Neighborhood: September 2005 Archives

Before abrooklynlife moved to Luquer, the neighborhood street name always had me puzzled, but I'd never given it much thought. Once we picked the apartment, however, things became more serious. I'd have to pronounce the name of my street for many months (years?) to come! After bringing up the pronunciation to our broker (we were paying her, after all), she definitively pronounced it Loo-QUEER. Being that she's lived in the neighborhood all her life, I decided to give that pronunciation a go. Turns out (at least to the power and gas company) living on a street pronounced Loo-QUEER is the equivalent of having the last name of Focker. The explanations and repeated spellings didn't seem worth the effort, so I took to calling it Lu-KER. Still, whenever I say it, it doesn't seem quite right. In my last post about Dennett Place, a reader reminded me of this vexing dilemma, and I thought we'd put it to the test to solve it once and for all. Just how do you pronounce "Luquer"?

(Update: Voting has ended)

The scent of Mazzola Bakery's just-cooling loaves is one of the reasons I love a late-night walk down Henry Street. I find Henry's quiet Carroll Gardens blocks some of the most old-school in the neighborhood--old and young men hanging outside of social clubs, teenagers chilling outside of the ice cream and gelato store, entire families conversing on stoops. It's nice to see a street retain its character while undergoing the nip and tuck of progress. First Nino's renovates its pizzaria.  Then the long-empty space next door transforms into a new restaurant, Royal's Downtown. And it looks like the windowed building catty-corner from the pizza place will open soon as Aroma Bagels.

Tucked between Court and Smith streets on its west and east and Luquer and Nelson streets on its north and south, this mini street has mini houses with mini doors! Lately I've taken to imagining Brooklynified hobbits living in these mini lairs (quite possibly because I'm re-reading The Hobbit).

Late night in Carroll Gardens ...

Update: More of Ellis G's work over at 423smith and CityNoise

Does anyone know what these mysterious boxes on Smith Street are? There are three of them sitting in a row  on the west side of the street. Naturally the cross street has slipped my mind (still getting back into the swing of things), but I think it's between Union and Sackett. It's at the corner of Union and Smith Street. If you notice, someone has graffitied a question mark on the circular "door" of the one on the left. Thoughts?

While on a walk through the neighborhood today, D. and I heard a very strange squawking and looked up just in time to see a flitter of bright green swoop through the air: Our first sighting of the Brooklyn parrots. We'd only recently heard about them from my parents in Atlanta who'd read an article about the enclave at Brooklyn College. I couldn't find that article, but did find some great photos of the brightly colored birds at Forgotten New York. There's also an awesome blog, aptly named BrooklynParrots.com, that has more photos, a bit of history, a Google map of where to find the little critters--plus you can take parrot tours! I'd like to know if there's any way to attract the parrots to one's backyard. I'd get quite a thrill to see a parrot taking a dip in my backyard bird bath.
(The photo is from BrooklynParrots.com).

So my sister who lives in Cobble Hill called me last night. She's babysitting someone's car, and and she was frantic. After half an hour of circling the neighborhood, she had finally found a parking spot not on a Thursday side of the street, but it was near a fire hydrant. So she asked me how close she could get--I say 15 ft on either side--and she replies, "How do I know what's 15 feet?" I tell her that  she's a little over five feet tall, so she could imagine three of herself, laying down on the ground, and that would be 15 feet. Being the practical girl that she is, and not wanting to get a ticket or have her friend's car towed, she proceeds to lay down on the ground three times to get the distance right. Meanwhile, this dude is walking by her giving her bizarre looks, so she asks him if he thinks she's too close to the hydrant, and he says, "No, I think you're fine," but I don't think he thought she was fine.

As it does every year, BAM has a great Next Wave Festival planned for the fall. General admission tickets went on sale September 6, so now's the time to buy. I've already snagged tickets to the China Ballet's version of Raise the Red Lantern, which is sure to be great as it's directed by Zhang Yimou. Bright Abyss also looks cool, a kind of circus tale directed by the grandson of Charlie Chaplin, James Thierree.

I do not toss around the phrase, "world's best hummus" lightly, but Sabra really is the best store-bought hummus I've ever tasted. Everyone I've recommended it to (and there have been plenty of recommendations along the way) has loved it. And it's a local brand, distributed by Blue and White Food Corp in Astoria, New York. The creamy, tasty, addicting, dinner-killing hummus comes in a wide variety of types: classic, tahini, roasted garlic, spicy, etc., and each of them is better than the next. Two places in the neighborhood to purchase: at the natural foods store on Court Street between 3rd and 4th Place, and at Key Food on Atlantic (where they have an entire refrigerated case devoted to all the different kinds of hummus--I'd also like to take this opportunity to say what's up with that Key Food not having a chip aisle--crazy!). Enjoy the weekend with a big bowlful of hummus.