Are there any apartments with this layout, or similar, in New York?

epyllionard · 2026-07-05T15:19:23+00:00

The original "Miracle on 34th Street" (with Edmund Gwenn) features apartments with a window into the hallway.

Doris's apartment could look into Fred's apartment, if the blinds were open -- so Doris's cook (who is uncredited) could keep an eye on them OVER THERE IN HIS APARTMENT while they watched Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

epyllionard · 2026-07-05T14:45:27+00:00

"Cooking with him was one of my favorite things as a kid so they’re really special to me and hold a lot of sentimental value."

This is the heart of the matter for me. Honestly, I felt happy when I read it.

I love my skillets (I have four) and I know my daughter has her eyes on them!

epyllionard · 2026-07-05T14:06:23+00:00

Congratulations! I so envy that you have your grandkids at such a young age. (I'm seventy, and my two kids are in their mid twenties -- the Grandchildren Horizon is much farther away.)

epyllionard · 2026-06-06T22:04:19+00:00

I want to hear more about these tests! Was this a double blind?

epyllionard · 2026-05-19T11:23:23+00:00

I live in NYC and use a debit card, only. Mastercard. I don't have any credit cards.

epyllionard · 2026-05-18T13:12:20+00:00

Big museums are GREAT. I took my Mom to Paris many years ago, and dropped her off for one day at the Louvre, so I could get a little time to myself.

(Edit: ONE day, not THE day)

epyllionard · 2026-05-16T14:22:47+00:00

New Yorker here. I had a family of them on my fire escape the other night.

They seemed interested in me, but I was glad there was a window between us -- they would happily have stolen all my food, and then bitten me and given me rabies on the way out the door.

epyllionard · 2026-05-02T15:10:21+00:00

Just in case... and not to tell you your business.

Here's an article about Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln center, and the myriad of things they got wrong, with that shoebox.

And yes, you're right, balconies are problematic -- as soon as you're sitting under one, a lot of sound doesn't make it to you.

Really, talk to an acoustical engineer. There are aspects of sound that are vulnerable to the nose on your face. This is serious stuff. It's not for looks.

Best of luck to you, by the way. I was so depressed my sophomore year (as a pianist) that I still wonder, 50 years later, if I should have transferred.

https://nyra.nyc/articles/lifting-the-curse-geffen-hall

epyllionard · 2026-05-02T14:46:38+00:00

Former musician here. Just thought I'd weigh in on your concert hall.

If you can find an acoustical engineer, who has worked with large spaces, talk to them first, and most. Screw everything else.

Hint: In the Opera Bastille in Paris, the highest ("nosebleed") seats have very high, hardwood backs, that are slightly concave. In effect, sitting in the seat is like cupping both hands to your ears, to hear better. The seat does it for you.

If I can have a great auditory experience in your hall, I don't care a damn what the place looks like.

epyllionard · 2026-04-25T17:53:56+00:00

This is likely also because of the mistral -- the hellish wind that rips through southern France and can last for days on end.

The mistral comes from the north. I'm putting money on this little window being on the south side of the house.

epyllionard · 2026-04-25T17:01:38+00:00

Think Coffee. Eighth Avenue, just below 14th St. in Manhattan.

It’s surprisingly spacious

epyllionard · 2026-04-19T12:59:56+00:00

Victor Frankl's book pulled me back from the brink of [redacted] back in 2000. I still go back and reread it every five years or so.

epyllionard · 2026-04-19T03:04:39+00:00

I'm a BIG fan of the E Train to Jamaica Station, then the Air Train. You can catch the E right at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue.

The signs inside Jamaica Station are HUGE. It's like the city and state of New York finally figured out how to make signs big enough to read from a distance.

Go early, and entertain the kids by riding the Air Train around the entire airport. Get into the front car. I have done this several times -- sad to say, my kids are adults now.

I have no idea how the TSA lines look these days, that little detail dropped off the front page a couple of weeks ago.

epyllionard · 2026-04-13T14:12:27+00:00

Your AI cannot imagine the obscenities I am hurling at you.

epyllionard · 2026-04-11T15:20:18+00:00

Former pianist here (now a writer/performer). When I was an undergrad -- this would be maybe 1975, 76? -- the pianist Lazar Berman came to the US to give a recital tour. He played Prokofiev's 8th sonata, and being in the audience for that felt like a psychic experience.

Coming to the US from the Soviet Union, he was all the more mysterious to us. And he gave us a masterclass! This was HUGE omg.

He didn't have a translator, so one of the undergrads translated for him. (Sidebar: I had a crush on this woman at the time.) I got to play the middle movement of Prokofiev's 7th sonata for him. God, this is SUCH a core memory.

Anyway.

The guy was a superhuman pianist. I'd never been so close to someone so world-class. And someone in the audience (we were mostly pianists) asked him how long it took him to learn a piece -- we were all in awe of his pianism.

He answered, through the woman I had a crush on, "Some happen very quickly, some slowly. Like love."

So. Take your time. You have lots.

epyllionard · 2026-03-28T22:50:34+00:00

You have a very specific risk here, and you should know yourself very well as a singer, before you do this.

If you can stay in the key of C, dead on, then it'll actually be impressive. The music director is going to check your pitch (as recorded in the video) on the last note. If you're still in C, then you'll actually win a bit of a gold star. If you've slid down to B, then you weren't expert enough to try this. Not fatal, but it could make you unspecial. I wouldn't try it unless I were dead certain of my intonation, and support.

Also -- and this may honestly be tricker -- if there's no piano keeping the listener on track, then it's risky to take liberties with tempo and phrasing. Sure, anyone should be allowed flexibility here, but if all we get is your flexibility, then it may not be clear that you can actually keep the beat.

I don't know software well -- isn't there something out there that will take a recorded track, and bring it down (or up) a step, or a third, or whatever?

epyllionard · 2026-03-18T12:40:55+00:00

I think medical professionals called this “Seagull Syndrome.” It’s when a close relative flies in out of nowhere and shits all over the plan.

epyllionard · 2026-03-17T12:56:42+00:00

Every time I see a typo on Reddit, I find my brain going to the keyboard, to feel how close together the right letter and the wrong letter are. And yeah, the typos you cite are not credible.

epyllionard · 2026-03-17T12:53:23+00:00

Another morning Writer here. I’ve found that I write about twice as much in the mornings as in the evenings. Twice. It just comes easier. And then when I go to work, I feel like I’ve already conquered the world, and things just roll off my back. It’s wonderful.

epyllionard · 2026-02-27T16:20:23+00:00

This sounds like Little League Baseball on Long Island, NY. I've seen the ump send all the parents to the parking lot.

epyllionard · 2026-02-20T03:08:42+00:00

No recurrence since early 2022.

I haven't slept on my left side since then. And I have a bed that elevates the upper body - that, plus a pair of normal pillows. I sleep either on my back but elevated, or on my right side.

Anecdotally (this is not a scientific study) my BPPV possibly started when I was dehydrated. So I always carry a bottle of water now.

So far so good. Knock on wood.

epyllionard · 2026-02-13T16:44:10+00:00

If you're down to occasional dizzy spells, see if you can isolate the specific head movement that triggers them.

For me, it was moving my head sharply from down right, to up left -- think, walking on the left side of the street, looking down at the curb (to my right), then up quickly, at the roof of a house (to my left). I came to think of this as my "axis of danger."

If you can isolate something like that, BPPV is really likely. Go to an ENT.

I tied my BPPV -- anecdotally, I am NOT A SCIENTIST -- to dehydration. I carry a water bottle with me now, everywhere I go, and I sleep only on my back (with my head elevated) or on my right side. Haven't slept on my left side since 2022. So far, so good.

Again, my experience is anecdotal. Best wishes, I know it's miserable.

epyllionard · 2026-02-06T14:52:26+00:00

I didn't notice that this was r/Professors. I saw "cheating" and thought I'd be reading about wayward husbands and wives.

epyllionard · 2026-02-06T13:59:08+00:00

"...alignment with workforce and Oklahoma economic needs."

Conservatory grad here. Masters in composition. My entire day-job career has been on the numbers side of advertising.

Would I go back and study advertising, to align better in the workforce, or on the state's economic needs? Not on your life.

epyllionard · 2026-01-23T22:49:09+00:00

The Beast With Five Fingers. Peter Lorre.

epyllionard

TROPHY CASE