Remembering Auxiliary Police Officers

I know I'm a day behind the times here, but on March 14, 2007, two auxiliary police officers were gunned down by a crazy person just a block from my apartment. I just wanted to take a few moments to remember them. These images were taken around the corner of Bleeker and Sullivan on the spots where Nicholas T. Pekearo and Yevgeniy Borisovitch Marshalik were killed.

I've always been very disturbed by this event, and have felt close to it. I had met the crazed gunman, now deceased, before all this happened, when he was working as a bartender at Raccoon Lodge. And my brother-in-law attended school with one of the officers. Plus, living so close by, I could easily have been caught in the crossfire that day.

I wish I had something profound to say about death, life, and the brevity of it all. It's a mystery I don't expect to solve in my lifetime. But, violence aside, the fear of death is something that we all live with every day. It's scary and sad, but mostly for those of us that are still here when someone passes away. And I'd love to believe that Nicholas and Yevgeniy were some place better now, but faith is a whole different ball of confusion I won't solve in my lifetime. For now it just makes me sad that four lives (including the pizza parlor cook who was gunned down first) were snuffed out so senselessly.

Fire Breathing Dragons

I wish I knew more about these sprinklers/sand pipes/fire systems. They aren't traditional fire hydrants, but do they spit water? Does the fire department hook up to them? Whatever they are, these two (on the corner of Bleeker Street and Lafayette) always remind me of dragons. The red one I imagine to be the prickly boy dragon, but he's always side-by-side and breath-for-breath next to his best girl. If only they could sprout wings and take off...

Split Carsonality

Mild-mannered, soccer mom in an aging Chevy station wagon by day; sexy hot European dancer living it up in the city by night? This vanity license plate instantly caught my attention during a walk down Bleeker Street this past weekend. This car has to be more than 20 years old, but the owner (gotta be a woman, at least in my mind) definitely has champagne wishes and caviar dreams. You go girl! It's good to want things. Personally, I think I'd shoot for an all-electric Mini Cooper, but to each his own.

Trashy Repair Job

There's no doubt that many pieces of New York City's roads could use some help. And I'm all for New Yorkers taking matters into their own hands. But who throws out a full, 60 pound bag of blacktop patch? At first glance I thought it was rock salt that someone had mistakenly laid on top of this ice patch on the corner of Bleeker and Sullivan, but closer inspection proved more confusing. It is strategically placed where the trash bin usually sits, so maybe it's someone's way of suggesting that the city's road work crews are trash? What do you think?

Growing Poultry?

I really wish I'd been around the day that a rooster was loose in the community garden on the corner of Bleeker and Laguardia. Pigeons--or rats with wings, as I call them--are a problem, so I understand discouraging those who would feed the birds. But a rooster in this small space would have been a sight to see, particularly in front of the grocery store that's there on the corner. I wonder if then bird ended up in the butcher's window? Perhaps it even came home with me to be served up as homemade fried chicken. Gives me the shivers...

Do you have strange animal-related signs in your neighborhood? Share with the group, please.