labyrinths impelled
Heading home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I won’t lie, my broken toe was really starting to smart when walking down the marble staircases at Grand Central Terminal. I’d been on my feet shooting for around 4 hours at this point, and whereas flat ground and standing still has become normal again, stairs and in particular walking down stairs seems to aggravate the still inflamed nest of rubber bands (tendons and ligaments) and the busted piece of chalk (the broken bone) in my left foot and big toe.
Interestingly, when I had it x-rayed, the medical folks referred to it as “the great toe” but there really isn’t anything that great about it. It’s funny, we have special names for all the fingers, but toes are just toes in the common tongue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I made a special effort to find and use escalators on my journey into the deep. It seems that most people don’t understand the purpose of these devices and insist on running or walking down the moving steps. Seriously, I’m never in that much of a hurry given my nearly pathological need to show up early or on time with 15 minutes to spare for an appointment or obligation. Said pathology tends to negate and defeat the vagaries of mass transit.
In this case, however, I really couldn’t care less how long it would take to get back to Queens, as I was one stop away and would need to transfer anyway on the better side of the river anyway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A quick transfer to the N at Queensboro Plaza and soon I was back in Astoria.
A ten minute walk from 31st street, with a stop at the Pizza guy, and a humble narrator was limping in the front door with a full camera card worth of new images to noodle around with. Dare I say it, Lords and Ladies?
Back in session.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Come on a tour!
With Atlas Obscura – Infrastructure Creek! My favorite walking tour to conduct, and in a group limited to just twelve people! December 14th, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Click here for more information and tickets!
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 
By Gad, we the readers, your erstwhile Lords and Ladies of the Pentacle have heard endless reports of your toe but what of the rest of that entropic field of molecules that assumes the figure of a man in a shabby black raincoat who writes this our Newtown Pentacle?
We’ve heard naught of the latest workings of your alimentary canal (of which we are accustomed to regular reports), the brewing of your renal system let alone your prostate. And what of your heart or endocrine system, reproductive organs and various other sundry glands and organs?
Now buck up and let’s have no more of this unmanly sniveling about your toe. Ask yourself what would Randolf Carter, E.J. Smith or Shackleton do in a sticky wicket? Robert Falcon Scott marched to the south pole with his toes falling off from frostbite with not a murmur of complaint. Courage, man, courage!
Stiff upper lip and all that.
Donald Cavaioli
Cav
December 2, 2019 at 8:22 pm