Joe Torcivia's The Issue At Hand Blog: What It’s Like Outside!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

What It’s Like Outside!

With temps between 95 and 100 degrees, you don’t have to be a basketball fan to root against the “Heat”… and for the “Thunder”!

14 comments:

joecab said...: Really hot days is when I miss being a NYer most ... when you get a rattly old subway car with no A/C and windows that don't open .... then finally escape to the smell of urine on the stairway ... ah, nostalgia! :D; June 21, 2012 at 8:11 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm reminded of the scene in "It Came from Outer Space" where the sheriff (Charles Drake) nervously grumbles that the temperature is rising and that violent crime increases in hot weather because people get irritable. (He did say that 92 degrees is the peak, because "above 92, it's too hot to move!"); June 21, 2012 at 12:45 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Joe C:

Not sure when you “stopped” being a New Yorker (…I’m not so sure you EVER do!) but some – not all, far from it – of the Subways are much improved.

AC, automated vocal and visual announcements, lighted route maps that follow the train as it progresses… Taking the # 4 up to Yankee Stadium is now more of a pleasure than ever imagined.

The “smell of urine”, alas, persists…; June 21, 2012 at 6:33 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Anon:

Fortunately (…or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), temps above 92 degrees are not enough to keep me from Blogging!

That IS a great bit from “It Came from Outer Space”! A film that should actually be more notable than it is! And, if memory serves, it was you who linked the quote to the “Shopping for Death” episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS (in my post on that episode), both of which originated with the great, recently-departed Ray Bradbury. …Nicely done!

http://tiahblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/alfred-hitchcock-presents-ray-bradbury.html; June 21, 2012 at 6:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Evidently, the late, great Mr. Bradbury found that statistic interesting. BTW, I looked it up on snopes.com. Violent assaults and fights do seem to go up as the heat increases, but the idea that 92 (or any one specific temperature) is the exact peak is probably an over simplification.; June 21, 2012 at 6:54 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Yet, it’s SO GOOD that it makes sense!

Tempers flare in hot and uncomfortable weather… but, eventually the thermometer reaches a point where even emotional violence may simply come to a stop.

I’d guess 92 just sounded “right”.; June 21, 2012 at 7:11 PM
joecab said...: Oh yeah I've been back plenty of times but of course NYC 1989 is frozen in my mind from before I moved to Boston. And yup once a Noo Yawkuh, always ....; June 21, 2012 at 10:26 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Joe C:

Yeah, the eighties weren’t so great (though that’s when I discovered my first comic book shop in Greenwich Village in 1981) – and the seventies were even worse for good ol’ NYC. But, have we ever bounced back since then!

A favorite pop-cultural example of this “bouncing” is “The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson”, from Season 9 of THE SIMPSONS!

Marge, Lisa, Maggie, and even Bart enjoy New York City as it was in 1997 (time of airing) / is now… while Homer, still traumatized by a visit to NYC in the (shudder!) seventies, lets his fear and paranoia get the best of him!

Boston, eh? Say hi to “Big Papi” for me! Though we’re huge Yankee fans, we have a fridge-magnet of him… believe it or not!

Oh, and it’s STILL hot!; June 21, 2012 at 11:40 PM
joecab said...: I got sick of hearing how Times Square et al were going to get all cleaned up "anytime now" while I was there so of course after I leave it happens. But now I miss those crappy theaters showing kung fu movies all day, the graffiti-littered subway cars (inside and out)... nostalgia has a powerful grip on me. I've never been much of a sports guy but my mother was always rooting for "los Yanquis". (Cubans and baseball are inseparable.)

Oh speaking on NYC and smells... http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2012/06/do_you_want_to.php; June 22, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Joe Torcivia said...: Joe C:

It took the nothing short of “The Magic of Disney” to finally clean up Times Square. Don’t mess with The Mouse, I always say!

Having lived through the old days, I really like it now… But sometimes the weirdness of nostalgia has even me occasionally missing “what was”. Oh, those theatres… Did you say “Kung-Fu”? I seem to remember something different…

Aw, c’mon, root for the Yankees this weekend, as they play the Mets! You can do it out of family tradition… or because you like this Blog! To me, it’s ALWAYS special when they play the Mets… even more so than the Red Sox! Incidentally, they’re down 5-0 to the Mets in the first inning, as I write this! Oh, well…

Nice link to Michael Musto. I remember seeing him regularly on cable news channels, as a sort of comedy relief feature. Lilac and rose? …Really? Um, I don’t think so! Not MY New York!

The extreme heat has finally broken on Friday evening – after TWO huge thunderstorms! Circling back to the original post, despite the outcome of the NBA finals, I really support “thunder” over “heat”!; June 22, 2012 at 8:35 PM
Ryan Wynns said...: Joe et al,

I first visited/experienced Times Square on a high school music department field trip to see a Broadway show, I believe in October or November of `98 ... hence, the only Times Square I know is the post-Disney Times Square.

On this issue of the pre-Disney Times Square vs. the post-Disney Times Quare, I'm of two minds:

1. Though I can certainly understand, Joe, why you found the pre-Disney Times Square to have its, er, "turn-offs", I have a kneejerk objection to a "real", "organic" state being forcibly given a (in this case, thickly piled-on!) shiny, sugary, smiley-faced new coating. That said...

2. As "manufactured" or "plastic" as it may be, I'm not sure if I'd trade the exhilerating stimulus-overload that is experiencing the contemporary Times Square (especially at night!) for any alternate presentation of said locale! Heck, thinking about it makes me wanna hop on the next Amtrak train to Penn Station so that I can bask in Times Square's wonders tonight!

Last August, as part of my brother-in-law's bachelor party, I suffered through a subway ride from, incidentally, upper Manhattan to Yankee Stadium via a packed train(don't remember which train in particular) that was afflicted with a broken AC ... and, let's just say, I should repent for being lucky enough to not be amongst those who have endured such conditions for a far longer span of time!

I would think that the "breaking point" would be a couple degrees above 100, personally!

Joe, are you referring to the episode where Bart got a brief peak at the MAD Magazine offices? That was as "early"(!) in the show's runs as `97?! I now consider `97 to have been early in the show's run?! At the time, I'd figured that a "shark jump" and cancellation was due in a year or two, as the further we'd get past five or six seasons, we'd have gotten just as far past the show's "natural life span". (...some would probably argue that as having been exactly the case! My feelings are that the show has had its up and downs over the past 15 years, but has never irrevocably undone or betrayed itself.)

-- Ryan; June 23, 2012 at 6:05 PM
Ryan Wynns said...: ...and loosely playing off of the image used in this post, I've got to get around to writing a rave review of IDW's Popeye. It has me wishing that IDW would acquire and fully utilize the license to continue the runs of Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse (...and additional series, titled the-same-as-any-of-the-above plus "Adventures", would be more than welcome!), and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.

(The creative team on their Popeye do a pretty darn good Segar impression. Just imagine the same type of effort and care being put into creating new Gottfredson-esque Mickey Mouse comics!)

-- Ryan; June 23, 2012 at 6:54 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Ryan:

Good to have you aboard the # 4 Bronx-Bound Express, stopping at Yankee Stadium!

Sit back and enjoy the AC, automated announcements, lighted destination maps that pinpoint the train’s location along the route -- and all the rest. Turn-offs, turn-ons… for better or for worse, the Old Times Square had ‘em both!

Yes, that WAS the Simpsons episode I was referring to. Back in 1997! And, amazingly, it still goes strong today. Despite the ups and downs ANY show can have, I still don’t see any sharks! Are they all gems? No. But the REST of TV has come down so far that The Simpsons can’t help but look good.

You’ll see at least a minor reference to IDW’s Popeye in my next post! Yeah, I’d sure like to see them try new “Core Four” Disney titles. (…I’m here if you want me, guys!) Consider that it might have been easier to reprint some of the old Sagendorf Dell and Gold Key stories – or (Shudder!) the Charlton stuff like Harvey DID in the '90s.

But, no… in two issues (and thanks to David Gerstein for picking them up for me – now that I’m out of comic shops) they’ve done a mighty fine job of replicating Segar. And, I’d love to see a similar Gottfredson tribute comic. Just don’t think it’s gonna happen!

Oh, and I hope we see you (…and JoeCab, too, not to mention "Anon") in October at New York Comic Con! The Javitz Center and Times Square beckon!

Finally, it’s now only rather WARM… not unbearably hot!; June 23, 2012 at 8:10 PM
Joe Torcivia said...: Finally, the Yankees ended up taking 2 of 3 games from the Mets – and the temps have cooled off nicely!

All is right with the world!; June 25, 2012 at 11:14 PM