, I finally finished the book Something Wicked This Way Came by Ray Bradbury, whew.  Mr. Bradbury was probably best known for the book Fahrenheit 451.  I think I read that book, or maybe listened to some audio version of it.  I expected another sci-fi book out of Wicked, instead it's a very weird book.  Something about a mysterious traveling circus, just mystical, no sci-fi, no dystopia.  Most of the time it felt like reading a thesaurus.  Some character just wouldn't do something, instead they do it in multiple ways, a whole bunch of synonyms. I felt if all the synonyms are removed the book would be just half the length.  It reminds me of another book, a classic, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.  I need to find an actual book to finish.  I read it in parts, via some Classics app for the iPhone.  Didn't finish it, then resumed via some online web site.  I was at a job that involved deploying computers for some bank branch, but the computers didn't get delivered.  For a week or two I just showed up with nothing to do.  Still I couldn't finish the book.  The latest attempt I involved the Libby app for the iPhone.  Twice I had to renew it but still not finished it.  The similarity between 20,000 Leagues and Wicked?  Instead of synonyms for verbs or adjectives, 20,000 Leagues mentioned many types of fish and sea creatures.  Again, if mentions of the many types of fish and sea creatures are omitted, the book wouldn't be so long.

Anyway, having finished Wicked now I need to focus on the next "book".  It's a book-on-CDs borrowed from Brooklyn Public Library, Jodi Picoult's By Any Other Name.  I already renewed it a few times, hopefully I will be able to renewed it again.  I no longer have a CD player in the car but I have a portable DVD player that works fine with audio CDs.  It's just a bit annoying having to charge it daily to make sure it has enough juice to play a disc during my commute.  I am up to disc #4 now, still 11 discs to go, yike! 

URBAN CHILDCARE

Went for a walk to drop off books at the book nook at P.S. 97 and the battered one in Seth Low Park.  The one at P.S. 97 is usually empty whenever I visit it, but one time I found the book "Humans of New York", so it has a special place in my heart.  Hopefully whoever that take the books from the box either keep them or at some point return them, instead of trashing them.  For the box in Seth Low Park, I referred to it as battered because it has been subjected to much abuse.  Early in its life, it was actually knocked over.  It got rebuilt, but not long afterward its plexiglass pane was cracked.  Some time later, the entire plexiglass glass came off so the box's content was, and is, at the mercy of the elements.  On those occasions I visited Seth Low Park, the box would either be empty or has garbage in it.  Yesterday, it actually had a few books, so today I decided to add some to it.  Again, I hope the books are taken to be read, to be enjoyed, and not soon tossed away because they were free.  Some people just have no concept of community, it's all take-take-take with them, never about giving anything back.

It was a nice day so I decided to sit on a bench at Seth Low Park and watch the book box.  I am always curious who take the books and what how they handle them.  After seeing so many messy boxes, I don't have too much faith in humanity, but still I hope to see some kid getting excited finding a book that they like.  Not today.  Instead, on my way out of the park, I witnessed something that could be scary.  I overheard a guy talking to his toddler about staying in the playground area.  Another toddler who was referred to as "my new friend" by the first toddler, was already out of the playground.  Heading out of the park, into traffic!    I stopped to watch, in case I need to spring into action to scoop up the kid.  Luckily, his mother came calling to him, pushing a stroller.  Only then the second toddler turned around and went back into the playground area.

Some years ago I witnessed something even scarier.  At the corner of Bay Parkway and 85th Street, I think I just finished withdrawing money from the Chase Bank at the corner and was walking home along 85th Street.  A toddler dressed only in diaper trotted the other way toward Bay Parkway.  He actually got onto the roadway, halfway across the two-way road, and fortunately for him a man stopped his car and scooped up the baby.  A short time later, a frantic mother came running to the baby.  It could have been worse.  Ever since then, I became more tuned to wandering toddlers.  I could have stopped the baby before it got on the street, but I didn't act fast enough.  Today, I was ready but it wasn't necessary to get involved.

SQUID GAME, AT LAST

 

I am a frugal person, most of the time, anyway.  If there is a movie or a book I want, I would first check with the public library if the item is available for borrowing.  Enjoy the item then return it, zero dollar spent.  Then came the streaming services, the fragmented streaming services, to be exact.  To watch this movie you would need to subscribe to this service because no other services carry the movie.  I am no fan of monopoly but the whole situation is ridiculous.  Some years ago when the Netflix series "The Squid Game" was all the rage, my wife wanted to watch it but we didn't have the streaming service.  We still don't.  We have cable TV and we already barely use it, I see no point in getting into streaming service.  We survive.  Fast forward to the present, about a week ago at a free swap meet, someone donated a 3-disc set of Season 1 of the show!  It sat unwanted for a few minutes, then I snatched it.  It is a screener copy, probably something distributed to a limited test audience for feedback.  At the beginning of each disc, you are required to acknowledge that you would not copy, hold public performance, give away, etc the disc.  Oh well, it's been many years later, I suppose none of that sticks anymore.  I just looked around on the web, there are a few offers of the same disc set on eBay and elsewhere.  

Each of the three disc contain three episodes, for a total of nine episodes.  This past Friday and Saturday, I started watching the series and duly exercised self-restraint to not binge it.  The idea of people being killed in "games" is not new.  Many years ago I read "The Most Dangerous Game" in junior high school, although my English wasn't good back then I am not sure I understood what was going on.  Then along came The Running Man with Arnold Schwartzenegger.  More recently we had "The Hunger Game".  Killing of human beings for entertainment purpose.  Admittedly, I was entertained, although more annoyed, too, by the characters who sorta brought it upon themselves.  Just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper into the hole.

One thing I couldn't help thinking of is... Epstein Island.  There is no limit in what the rich and powerful will do and can get away with if the people let them.  It is entirely possible the girls that were abused on Epstein Island were in some sort of troubles and Epstein seemed to provide a way out, so they took the chance.  Maybe by the time I finish the Squid Game hopefully in real life the guilty parties of the Epstein scandal will suffer consequences.  Art imitates life, sometimes life is stranger than fiction...

MARCH MEET-UP FOR BUY NOTHING BB/G BROOKLYN NY

 For those local to Brooklyn's Bath Beach / Gravesend area:

HAKKA

Regrets, I have a few. Actually, probably many, I am nowhere as perfect as Mr. Sinatra. The regret I have in mind at this moment is that I didn't meet my late father's expectation of learning the Hakka language.As you may know, Chinese has the main language, Mandarin, but many dialects. Cantonese is a popular dialect thanks to Hong Kong, Toisan is well-known because of the many early immigrants. Then there's the Hakka people and their dialect, the Chinese for which literally means "guests". Supposedly they were displaced by other more aggressive Chinese and had to live in lousy places, when they visit civilizations they were treated as guests. So the story goes. Both my parents' root trace back to some Hakka villages. Two separate ones, I have to ask my mother the name of said villages. To make things even more complicated, I learned from my friend Robert, that Hakka people from Taiwan has their own variation! (Yes, same Robert from whose mother I learned how to make those origami boxes.) Anyway, it was a challenge I just couldn't meet. I learned some Mandarin in school, spoke Cantonese with the neighbors, but my late father wanted all the kids to speak Hakka at home, instead of Vietnamese. In the U.S., we next had to learn English, and slowly through disuse my Chinese, dialect or otherwise, just became forgotten. I know at one point one a sister of mine had a notebook with many Hakka phrases written down. I am going to try to use modern technology to make some recordings of whatever I still remember. I made a quick search on the web and came across some web site that probably tries to sell lessons, as the phrases they show were long and spoken at a fast pace.

Strangely, perhaps because of the humorous aspect of it, one phrase in Hakka I remember more clearly is the one in the video. Translated with much poetic license just to have the rhyme in place with no regards for meters and such, it goes

Fart
If you can, do your part
If you cannot, then depart








COMING UP NEXT: PROOF THAT LIZZIE BORDEN WAS A HAKKA.

PAT

For some road runners, the route is the same everyday. A few loops around Prospect Park, a few trips up and down the waterfront by Belt Parkway, a few times around Lafayette High School, you get the idea. I cannot do that anymore. I did start out that way, the block of Scarangella Park was my go-to route. Eventually I went all over, I need to see something new, something different with each run. Lately, I feel better if I go somewhere further out. Today, it was the Little Free Library on East 71st Street in Bergen Beach. I like that area because the B3 bus takes me there, no need to drive and pay through the nose for gasoline. The walk from the bus terminal to the LFL was my warm-up. With Saint Patrick’s Day being the day after tomorrow, I thought writing his shortened name would be fun to do. I have neither the stamina to spell the full name, “Saint Patrick”, nor the room to fit that many letters.

In case you wonder, no, I didn’t climb over some fences to make the letter “a”. It is a little trick of pausing and resuming the tracker, in this case Strava app on my smartphone. While heading toward Avenue X, I paused the app when I was about midway through East 72nd Street. Then I ran back on East 72nd to Avenue W toward East 71st Street. About midway down 71st Street, I un-paused Strava. The computer only knew that I was last on East 72nd Street and that I now re-appeared on East 71st Street. There are many ways to get from Point A on E. 72nd to Point B on E. 71st but the shortest distance is the straight line, so that was what the computer chose. Everything else involved actual running.