Origin Story
Manhattan was the first part of New York City to be settled by Europeans when the Dutch West India company established a permanent outpost on the southeastern tip of the island in 1624. There they built Fort Amsterdam to defend the community, and from there the population slowly moved north. New Amsterdam fell to the British in 1664, who renamed the settlement New York. Even though most of the island was well north of the area that the settlers occupied, from that time the city and the island of Manhattan were essentially the same, until New York City in 1874 began annexing parts of what is now the Bronx.
Encyclopedia of New York City, Yale Press, 1995
The Morris
My Take on San Francisco vs New York City
A Healthy Attitude
One thing everyone dislikes about some "New Yorkers" is that they have a tendency to think that everywhere else that is not New York City might as well be Winchestertonfieldview Iowa from Mr. Deeds. I had unreachable expectations for NYC, and then walking around NYC made me feel as if I needed a new scale because it exceeded everything I could ever want it to be.
I heard almost no English spoken while walking around. The entire city speaks every other language, I heard French, Spanish, Swedish, pretty much every other language but English. I got my NYC slice of pizza from a Mexican pizzaiola and ordered it in Spanish. I felt that Katz was manipulating me somehow because I had no idea how to order, or where to pay, and I sorta stood around looking like a lost idiot for a moment not knowing what to do after getting my sandwich. But then after the first bite I realized that Katz just ruined pastrami and quite possibly sandwiches for me for the rest of my life. I felt every emotion all at once on that first bite, by the third bite I thought it was the best $35 meal I've ever had and my entire life made more sense. I both loved it, and hated it at the same time and thought I was getting a good deal. I will never have a first bite of a Katz pastrami ever again, and that kind of makes me sad.
It was kind of funny when I retold my Katz pastrami story to my aunt who used to live in NYC and is from NJ but hasn't been to Katz in probably 40 years. She asked "They used to serve these small pickles that were delicious with their sandwiches? do they still do that?" I responded "Yup. Probably the same recipe because you just don't mess with perfection like that."
Only NYC can do that to someone. It's kind of odd to remember a sandwich 40 years later. But that principle applies to everywhere I went in NYC, it is all just way too much, there is something awesome around every corner, and then something better around the next, and so on.
Making this little online tribute to NYC made me remember this old Youtube video I made a few years ago back when eliminating "Toxic people from your life" was in.
I think people should take a page out of NYC on that issue. It's totally acceptable to be a complete jack ass on occasion. If you are not angry, frustrated, or good and properly pissed off at something or someone at times then there's probably something wrong. You can be both hated and despised by some people and also be a good person that everybody loves.
Everybody Loves NYC.
History
A small street in lower Manhattan that runs for less than a mile between Broadway and the East River along what was originally the northern edge of New Amsterdam. About 1653 a small wooden wall was built there as protection against possible attacks by the Indians, the New Englanders, or the British. The weak wall was never tested in battle before the British demolished it in 1699, but the street itself became famous when its junction with Broad Street became the site of the New York Stock Exchange. Wall Street eventually became synonymous with high finance, and the term came to refer not so much to the narrow street itself as to a type of business. The great collapse of the stock market in October 1929 is often referred to as the Wall Street crash. Wall Street has been the site of one major tragedy. On 16 September 1920, just as the bells of Trinity Church struck noon, a terrorist bomb exploded beside J.P. Morgan and Company at 23 Wall Street, killing thirty-three persons, mostly clerks and stenographers, and injuring more than four hundred. Those responsible were never identified, but scars from the explosion remain visible in the stonework of Morgan Guaranty Company.
Encyclopedia of New York City, Yale Press, 1995
More Wall Street History
...On Evacuation Day (25 November 1783) he returned triumphantly to the city to observe the final departure of the British troops, and he bade an emotional farewell to his officers at France's Tavern on 4 December. He returned to the city just before his inauguration at Federal Hall (26 Wall Street) as the first president of the United States on 30 April 1789, he took up residence on Cherry Street, and from February to August 1790 lived in larger quarters at 39 Broadway, where his wife, Martha, supervised a household of twenty one servants, among them seven slaves. After the national capital was moved to Philadelphia he left New York City for the last time in October 1790. Washington's name is borne by more than a dozen of the city's streets and avenues, several neighborhoods, and two bridges. Statues depicting him are at Federal Hall and Union Square, and an arch honoring him stands in Washington Square Park. The earliest known use of the term "New Yorker" in a published work is contained in a letter he wrote in 1756.
Encyclopedia of New York City, Yale Press, 1995
Earlier in 2022 I visited a family friend outside of Philadelphia and visited the East Coast for the very first time. I stayed about 8 Bucks County backroad miles from Washington’s Crossing where he crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day for the battle of Trenton. Like most historical places the visitor center is run by docents usually a retired history teacher or other retired person who needs something to do during the day, usually they are volunteers. But they love history just as I do. As I was browsing the gift shop choosing the souvenir I was about to purchase I came across a little cookbook that looked like it was locally printed. Loving to cook and fascinated that there may have been a cookbook that existed prior to Amelia Simmons I purchased the book to add to my collection of cookbooks and historical cookbooks I own. As I was chatting with the docent who was ringing me up I mentioned how I thought it was interesting that there might be a cookbook that predated The First American Cookbook. I then said a little half truth I said “I am from California and we don’t really have a historical food tradition like you do on the east coast.” Then history happened, something I never thought could happen actually happened. The lady corrected me and said “Yes but you do, you have the Spanish Missions and there is a cookbook I found about it as I was researching and putting together this cookbook (the one I was buying.)” I responded; “You know what, you are right, I own that cookbook California Mission Cookery. The guy was working on digitizing the library collection for the CSU system at Sonoma State and came across old recipes and decided to put together a cookbook to highlight a lost cuisine. I actually stayed at Mariano Vallejo’s adobe in Petaluma as a kid and ate like it was Mission days once. I found that cookbook in Solano County a few years ago. I stand corrected, us Californians do have a cuisine related to the missions that we completely forget about. But what I am surprised by is that there are 40 million Californians and hardly any of them know anything about the history of our missions but you out here 3,000 miles away know about this cookbook I found in a thrift store which is sitting on my bookshelf at home, I don’t think odds exist for this kind of coincidence, but that’s history right!” We both laughed at the coincidence and I have those cookbooks sitting in the same bookcase.
History Happens Everyday
September 20
Chester A. Arthur is sworn in as the 21st President of the United States of America. Chester A. Author was born in Fairfield Vermont in 1829, he became a lawyer and a Quartermaster General during the Civil War. He was part of the Republican political machine so much for he ascended to the office of Vice Presidency for a brief time after being the head of the Customs House in NYC and friend to Senator Roscoe Conkling who would appoint friends to jobs. In July President James Garfield was shot by someone who was seeking an appointed position but got rejected, for months Garfield suffered from the bullet wound and he finally passed away on September 19th. Garfield began the process of stopping Senator Roscoe Conkling being the person who decided who got all the jobs in the federal government and won an important political maneuver by getting his guy appointed. Garfield is quoted as saying _“this will settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States… shall the principal port of entry… be under the control of the administration or under the local control of a factional senator.”_ Chester A. Arthur assumed the Presidency and it was believed he would do what Senator Conkling wanted, but to the surprise of many he continued the work of Garfield. He instituted civil service reforms and made the appointments to federal jobs a non partisan non patronage process by making applicants take a test and created a “classified” system of jobs. The Pendleton Act of 1883 is one of his accomplishments along with the USA’s first immigration law. He also is known for his quotations: “I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damned business.” “Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken.” Chester A. Arthur would only serve one term as President and he would die two years after leaving office. He kept a personal secret of suffering from a fatal disease of the kidney a secret from the public and his political opponents his entire Presidency; 1881.
History Happens Everyday; Dylan Carpowich
History Happens Everyday
July 9: The Declaration of Independence is read to George Washington’s troops in New York City, they subsequently tear down a statue of King George, melt it, and turn it into bullets for the coming revolution; 1776.
the man who grew up in one of the wealthiest NYC families was also despised by the elites. Because he idolized the common man and wanted to be a wild frontiersman more than a wealthy New Yorker. They thought they could control him when they made him The chief of the NYPD. That didn't work so they decided to send him off to Albany as Governor believing he would play ball and do their bidding. That didn't work either so the machine sent him off the the Siberia of American Power the office of Vice President of the United States and picked McKinley as President. All was good for the elites and wealthy. Until an anarchist shot and killed McKinley in Buffalo NY at the American exposition. Teddy Roosevelt became President and the rest as they say is History. He grew to dislike both political parties and decided to forge his own called "The Bull Moose Party" they were known as Progressives. He may also have armed wrestled grizzly bears and picked bar fights with Cowboys in Yellowstone. All part of the Legend and Myth of the man named Teddy.
arts by Dylan in real life
Part of the intro of my latest book
There is another mentally ill Dylan on social media who is not me, they/he/she have caused a massive drop in bud light sales due to their/her/his postings about living 365 days as a girl. Frankly I didn’t know who this Dylan was until about a year ago when conservative commentators on Youtube began complaining about this 25 year old guy who was on broadway. On one hand this person is clearly confused about sexuality and gender and is in their mid 20’s. I’ve met plenty of women in their early to mid 20’s who were also confused or experimental and were “figuring themselves out” but 100% of them didn’t cause some internet storm and cost Budweiser tens of millions of dollars. And I am happy to say that many of these women who experimented in homosexuality a few times as young adults and played with tom boyishness a little are now in happy and stable relationships with men and are moms. I want to go on the record and say I don’t have a problem with this Dylan social media influencer. I have a problem with people on the internet in general, He’s just one guy named Dylan doing stuff on the internet for attention and living in NYC. That alone shouldn’t lead to him/her/they getting an interview with the President or having Budweiser put their face on a can leading to Kid Rock shooting a case of beer and a massive boycott that costs an American company millions and millions of dollars. None of that makes any sense, even as a writer named Dylan it doesn’t make any sense, I want to go on the record that the name Dylan shouldn’t have this much pull in society, even though I get that it kind of does.
The name Dylan means “Son of the Waves” and is a pompous Welsh name given to a boy about a mythical boy. It is a man’s name through and through. The Welsh legend the name comes from is about a King named Math who would die unless either of two things occurred, he had to be at war commanding an army, or have his feat rested upon a virgin woman. As the legend has it, one servant woman whose job it was to have the kings legs rest upon her back was raped, which resulted in the birth of a boy. She had the baby in secret and forsaken him, King Math discovered the little baby boy and gave him the name Dylan. King Math baptized Dylan in the sea, and at his baptism baby Dylan swam away like a fish and became a “Son of the Wave”.
There is a rock and some legend stuff in and around Wales associated with this mythology. The name became popular due to a failed academic who was a miserable drunk. A very intelligent, smart, but also degenerate drunk named his baby boy “Dylan” at the turn of the 20th century. He dug up a lost dead legend of Wales and decided it was good name that had not been in use for a very long time. Apparently he thought the name “Would be a good name for a Poet” (probably came up with this after his son became a poet) this guys surname was Thomas. Dylan Thomas is one 20th century’s greatest writers and poets and also an example of sorts of manhood. His most famous line “Do not go gentle into that the good night” has been copied and repaid countless times over the last 70 years. He wrote the poem about his father. To say Dylan Thomas had “Daddy issues” is an understatement. However, Dylan Thomas’s father did resurrect a dead name, from the Middle Ages until Dylan Thomas there are few records of anyone having lived with the name Dylan. Dylan Thomas may have been the first person in a few hundred years to have had to deal with being named Dylan.
The popularity of the name Dylan increased after the death of Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas died at 38 years old in New York City and had a string of affairs with rich women who patronized his poetry and plays. Apparently his first love was woman named Pamela when he was 17 who then married someone else, and he later fell in love with a different woman named Pamela in his 30’s. He ended up getting married but passed away after a night of drinking while he was with another woman. Dylan Thomas was a wonderful writer and poet but he also knew how to play the role of the drunken poet from Wales. It is fairly well known in the public that Dylan Thomas was a severe alcoholic who drank himself to an early grave at 38. However, upon a little investigation it is probably more likely that Dylan Thomas couldn’t process alcohol as well as others. He would get drunk or suffer from alcohol poisoning after a few half pints of beer or six or seven shots of whiskey. He would also exaggerate and act more drunk than he was to impress others. According to the autopsy he suffered from chronic bronchitis which turned into pneumonia and passed away when odema got to the brain. The air pollution of NYC did not help his illness.
Several years after the death of Dylan Thomas a young man from Minnesota by the name of Robert Zimmerman arrived in New York City. He was a songwriter and folk singer and played in clubs in and around the west village. His first big hit was by Peter, Paul and Mary, but first he changed his name having been inspired by the poetry and writings of Dylan Thomas. He changed his name to Bob Dylan. History will record this musical legend as one of the greatest songwriters of all time with an almost mythical quality. Baby Dylan may have become a mythical legend of the waves at sea, but Bob Dylan is the God of the waves of Sound. Even though he may not have been born with the name Dylan, he certainly will go down in history as the greatest Dylan to have ever lived.
Funny story about me and my artistic skill of cooking and California having a mythology that everybody in California at some point has some connection to a celebrity. Several years ago some extended family from San Diego came over to visit and I cooked Beef Burgundy. After dinner, the conversation turned to the Last Waltz which I had recently purchased as a retirement gift to my Dad. The Band (as it is known as) was Bob Dylan’s band sometimes as well. Then my uncle from San Diego chimes in and mentions how back in the 1970’s his second cousin was an interior decorator and specialized in window coverings like blinds and curtains. My uncle mentioned how Bob Dylan hired her to do the drapes in his Malibu home that was being constructed. Then my other uncle remembered a story from his past that was loosely related to my father. He remembered being on some kind of double date with my Dad and his girlfriend at the time who was the daughter of rich Texas oil speculators and whose brother wrote songs for Iron Butterfly an iconic Los Angeles. She brought her friend who lived in Woodland Hills, and her friend told my uncle about her father who was a master mason worker and would build magnificent fireplaces in rich homes in the Los Angeles area. The story goes that Bob Dylan also hired him to design a fireplace in his Malibu dream home. The legend goes that he mocked up three designs in the room and asked Bob Dylan which one he liked best, and Bob Dylan looked at all three, could not decide on which one and told him to build all three of them. Now, rather this story is actually true or not I do not know because I’ve never been to Bob Dylan’s Malibu Home, it could something a girl said to a guy in the 1970’s to sound impressive, but I also think it’s too good of a story not share here.
When I was born in Santa Cruz California in 1986 the name Dylan was not yet super popular. Bob Dylan had magnified the popularity of the name but he was also kind of like Dylan Thomas, the only one around with the name. Bob Dylan’s popularity began in the mid to late 1960’s and in 1986 the cultural phenomena that is the name Dylan had yet to be turned into names of people with great popularity. However as a kid things began to change rather rapidly. In 1986 the name Dylan was 100% a masculine name and was the #149 most popular name and was given to .095% of boys.
In 1990Beverly Hills 90210 began with a character named Dylan Mackay. I remember this show starting a trend of younger people in the grocery other than me being yelled at by the name “DYLAN!”. By 1992 the name became the 28th most popular name given to boys at. Rate of about .7%. Which is an exponential leap in popularity in 6 short years. It has remained in the top 50 of boy names ever since. Thanks in part to Hollywood blockbuster movies that were released in July. Independence Day has the kid named Dylan, and also features a line stolen from Dylan Thomas in the epic speech by the President at Area 51. Several years later in the movie Enemy of the State there is a character named Dylan and Will Smith’s character famously says “You need to stay away from Dylan he’s a bad influence” (maybe not exact quote but it is close enough). There was a West Wing character named Dylan Clark (Clark is also my middle name) in season 6 who was working for the former Vice President’s campaign in the scene where they were discussing the terms of the upcoming DNC, which is quickly followed in an episode or so later about what is it with guys and having a “Dylan moment” in reference to Bob Dylan being an actual God of the sound waves. In the movie Sum of All Fears there is a Russian expert at the CIA named Dylan, and also in the show Madame Secretary there was a Russian expert from the CIA named Dylan but this character had glasses (I also have glasses). The final Dylan in pop culture was Justin Timberlake’s character in Friends with Benefits which came out about a decade ago. There was also a Geico commercial about a teenage Dylan who showed up to a girls house that was surrounded by a plastic bubble, and the actress delivered the line “Dylan” just like Will Smith did in Independence Day.
Since 2010 there has been some girls who were given the name Dylan at birth. However, it is a very unpopular name for women and is not necessarily a feminine name or indigenous. Dylan as a girls name has never cracked the top #100 in popularity and in 2022 was the 576th most popular name for girls. The name is a masculine name but also relatively not that popular having never cracked 1% of all boy names. Roughly speaking 1 out of 400 men have the name Dylan.
My point being is that all of these little cultural references that are entirely coincidental and outside my control and the fact that I lived near a Budweiser factory in Fairfield for 20 years has influenced me as a Dylan trying to get ahead in the world of 2023. At one point in my life I even went full Ken on a girl from my high school named Pamela just like Dylan Thomas did to married women named Pamela. Basically if you know a Dylan or are a Dylan my suggestion is to avoid married women named Pamela as the first rule about being a guy named Dylan. But one thing I’ve learned from watching tv is that eventually Hollywood fixes these real world vs fake issues. I’m currently watching the alternate history sci fi space show on plus named “For all Mankind” and they made a character named Pam (not Pamela) but Pam a lesbian bartender who turns into a poet after moving to Austin and dumps her girlfriend so she can become President and maintain her marriage to her gay husband. Somehow that story arc fixed my past relationship issues with a girl named Pamela and a somewhat bizarre coincidence of women with sci names being into me. I once dated a Deanna and my ex girlfriend is a Lea which is both a Star Wars and Star Trek coincidence along with the Main Street of my old home town being named Texas.
Sonoma New York Connection
Click the button for a Trip to Sonoma California and read about the history of this Wine Country town, including the lost and easily forgettable story about Company C, a group of NYC volunteers who were supposed to colonize California and bring civilization to the wild west.