Nathan Silver, 89, Who Chronicled New York City's Vanishing Landmarks

My wife says this is what happens when you get old.

Until today, I don't believe I ever read an obituary where I was familiar with the subject's father! But familiar I am.

In the obit for Mr. Silver, it is mentioned that Nathan's "father, Isaac, taught mechanical drawing at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and was also an architect. "

I remember Mr. Silver in the Mechanical Drawing Department. I didn't  have him as a teacher, (I had Mr. Russo), but I remember the man who was in his early 60s in the early to mid-1960s, who had thinning silver hair and seemed to wear grey, or silver suits. He was Mr. Silver after all.  

I distinctly remember there were some of my classmates who did have him as a teacher who were not necessarily impressed with him as a teacher, but were greatly impressed that he was a licensed architect who could attach his professional seal to drawings. 

His son Nathan became distinguished as an architect as well, and as a writer about preserving buildings. His seminal book, "Lost New York" carries a photo on the cover of what part of Penn Station looked like before it was demolished in 1964. For those who can remember the place, it is truly a haunting photo. It took two years to get rid of the building.

I remember the "old" Penn Station, but it was already greatly run down in the '60s when I went through the upper level. It was dark and grimy. The architectural features that are so greatly missed were overshadowed by the dinginess of the place. 

The demolition of Penn Station in the '60s still resonates as architectural original sin. In current designs, the powers to be have tried to invoke what would have been the grandeur of the place had it been maintained and preserved for what it was—a cathedral, that as Thomas Wolfe wrote, "held the sound of time."

Nathan at Cambridge in 1970

To me it is interesting to note that Nathan Silver lived in London for the rest of his career after his book "Lost New York" was published in the '60s. He taught architecture at the University of Cambridge.

You don't really know if the demolition of Penn Station made him pack his bags. Amongst his many projects he redesigned a 17th-century pub, The Seven Seas, owned by his wife Roxy Beaujolais. She survives him, as does a brother Robert, who is also an architect, as well as a daughter Liberty Silver and a son Gabriel, along with four grandchildren. 

I still can't over that I knew of the father of a man who has now passed away at 89.

My wife is right. This is what happens when you get old and you can still remember things.

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Where?

When reading an obituary that tells you the deceased was born in Cazenovia you'd expect (at least I did) to read that after the comma you would be told that Cazenovia is in what is now the Czech Republic, or is in Serbia, or Bosnia, or Slovenia, or Herzegovina, not upstate New York.

Well it is in upstate New York, a small village just south of Cazenovia Lake, an incorporated village of 6,740 people as of the 2020 census, in Madison County. New York state consists of 62 counties, some with very unexpected names, like Wyoming, or Chautauqua, or Cattaraugus. 

Cazenovia happens to be where Anne Burrell was born, as the NYT obit headline tells us was a "Chef and Dynamic Food Network Star" who has passed away all too soon at 55.

Ms. Burrell gets a 19 gun salute of 6 columns, top of an obit page, one large photo, taking up about 45 % of the page. In column inches I guess that's about 8". 

Obviously, at 55, Ms. Burrell has gone way too soon. Circumstances of her death might seem a bit less than ordinary or explainable, when it is reported that, "A New York City Police Department spokesman said Wednesday that emergency medical workers responding to a 911 call at her address found a 55-year-old woman, whom the police would not identify, 'unconscious and unresponsive' and pronounced her dead. The chief medical examiner's office will determine the cause of death."

I've never read an obit where a police spokesman weighs in with a statement about the circumstances of death.

Nevertheless, the death of Ms. Burrell sent shock waves through the food and cooking establishment. She is considered to have broken the mold at the Food Network. "She brought style, class, and a little punk, a little funk, a little bit of grace" said Ms. Wilson, the founder of the Harlem restaurant Melba's. 

The lede in the obit by Priya Krishna, tells us Ms. Burrell "was known for her kinetic swoop of blond hair and an energy to match."

It's not likely that she or the U.K.'s former prime minister Boris Johnson shared a comb.

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Wacky

"You must have a hole in your head."
"I do. I drilled one in there myself."

So might have gone a conversation with the subject of an obituary that describes the subject as "wacky." I have never seen the word "wacky" in any obituary headline. There is always a first.

But the word wacky didn't stay there. It only appeared in an early print edition of the NYT when the passing of Amanda Fielding was introduced by the headline:

"Amanda Fielding, 82, Wacky Countess Who Adored  Psychedelic Drugs, Dies"

The online version of the obituary comes under the more sedate headline:

Amanda Fielding, Eccentric Countess Who Backed Psychedelic Meds, Dies at 82

A note at the end of the online obit tells us the obituary first appeared in the print edition with the "Wacky" headline. 

Amanda didn't have to drill a hole in her head to earn either the "wacky" or the "eccentric" adjectives. She talked openly about her long-term relationship with a pigeon. ("We were twin souls, she once said, "a pair of lovers completely inseparable.") 

The NYT obit writer Michael S. Rosenwald tells us that "in the mid 1960s, Amanda fell in love with Bart Huges, a handsome Dutch scientist who was a proponent of trepanning (the medieval practice of drilling a hole in your head to increase blood flow) and LSD, the powerful hallucinogenic drug made from lysergic acid diethylamide.

Amanda told The London Standard in 2024, "I had the choice of going ahead with the love affair and taking LSD every day in big doses, or not being with him. So I took the LSD."

There is edited YouTube footage of Amanda drilling a hole in her head and the result of the 1½ pints of blood that flowed out from the wound. The drilling certainly did increase blood flow—out of the skull.

The full procedure was filmed in 1970 and billed as a short documentary "Heartbeat in the Brain." It was shown at the Suydam Gallery in New York and even reviewed by Anthony Haden-Guest for New York magazine, who presumably watched the whole film, while others in the audience fainted. I guess you had to be there.

But Amanda survived the procedure. Several of her lovers also had the procedure performed on themselves. (It seems there is nothing one won't do for love.) Two of her less than flattering nicknames were: Lady Mindbender and Countess Crackpot.

While Amanda later in life might have been well off, her life didn't start out with many comforts. Her father was an artist who adored beauty, but didn't make much of a living at it. Her mother's name is mentioned, but there is no description of the life she lead. Heating and electricity were considered luxuries.

In 1995 Amanda married James Charteris, Earl of Wemyss and March, which granted her the title of Countess of Wemyss and March.

For all her eccentricities and use of hallucinogenic drugs, Amanda was considered ahead of her time in the belief that these potent drugs could help people with depression and other mental ailments.

Mr. Rosenwald tells us Amanda eventually created a "pharmaceutical company that is developing fast-acting psychedelic medicines for commercial use. The company was sold this month to Atai Life Sciences—a company backed by the billionaire Peter Thiel—in a deal valued at $390 million."

For all of Amanda's outward nuttiness, she lived to be 82, and passed away from liver cancer, and not a "bad trip."

At the end, she seems quite ordinary, survived by her husband the Earl of Wemyss and March, James Charteris, two sons from a prior relationship with Joseph Mellen, the writer, two stepchildren, four grandchildren and one step-granddaughter. 

Holiday dinners at moated Beckley Park had to be a hoot.

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Sovereignty

I'm having a great deal of trouble spelling Sovereignty. Maybe if I was made to write his name on a blackboard (whiteboard?) 25 times it would sink in. But right now my crutch is some repetition and reliance on spell checker to kick in when I still think there is an "h" in the spelling.

Even a sports fan who doesn't pay attention to thoroughbred racing on a daily basis, probably knows that a horse named Sovereignty (I'm getting better.) won Saturday's Belmont Stakes race held at Saratoga at the 1¼ mile distance. The classic Belmont Stakes distance is truncated from it's even more challenging 1½ distance due to the complete rebuilding of Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Belmont is scheduled to reopen in October 2026, with its first Belmont scheduled for June 2027. 

At Saratoga, a 1½ mile distance cannot be started fairly for all horses since it would have to start on the far turn on the mile and an eighth track, and there is not enough room to tangentially place the starting gate to ensure an equal distance start for all starters. 

But a Triple Crown was not at stake, no matter the venue or the distance of the Belmont Stakes. Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby, skipped the Preakness to ensure a rested horse for the Belmont, then won the Belmont.

Journalism, who finished second to Sovereignty in Derby, won the Preakness and was convincingly beaten by Sovereignty in the Belmont, finishing second after a stirring stretch duel. The two best horses in the race finished 1-2, producing an almost sure-thing boxed exacta, but with an anemic payoff of $13.20 for $2. Sovereignty paid $7 to win as the second choice to Journalism. The mile and a quarter race was run in a snappy 2:00 3/5 over a drying out track labeled GOOD.

Sovereignty gave Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his second Belmont win, and jockey Junior Alvarado his second Triple Crown win. His first of course came with Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby.

NYRA charged an astounding $75 for General Admission on Saturday, which of course did not include a seat, unless you count a toilet seat. But over 40,000 fans ponied up for the price, but were at least rewarded with eventual good weather and a very exciting race. But still, $75! 

I watched the race for free on TV at my granddaughter's high school graduation party in Pleasantville, New York. My daughter and son-in-law have a huge HD TV in the family room that makes it seem as if the clods of dirt from the track are going to hit you.

For myself, I netted a meager $2 profit since I did have $4 to win on Sovereignty, but also $4 to win on Hill Road, and a $2 boxed exacted with those two. I liked Hill Road after seeing him win the Peter Pan at Aqueduct three weeks prior to the Belmont. The Peter Pan has often proved to be a reliable prep race for the Belmont Stakes, and there's nothing wrong with the trainer Chad Brown..

How does a race get to be named Peter Pan, after a boy who doesn't want to grow up? Turns out the race is named after the horse Peter Pan who won the 1907 Belmont Stakes, who in turn was named after the character in J.M. Barrie's popular play. The horse Peter Pan was a very durable thoroughbred who won 10 of his 17 starts; 6 races in a row as a 3-year-old.

As you might expect, the winner's circle became very crowded after the race for the trophy presentation. It looked like a crowded platform after the subway riders were asked to leave a disabled train.

Amongst the multitudes were New York's Governor Kathy Hochul, who as a small woman, if she were in racing silks and a riding helmet, could have easily been mistaken for a jockey.

Governors sometimes show up for the Belmont presentation. It was more than appropriate that Governor Hochul was there since she was instrumental getting a bill through the legislature that secured a $500+ million loan to NYRA to build a completely new Belmont Park, slated to open October 2026. Thus, the Belmont Stakes will be held for one more year at Saratoga at 1¼ miles. This year was the second year at Saratoga.

After first going to the races at Belmont on Belmont Day in 1968, to the then re-opened track, I'm hoping I make it to the next re-opening in 2026. Never mind thinking about getting in for the Belmont  Stakes in 2027 at what will be another re-opened Belmont. If NYRA charged $75 to get in in 2025, there's no telling what they're going to charge for 2027.

I know where there's a great TV to watch it from.

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Alas Poor Penny, I Knew You Well

It is official. The U.S. Mint is going to stop producing pennies as of this year. No more. The shiny copper piece is worth 1¢ but costs 3.69¢ to produce. This is known as losing money. But hey, the government subsidizes a great many things, but has finally given up on subsidizing the lowly penny. The time has finally come.  

It doesn't seem like anyone is going to come to the penny's rescue with a Horatio Alger story of how they saved their pennies and are now a billionaire. The Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 to replace the Indian Head penny. 1909 was the centennial of Lincoln's birth and the penny was a commemorative coin for him.

The Indian Head penny could never be produced today. The expression, now unheard of, "I wouldn't give you a red cent" referred to the Indian Head penny. I once had a coin collection and a roll of Indian Head pennies. My collection was stolen by of all people my father, who was always desperate for money.

To help fill out my collection of coins I would go to the bank and claim that as a business, the family flower shop, we needed rolls of coins to make change. This was a lie. With the rolls of coins I sorted through them to fill out the collection. I was proud that I completed a full set of Washington quarters through this tactic. I never found the 1909-S VDB penny.

The Indian Head was produced from 1859 to 1909. The Lincoln penny that is a 1909-S VDB was the Holy Grail for collectors. I never had one.

There were three mints that produced coins back in the day and the mint was designated by a mint mart; S for San Francisco; D for Denver. No mint mark meant the coin was produced in Philadelphia. Thus, any one year could have produced coins from three different mints. This always added to the collector's pursuit to complete their collection.

The 1909-S VDB mint mark referred to the engraver of Lincoln's image, Victor David Brenner. His initials were on the reverse of the coin, the so-called Wheat Back.  

In 1959 the Lincoln Memorial in Washington was depicted on the reverse of the penny. This was done to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. This lasted through 2008 when in 2009, to commemorate the bicentennial, 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, four scenes from Lincoln's life were depicted: log cabin, rail splitting, Illinois State Capitol, U.S. Capitol for the presidency.

I have to admit I don't think I've ever had a 2009 penny with any of the four scenes. The collectors must have gobbled them up.

The Union Shield was placed on the back in 2010 to commemorate the 150th anniversary (sesquicentennial) of the election of Lincoln in 1860 and has remained on the reverse. 

It's almost a shame to take a coin out of circulation that has been used to impart so many parts of American history through Lincoln's life. But that 3.69¢ to produce something worth 1¢ is Trumping everything.

My own history of the penny aside from collecting the various years and mint marks, was to place some on the railroad tracks of the LIRR Port Washington line that ran through the back of our property in Flushing.

We lived just east of the Murray Hill station, and as an adventurous lad in the 1950s I climbed down the embankment, knowing the train schedules so I wouldn't have to flee or get killed, and placed pennies on the tracks and then tried to find them after the train flattened them. I remember one came out in almost the shape of a heart that I gave to a girl in grammar school. I don't have any of these flattened pennies. But the girl's name was Olga.

The NYT carries a story that has been expected for a long time. The U.S. mint will stop ordering the blanks on which to make the pennies and will end production when the current supply runs out. So long penny. Sales will be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel. Or so it is hoped.

Nickels are endangered as well. They cost 13.75¢ to produce to put a coin worth 5¢ into circulation. Will there be a trend to eliminate more coins?

There are other countries that still produce what is the equivalent of a penny, but not many. Other countries have eliminated what would be the equivalent of a one-cent piece. Canada has long eliminated paper one and two-dollar bills and replaced them with coins: One loon on the back for a dollar; two loons on the back for $2. Loonies and toonies. Coins last longer than paper.

Prior to 1859 the one-cent piece was a cartwheel depicting various poses of Lady Liberty. A penny had value, basically up to WW II. Consider the scene in the Depression movie The Grapes of Wrath where the Oakie brother and sister kids eye the candy counter at the diner. They have one cent between, and the lady lies and tells them the candy is two-for-a-penny. Kris Kristofferson wrote a song about the scene.

And in case you weren't lucky enough to have a Large Cent in your pocket, you might have a half-cent, a coin produced from 1793-1857. They were phased out because with inflation (there is always inflation). They were impractical. So, I guess in 1857 there might have been nostalgia for the discontinued half-cent and what was the world coming to when you couldn't buy something with a half-cent? 

And so it goes. What can you buy with a penny? Even a lot of pennies, say 1,000 of them, (20! rolls of 50! pennies in each roll) which is worth $10. What can you buy with $10? A Starbucks frappuccino with a caramel script on top with your name on the cup?

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The MUTE Button

The MUTE button on my TV's remote has been touched so many times that at this point it only spells "TE." The first two letters have been worn off. Like marble stairs whose middle has been worn down by so many people climbing up and down on them, the "MU" is gone. I suspect the "TE" might not make it through the current election cycle.

In fact, I don't visually reach for the button anymore. My left and right thumbs have enough muscle memory in them that they find the little guy whenever I want to refrain from hearing political ads. Even in a darkened room.

Political adds? It's May. Yeah, you haven't heard about the New Jersey gubernatorial primaries, or New York City mayoral primaries, all Democrats looking to knock each other out and oppose who knows who?

I don't have a dog in either jurisdiction. But because Nassau County borders New York City boroughs, and New Jersey is not outside the F.C.C. broadcast range, I am subjected to all the political ads the world can create for all the money in the world.

After the November 2024 election cycle I thought we'd receive a respite from political ads. Nope. Primaries.

There's a guy running up an endless outdoor flight of stairs to tell us he's on nobody's side but ours. He's Steve Fulop, and he's running for New Jersey governor. Let me tell you, it's some flight of steel stairs. And since I'm not familiar with all things New Jersey, I don't know where it starts or ends. Heaven? The Palisades? All I can say about Steve is that he must be in very good shape. Or there's very clever editing and he has a body double doing double time up the stairs.

There is a woman who has flown helicopters for the U.S. Navy, who is now going to, "stand up to Trump." She's Mikie Sherrill, carrying her flight helmet past a fighter plane. I love the name Mikie. It's stitched on her flight suit.

In fact, candidates in New Jersey all tell us they are going to "stand up to Trump" and sometimes "Elon Musk." In what venue this showdown is going to occur is not clear, but they are going to "stand up." They are going to take on the "bosses" and end corruption.

The candidate Josh Gottheimer gets his fighting message across visually with his head superimposed on a boxer's body trading punches with The Donald, who's wearing a suit, in a boxing ring. AI generated?

Standing up to Trump might resonate with some voters, but it might also prove to be empty words. The Donald has survived more bad publicity, lawsuits, and assassination attempts than anyone. He's Rasputin. You can't kill him. It's possible if he were Catholic and celibate (highly unlikely) he could have been elected pope. There has been a recent opening.

New York City, not to be outdone by New Jersey, has at least 11 candidates running for the Democratic nomination for mayor. There are so many that ranked voting will take place soon. This is where the voters indicate their preference by ranking the candidates. The order presented on ballot was made through random selection. It looks like a baseball lineup card.

When the votes are tallied, those that didn't make the cut will be dropped from future ballots (this is like a golf tournament) and the process will be repeated with fewer candidates. The process will likely take longer than the Stanley Cup playoffs and surely guarantee to push the ads on TV and radio deep into summer. Can we take this?

The most recognizable candidate is Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, New York Attorney General and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), cabinet member under President Clinton and the son of a three-term governor of New York, Mario Cuomo. He's got name recognition, but lots of baggage over stuffing Covid patients into nursing homes and allegedly infecting the facilities, leading to more deaths. This is heavy baggage. But he dead don't vote (usually), and their mourning relatives might not even be New York registered voters.

Andrew Cuomo is deftly hedging his bets on winning the Democratic nomination in the upcoming ranked ballot voting. Regardless of that outcome, he will appear on a newly created party line, the Fight and Deliver party. It seems with enough paperwork and signatures you can create a party so that you get your name on the ballot with that party. It is somewhat like Noman Lear spinning off show after show from the characters who appeared on one show. Hey, it worked for Norman.

The incumbent mayor Eric Adams has already eschewed trying to run as a Democrat and will run as an Independent. The incumbent mayor John Lindsay did this in 1969 and in a stunner got re-elected, in my opinion because the Mets won the 1969 World Series in October and the city's population was still too euphoric to care who was going to be the mayor when November rolled around. The epic snowstorm in February 1969 and lack of snow removal in Queens was forgotten. Just a thought.

There are lots of seemingly fringe candidates who would seem to have limited appeal. There is Scott Stringer, who tells us we have to "keep that schmuck out of Washington." He means Trump, who he tells us we should "stick it" to. This is tough Yiddish talk, which may not be recognizable by the current ethnic mix in New York City.

There is someone named Zohran Mamdani, whose first name is not to be confused with that Upper West Side food emporium Zabar's. Or maybe he is confused with that food emporium and it will work to his advantage.

There is another candidate whose first name starts with Z, Zellnor Myrie, who tells us he grew up in public housing. Hey, everybody's got to be someplace. What were the chances that two candidates names would start with Z?

There is someone named Paperboy Love Prince, a performance artist. There might be doubts this is his real name.

Brad Lander, the current NYC Comptroller is at a junkyard operating a forklift and overseeing a car being crushed that's been graffitied with the word CORRUPTION on it, with a picture of Andrew Cuomo in the upper left. The message is clear. Brad's going to stamp out corruption.

Brad is easily the first candidate ever to be seen operating a forklift. The video was shot at the Willets Point junkyards in Flushing Queens, hard by Citi Field. Brad has taken flak for being on the property on what is considered a mob run business. Yeah, so is pizza.

My riff here on the mute button was touched off by an Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal titled: Ask Your Doctor About the Mute Button by Joseph Epstein. The piece was tucked away in the lower left and corner in yesterday's paper where many of the more light-hearted pieces of this nature appear now and then. They can be refreshing.

Joseph Epstein is a writer who was editor of the magazine The American Scholar from 1975 to 1997. I think I've seen his name before on pieces like his on the MUTE button, that has an out quote, "It's the only effective treatment I've found for TV advertitis."

Pharmaceutical advertising is what sends Mr. Epstein to the MUTE button. I can empathize with his frustration with drug ads. They are everywhere.

Mr. Epstein admits to being in his 80s (he's actually 88) and certainly seems to have all his faculties intact. He lists all the drugs ads he can, giving us a top 10 list.

•Rinvoq (for rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and more.)
•RectiCare (hemorrhoids)
•Calquence (leukemia)
•Qunol Turmeric (joint troubles)
•Uquoro (urination problems)
•Kardia Mobile (heart)
•Jardiance (kidneys, diabetes)
•Rexulti (depression)
•Otezla (plaque psoriasis)
•Visiting angels (care givers)

He tells us he could easily name 10 more. Oddly to me, he's left off Wegovy and Ozempic, weight loss drugs in his top 10. He doesn't describe the ads, probably because he hits the button as soon as he realizes what's coming up next.

I don't reach for the MUTE button for drug ads. I find the ads almost funny. I think it's the Wegovy ad where what seems like an entire town stops what they're doing and joins in a march down Main Street telling us they're keeping the weight off. See photo above.

They look  like a Broadway produced musical, maybe The Music Man, where an entire town of all sizes and races is a sea of happy, healthy, smiling people. It is inspiring; if you like inspiring.

I think it's the Ozempic ad that tells us through a choreographed dance number, that it helps lower the dancers' A1-C. I don't really know what A1-C stands for. It's some sort of diabetic measurement I assume, that if it's high, you're in trouble. Not this bunch of limber dancers. They all got their number below 7.

With this avalanche of drug ads it is easy to believe that market research has concluded that the only people tunning into TV these days are those people who are older and most likely to be suffering from what these ads say they will treat you for. Or, they are people who need an SUV to drive through an inch of mud and water, splashing happily in the middle of nowhere.

At 88, I suspect Mr. Epstein takes something for something, but doesn't need to imagine he's got something else and needs to ask his doctor about restless leg syndrome. At 76, I take a few things, but I feel like a pharmaceutical outcast because what I take is not heavily advertised. Hell, it's not even advertised at all. There must be something else wrong with me.

I should ask my doctor.

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Swan Song Rehearsal

The sun shined bright on my old South Queens Home, Aqueduct, site of many a Saturday's adventures, and sometimes a mid-week hooky from work.

Aqueduct's days are numbered. No one is saying what the number is, but they're numbered. Five years from now the place will likely no longer exist. Aqueduct housing might.

The Assembled met on Saturday May 10th, a little later in the calendar than usual. First time taking in Aqueduct for what is called the Belmont at Aqueduct Meet: BAQ in the past performances if you're interested.

Now that all of us are on Medicare, Johnny D. made the crack that if we show our Medicare cards at the gate, we get in for free. Bobby G. looked at him and said, "everyone gets in free at Aqueduct." Johnny D. replied: "See, It works."

We hadn't seen each other at the track since last April. It was a bell weather day, with no wind. The turf courses were lush and green. However, because of Friday's downpour, two of the 4 races carded for the turf were run on the main track. the two stakes turf races  remained on the green, as expected. The track was fast. It was a good card. There were 5 stakes race of the 11 run on the day.

Everyone made it there before the first race, with Bobby G getting here just a little before the first race, but still in time to bet. Bobby G. once again was complaining about the parking, which is worth complaining about. There are acres of space not used, blocked off with barriers. At least this time Bob wasn't parked next to the ambulance, which is far better than better than being in the ambulance.

Updates were shared about how many grandkids there are now and what they're up to. Bobby G., as the oldest,  has the oldest grandkids with a granddaughter who is an Ob-Gyn resident at Bellevue, continuing in the family medical profession. Personal medical updates were shared, with no life-threatening ailments disclosed. 

Bobby G will be 89 in August, and of course 90 in 2026. It was pointed out to him that he was going to be 90! and Belmont still wasn't going to be opened yet, not reopening till October 2026. That's a lot to live for, and a lot of time left to live until it happens. Hopefully there won't be any of us wearing memorial T-shirts for a departed member. 

Of the two downstate tracks, Aqueduct and Belmont, Aqueduct always had the best sight lines for watching a race. Unfortunately, the place itself is a sight. The track is great. The infrastructure and clientele not so much.

Basically, only the first and second floors are open, and only a few sections of the seats. Everyone is herded into a few remaining open sections outside, with those inside accommodated as if they're in an OTB. The place looks a bit like it's inhabited from a welfare or unemployment office, with maybe a homeless person or two living out of a hefty bag.

Lots of simulcasting, and Game #3 of the Knicks/Celtics was on in the afternoon, with the Knicks getting blown out. There is no smoking indoors, and shouldn't be outdoors, but no one enforces it. As such, there are piles of cigarette butts accumulating by the door leading to the outside. The fellow who sweeps just picks up discard tickets into his scooper: the butts are left behind. Quite a place. Of course even before entering the smell of marijuana is evident. In the seats, a contact high might be possible. Thanks Governor.

There is pretty much no labor overhead in running the place. There are only live cashiers on the first floor. Bobby G bets on his phone. Johnny D. bought a $60 voucher from one of  the voucher terminals, and cashed on the first floor for $58. Not a bad day, but just didn't get over the top. José doesn't like to use the machines, so he goes down to the first floor to make bets with one of the few tellers. 

But, despite the complete lack of ambience, betting is the objective, and a decent card of  11 races was on tap, with 5 stake races.

Johnny D. always arrives with a downloaded Daily Racing Form traditional pps secured on a clipboard. Say this about the Daily Racing Form, they are in the 21st century. An online, downloaded card cost $4.25, which compares favorably to the at least $7 you would need to spend to get a watered down, Equibase set of pps which do not carry the Beyer Speed Ratings. 

Bobby G. doesn't do any advance study of the card, and just arrives buying a set of pps at the track. Unfortunately he wasn't aware there are basically three varieties to choose from: Equibase, $7; $10; for the short number of tracks Daily Racing Form traditional pps, or $11 for a more complete booklet of tracks being run. Downloading, if you have a home printer, is always best if you are only going to bet one track.

There are no creature comforts at Aqueduct, and only one place in the entire track from which you can buy something to eat. Johnny D. gets nothing, José brought a banana, but Bobby G. needs more sustenance, so he always sets off in search of the clam chowder.

And since he was fighting with his inadequate version of the pps he was able to upgrade at the track newsstand to a better set of pps. He also got his clam chowder, which is always worth having.

Someone must have gotten the Harry M. Stevens recipe for Manhattan clam chowder, because that was historically the only good thing about Harry M. Stevens, the longtime holder of the concession rights at NYRA and New York ballparks, whose help never went to charm school, the most embittered bunch of employees you could ever come across. They never had any good days, and pretty much did their best to ruin yours.

With all the annoyances absorbed, betting is the thing. Numerologists would have had a winning day if they liked the #4, since the 4-horse won 5 of the 11 races; three in a row at one point.

Linda Rice, maybe the most successful female trainer, who has won meet training titles at Saratoga and downstate, took two races. Michelle Giangiulio took another with the #4 horse in the 4th race, Quick to Accuse, for her first win at the meet, and only her third win this year in 37 starts.

Years ago there was no such thing as a female trainer. Despite Michelle's apparent anemic record, she attracted Irad Jose Jr., always a leading rider. There were other female trainers on the card as well.

Joel Rosario, always a threat when riding turf, won the two turf races. A horse he was riding in the 7th race went down, but he was unhurt because he was back riding the next race.

Johnny D's homework and numbers, which can take a few hours to put together on an 11 race card, were paying dividends, Unfortunately, the prices were low, so it was tough to win out over the $60 voucher. One $1 exacta paid $3.65; another was more decent at $19.

Bobby G. hit a few races, with low returns; José hit a decent $1 exacta. The last race was the so-called Peter Pan, a race that has emerged as a major New York prep race for the Belmont Stakes at 1½ miles. But, with Belmont being rebuilt. the Belmont has been run, and will be run two more times at Saratoga at 1¼. Saratoga cannot have a 1½ mile dirt race with a start that doesn't begin on a turn.

How a race came to be named after an elfin boy in green tights played on the stage by a woman, Mary Martin, who flies and doesn't want to grow up, is beyond me, but Peter Pan it is. Actually, the race is named after the horse Peter Pan who won the Belmont Stakes in 1907, which no one on earth is now alive who might have seen him run. The race is run strictly for 3-year-olds at a mile and a eighth, and as such attracts horses who are being auditioned for the Belmont Stakes. How a horse came to be named Peter Pan is not known. (I have very distant Greek cousins who operate a diner named Peter Pan in Bayshore, Long Island, opened in the 1950s.)

So, with all that went on on Saturday, did Chad Brown and Flavian Prat win a race? You betcha. The Peter Pan was won easily by Hill Road, the second morning line choice at 5/2, who won easily at 2-1. I missed having an obvious choice.

Hill Road was one of 7 of the 9 horses in the race nominated for the Triple Crown. Expect to see more of the $350,000 yearling purchase from $150,000 Quality Road stud fee to a Lemon Drop Kid mare, Exotic Notion. Lemon Drop Kid won the 1999 Belmont. There is distance in Hill Road's breeding. Hill Road went the distance in a very credible 1:491/5. 

What's next? The hope is that we all make it to the re-opening of Belmont in October 2026. No one wants to go to Aqueduct anymore, and it is doubtful we'll be back for it in 2026.

And since my first day at the races was at what was then in 1968 the re-opening of the new Belmont, and Bobby G's memory of going to Jamaica Race Track (yes Virginia, there was a Jamaica Racetrack in Jamaica, Queens) we should get in for free, even without our Medicare cards.

Note: The story goes that Sid Luft, one of Judy Garland's husbands, said to Judy that they were going to go to Jamaica in the afternoon.  Judy got excited and went out shopping for tropical wear, thinking they were going to fly to the island of Jamaica. Sid took her to the track and the Daily Double, where Judy had to be the best dressed patron there, if not the most surprised.

Jamaica Race Track opened in 1903, and closed in 1959 and was reached by the Locust Manor stop on the LIRR. Aqueduct can be reached by taking the subway A Train to Aqueduct. One of the races on Saturday's card was named Take the A Train.

Half a century ago I was in Toronto and took in a day at Greenwood Racetrack, now no longer there. It was said then it was the last track in North America to be reached by a trolley. 

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