So when does everything come to life?

That is what I asked the guard at the Museum of Natural History last night at about 11pm.  He answered with a smile, "The timing of that event is based on  your imagination".

Well the Sleepover event at the Museum of Natural History called "A Night at the Museum"  is nothing like the movie "A Night at the Museum".  They happen in the same place but that is about it.  My son and I got to share a birthday experience with one his friends.  Not so much a party, there were four of us and 596 other guests who slept on cots all over the Museum.  We slept under The Whale in the Hall of Ocean Life.  I think is was the biggest sleeping area with about 250 cots.

So we walked aground the museum with flashlights.  I gotta admit being in a dark room with a T-Rex is a little creepy.  I was happy to go into the Extreme Animals exhibit.  When it opened I was a little confused.  Why should I go to a museum to see a platypus?  They are not extinct, they are just weird.  I actually found a website that lists what animals are in which zoos.  I was gonna plan a vacation around the zoo that had a platypus.  Not so much, it is illegal to take a platypus out of Australia..  I told this story to the docent who was hanging out with the platypus. He told me his day job is at the Bronx Zoo.  He said a platypus used to live in the basement of the building he works in now.  Just 60 years ago.

He let me take a photo of this stuffed platypus.

I like playing tour guide

My phone buzzed on New Year's morning while running a race.It turned out that my Florida family was visiting.So I went home and changed my smell and met them in Central Park. Trying to find people on their way to Central Park is kind of tough, and my cousin kept sending me messages That she thought were helpful but not so much."We are heading to Central Park by 5th". Yeah, Central Park has a few miles of Fifth Avenue near it. But I figured out they were near The Zoo they sent me this picture to the right. The description on the picture was "we are at the puppet guy just past the children's zoo". I didn't look very hard at the picture but I knew there's usually a busker just north of the zoo,  in the park. I should have actually looked a little harder at the picture because I could have responded that his name is Ronnie.He staffed the birthday party my kids had when they were in kindergarten at Puppet Works.New York City is a very small town.

Then we gathered up there five kids and headed down to Chinatown.My cousin commented to me that he thought five kids was easy compared to having twins. No, in fact it's the other way around.I had two kids at once, but we had one agenda. We fed them bathed them put them to sleep all the same time. And they kind of entertained each other. His kids all have different agendas. Five agendas. Not so easy.

Anyways, the Florida family wanted to do a museum day.The Museum of Natural History and then next door, The New York Historical Society had a special exhibit on the Jewish Deli. (That exhibit was about as interesting to me as the Harry Potter exhibit would have been. But it gets people to pay the admission fee.)  After I slept in the museum of natural history I really felt no need to go back. But, believe it or not, I've never been to the New York Historical Societies museum.The plan was that the family of seven would meet me at the deli exhibit at 3:00 p.m.knowing they would be late, I got there around 2:30 so I can enjoy the museum.The painting is called nurse Tracy and a better and authorized reproduction can be found here and here. Having spent an inappropriately long time in the hospital this pees really struck a cord with me.She looks like all the nurses who kept me alive. And of course the real model for this works at NYU Langone. 

I've said this before but let me try to put it in other words.I really don't know anything about art, but I have learned that it's not a bad idea to go to museum and look at the stuff.People with a critical eye have determined it's good stuff.Just sit down and try to figure out what's good about it. Sometimes you can find it on your own.

To the right is an image of the Ramones standing in front of a sign that says Gabba Gabba Hey. It's kind of weird to see this in a museum now because based on this photograph I chose how I dressed for about 10 years of my life.

Below is something that doesn't really look like a big deal. At first look it would look like a college diploma but it is actually the actual Pulitzer Prize given to Robert Caro for writing the Power Broker. When I got to the end of that book I remember thinking to myself that this is why books went awards.It was really neat to see it.If my career path years ago would have stayed in academics, this would have been my highest accomplishment. 

A Busy Weekend

So Saturday morning I made sure everyone had a good race in Prospect Park .  Part of that job is ordering the toilets.  You might want to know that when they come off the truck they are like hotel bathrooms.  They actually smell clean.

rundangerously snapped a photo of me.  I was not always that calm.

After the race I got to take my daughter to a birthday party.  It was on of those drop off parties so I to take a break and have a Chicken and Rice on a park bench behind the Museum Of Natural History.  It did not occur to me that I was accross the street from one of the newest hamburger joints in NYC.  Shake Shake.  It is hard to tell from my photo, but there was a long line to get in.  I did not have to look to see the line.  I know it was there because everyone walking past me was commenting on it.  Even people speaking in languages unknown to me were saying. "Gabba diace kaupea Shake Shack. uga buga."  Whatever, streetmeat works for me.

My daughter was at a party at place called Make Meaning.  It was kinda like the Disney of the Upper West Side, except without the rides or people walking around in costumes, or the whole theme park theme.  But it was like Disney World in that (according to my daughter) the whole party was scripted to the point where she really did not feel like she was being very creative.

However she did have a lot of fun at the "after party".  All the party guests were given a coupon to come back and make something another day.  Most of them stayed.  With little supervision they all had more fun.

She made a candle and a soap mold with a pig in it.

Sunday I needed to get in some miles. Since the Brooklyn Bridge lead paint removal project  is making it stinky I decided to run over the Manhattan Bridge and back home via the Williamsburg Bridge. Click here for an estamap.  I  ran by the site of The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Admirals Row.

I also noticed many banners hanging from signs promoting Building 92, or BLDG92.org.  From the gate it looked like a cool new museum.

So I ran home took a shower and and asked my son if he wanted to see the place were they put the guns on the USS Monitor.  Since his final 5th Grade project was on Civil War Iron Clad ships he grabbed his coat.

It was a great little museum.  It showed the history of its location from the days were Native Americans live there, during the Revolutionary War it was the location of British POW ships.  (Our soldiers were in the ships).  It was also a place where ships were constructed from the Civil War to WWII.  It is currently home to movie studios and modern little factories.

I had run over both those bridges hours earlier.

It had a birds eye view mural.  My son and his friend had a great time there.

They had a treasure hunt where they were encouraged to learn how green the building is.  (they have special grass growing on the roof so that rain water is  absorbed and not added to the sewer system.)

Hay, when we got there they recommend we go to the top floor for a snack.  The Ted and Honey Cafe was really a nice.  The boys had a sweet and I enjoyed a cup of coffee with a view.  I think I might one day have a real meal at their real restaurant.  I ran by that one the way home that morning.  I think I would wait on line there before waiting to go into the Shake Shack.

From Ted and Honey's Facebook

Road Trip

It was a cold rainy day today. Great museum day. From my experience the Natural History Museum or the Hall of Science would be packed. But I have a car. It was Great day to go 75 miles away to a museum.

I picked the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport Conn because it looked like my kids were about to outgrow it. Some of the stuff was for kids smaller than 9 year olds. The place was not very crowded. If fact, some of the rooms were empty. My kids thought the place was closed. They got over that pretty fast.

They have a planetarium. We stayed for two separate shows. The first was a video. It was like Thomas the Train becomes a star. The kids and I all thought it was kinda creepy. I found a clip on YouTube. Check it out. We also stayed for a second show on the history of the telescope. It was a little more grown up.



Then he turned on the thing that shines stars on the ceiling. The planetarium guy (that is how he introduced himself) took questions at the end. Mostly people wanted to see their astrological sign.No matter how many times shows me a constellation I don't see anything. I think it is a birth defect. There are worse miladies.

I had two questions

• What is the deal with Pluto? When I was a kid it was a big deal that we had 9 planets, now we have only 8. He said there are 8 planets and 5 or 6 "lesser planets". But it might go back to the way it was because the planet nerds are still fighting.

I also asked him

• Is it really darkest before the dawn? He tried to answer me so I changed the subject.

This is the view from their back window. Nice

A braincase and a backbone

Enough can not be said about the American Museum of Natural History.  I go as often as I can.  (They still don't sell bottled water) but I don't want to sleet there again.  One of the reasons I go a lot is because the price of admission is SUGGESTED.  You don't have to pay the Adults:  $16 SUGGESTED PRICE.  You could, considering that is is only a little more that the price of a movie.  For whatever ya wanna pay you can see the dinosaurs, the moon rocks, the Hall of Mammals,...... you know the rest  .  Give them a buck and spend the whole day there  "includes admission to all 45 Museum halls and the Rose Center for Earth and Space".

But you gotta pay for the cool stuff.  You need a ticket for the IMAX, the Hayden Planetarium Space show, and all the "traveling exhibits that make you visit even more special.  But  not me, I don't have  to pay the Adults:  $32 not suggested SuperSaver Admissions Price.  I know a high person in a low place, or as I think she might rather be called a low person in a high place.  She is one of the docents at the museum and she gets to hand out vouchers that allow her friends to enjoy the museum for free.  THANK YOU JANE.

So I figured with all the money I was saving I did not have to stop at a pizza place before hitting the museum.  It was fast and good but I had some sticker shock.  $92 for 4 kids and me.  I got 15% off by telling the checkout person that my wife had the membership card (my wife was home working).  She said she needed to see the card.  I said she was in the bathroom.  "Look at all this food, you think I am here with 4 kids by myself"  She took $14 off the tab.  I know,I am a weasel.

One more thing about spending money at the museum.  People, check you coat!  It is a big museum, it is all inside.  It is $2 well spent.

She asked me how many vouchers I wanted and I knew better to say "As many as you can give me".  I asked for 5, so each of my kids could take a friend.  Her gift to me was also a gift to the parents of the kids I took.  We went on December 24, they got to prepare.  The kids had a ball, but I don't want to wright about the trip I just took.

Thanks Big Marvin's Flickr

I had memories of trips I took there when the kids were 2 years old.  I remember the Hall of Gems.  I remember that is was not about the giant diamonds.  The great thing there is the wall to wall carpeting in the back. This giant chunk of azurite and malachite is in the middle of a platform of carpet.  It was a perfect place to let a couple of toddlers run a muck.  The 10 year olds liked it too.  They did not even know (or care) that they were 10 feed from the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond 31.06 carats Flawless, Natural Color, Fancy Deep Blue (Type IIb). If you have been reading my blog you would know it did not mean much to me ether.


Another fond memory I have is taking my kids to the 4th floor to look at the fossils.  When they were a year old I don't think they appreciated them but I did.  I think it is cool that the T-Rex used to be on all fours when I was a kid.  Scientists now know that it's front limbs were useless and it stood on its real legs.  That did not matter to my kids when they were little.  By the time we got the the 4th floor it was nap time. I would sit through the video on Cladograms five or ten or fifteen times.  For some reason I really liked it when Meryl Streep said "braincase and a backbone".

"braincase and a backbone"


I live in NYC, maybe one day I will meet her.  She will be the first celebrity that I will ask for an autograph.  I would like it to say "Dear Chicken Underwear, Braincase and a backbone, All the best Meryl Streep."

They walk the walk

I took 4 kids to the American Museum of Natural History today.  Yea, it is one of the perks of being a New Yorker.  I get to go there all the time.  Tourists come here just to visit.  They might take photos of the T-Rex, Lucy, a giant meteorite, a squid fighting with a giant whale or even retrace the filming locations of some populare movies.

I am always intrigued by a collections  Teddy Roosevelt's Hats

and by an armrest dedicated to one of my favored authors.

But one of my favorite things about the museum is a thing you will not see.  You will not see bottled water in their cafe.  They don't sell it.  They give away tap water. They don't just talk about saving the Earth, they lose revenue to do it.

It's a trade off.

I do actually leave Brooklyn.  Sometimes I actually got out of NYC.  I do see how other people live. They have bigger houses that cost less.  They have things called lawns and backyards.  They don't have to move their car just so the street might get cleaned.  Their kids go to schools with actual athletic facilities.  They have community pools that you actually want to spend the day at.   Yea, there are pluses that I am missing out on.

Today I did not miss them

Today I chaperoned another class trip.  This was a great trip.  My kids are finishing up their study of geology, specifically how glaciers left their mark on The Earth.  So on this first wonderfully warm day of 2013 (up to 82 degrees) the class walked out of their school building and went down the staircase on the corner and took the B train to 81st St.  30 minutes later we were in Central Park.

This Central Park

Just to look at rocks.

Billions of people live their entire lives without getting to Central Park and my kids do it on a whim just to look at rocks.

I learned something too.

I always thought these lines were caused by the glacier.  Notsomuch.  They are from the way the rock folded when it was being created, deep underground.

These grooves were scratched by the glacier.  The kids used compasses to see that all those lines faced the same way.

all the groves on all the rocks in Central Park are aligned North - South. 

The kids also observed that this stone is a glacial erratic.  Eleven year olds love to say that.

The kids had their lunch on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History. (That happens to be the San Remo behind the kids, It is where they filmed Ghostbusters)

Since they were studying the earth and still had an hour to kill.  We actually went into the museum.

and back to school by 1:30.

Yea, I am happy to be raising City Kids.

Hey, while researching this blog post I played with Google Street View.  I think the Google Car caught a diaper changing moment.  Check out the Streetview.

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View Larger Map

How is that for my 1,000th post?

I am so glad the tourists don't leave Manhattan!

Today was a nasty rainy day. We decided to spend the day at the New York Hall of Science. We had a great day. As usual, the museum, the bathrooms and the dining area were spotless. It is also never crowded, I bet the Museum of Natural History was packed. Today I actually thought of the million New York kids who spent the day inside looking at the TV, some of them could have had a much better experience if they got to the Hall of Science.

I have been taking my 8 year old twins there for half of their lives and every 6 months they appreciate it in new ways. Now that they are "big kids" I don't have to keep them together and I can let them explore a little on their own . I can let them know what spot I will be in and let them enjoy an exhibit.

One of the things that make my visits there great are all the young people who are there to help. I found out they are called Explainers. There is a whole Science Career Ladder of jobs at the Hall of Science. These kids get some science training and are there to make sure we are appreciating the exhibits. Some get promoted to help with science/arts and craft projects like making a magic box, or today we made slime.

Not only are the Explainers good for the Hall, but I thing these kids get a great thing. When I was in high school my only job opportunities were in retail and fast food. The predominant skill I walked away with was how to hate people. These kids walk away with a little bit if science technology and some great people skills. I am glad my kids will have opportunities like this in 10 years.


Here are some pictures of the kids and myself...

I know I did one thing right

I'm not saying I don't do a lot of things right but this one I know I got right.

Daddy daycamp began almost as soon as my kids were born. My wife was working from home then she went back to school.... It was my job to keep the kids occupied and I loved it. I waited until they were eight to quit my full-time job, I should've done it the day they were born. But that's another story

I embraced being a dad by embracing New York City.  Every day with my kids was like a new day in a new city I just acted like a tourist and had fun.  We became familiar with all the iconic institutions that make New York City great.  We were regular at the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Hall of Science, and all the institutions of the New York Zoological Society.  I realized that these places were just for staring at cages or artifacts.  They were places to work or volunteer.

It occurred to me that when I was a young teenager my summer opportunities were limited to two different kinds of things.  Hanging out at the beach/pool club or getting a crappy job.  I did a little of both until I was about 19 or 20.  Hanging out was not good for much.  I had jobs fast food restaurants and retail establishments.  Looking back those jobs were worse for me than doing nothing.  If your first job is a fast food restaurant you learn to hate going to work, you hate your boss and you hate the customers.

When my kids was still in diapers I noticed the youth guides at the Prospect Park Zoo.  They were cheerful kids who would hang around exhibits and help engage my toddlers.  I asked one of them how young they could be to start volunteering there.  The kids said 14, then I knew where my son would be in 10 years.  You see, as far as I'm concerned when it comes to domesticated animals in the cage that out of the cage it's just vermin.  We did the gerbil thing, we also had a few turtles and a handful of fish.  As far as I was concerned it would've been much more efficient and less smelly if we would've just flushed money down the toilet.

Someday, he might narrate the show

Last winter, I didn't push my son very hard... I gently let him know that he was now old enough to be a Discovery Guide at the Prospect Park zoo.  My prodding was very gentle.  He was almost 14 and I knew I pushed him too hard he would push back.  (Because I remember when I was 14 my parents would've told me to be careful on train tracks I would've been hit by a train.)  I just sent him a link and let them check it out himself.  I would've gone with him to the orientation but I was in intensive care.  So maybe the fact that he went by himself made it work out all for the better.  When he came to visit me in the hospital he told me about the program.  I will always remember his exact words.  "Dad, it's a tiered program, if I stay for all three years they might let me narrate the sea lion show. "  Bingo, I knew my son was not to make minimum wage at a fast food restaurant.  He was going to make friends and gain experience at the zoo.

He was there to three days a week all summer.  And I spent the whole summer in the hospital.  When the summer ended he switched to a weekend program and was there every Saturday.  Last week I got a new electric chair.  Being pushed around the zoo wasn't that fun but it was nice when I got to drive myself there.  This Sunday I son took a busmens's holiday and gave me a tour of The Zoo.

Apparently, this goat is called Ringo

With pride he told me the species name of most every animal in the zoo he also told me they were called.  He told me which sheep were friendly and which ones were grumpy.  He introduced me to all the other volunteers, and I got to meet his boss.

There was a lot of good feelings going around.  My son was proud of himself and I was pretty proud of him to.  And in a little way I was pretty pleased with myself for steering him in that direction.  I was also very happy to be out of the house in my new Electric Chair

The Hall of ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.

We went to the American Museum of Natural History today.  Yea I should know better.  Presidents Day.  30 degrees and a little snow.  Oh and we did not get there till 1:30.  But I got free passes and heard the new 3D Imax move about dinosaur fish was good.  So I did not care that it would be crowded.  I figured that we would have a quick in and out.

We could not enter the museum from the entrance that is in the accessible directly form the C Train.  I could see through the glass doors that there was already a wall of humanity inside.  So we went up to the main entrance and found out

1. The move is broken
2. The coat check is full
3. Timed tickets for the Brain are sold out

So, we can go into the Butterfly Conservatory  that is 80 degrees, but we gotta take our coats.

It was not so bad.  If you read my blog often you know I complain a lot.  But this is what it looked like mostly.

I actually met the nice person who gives me the passes to the museum.  She was leading a tour and saw me and said "What are you doing here today?"  I said I wanted to see the HALL OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, and I knew today would be the perfect day."

But then we went out for dinner.   4 ten year olds, 2 adults (kinda) and a baby.  Had a great meal at the New Wave Cafe.  2210 Broadway.

Samoa did not exist today, or today did not exist in Somoa

Really there was now Friday, December 30th 2011 in Samoa.  They skipped (or will skip) right to Saturday.  As I type it is 11pm in NYC.  I have no idea if it is yesterday or tomorrow in Samoa.  I don't really need to know.

But I visited a Samoan Village.  Well, it was at the American Museum of Natural History.

There might have been more people at the museum today than in Samoa.  According to Wikipedia, the population of Samoa is 179,000.  Also, according to Wikipedia there are 4 Million visitors to the AMNH a year.  That is an average of over 11,000 a day.

Today, the day before New Year's Eve was not an average day.  I bet there were over 180,000 people there.  Easy, maybe a Billion.

But some of them could have been anywhere

and we caught a nice sunset from the B Train on the Manhattan Bridge.  The photo might have looked better if we were on a train going the other way.

PLEASE, PLEASE, CHECK YOUR COAT!!!!

I can't say anything that has not been said about the American Museum of Natural History that has not been said before.  Click here to see the 9 times I blogged about it in the past.

There is something that need to be said.  If you go to this gigantic museum or any other museum of this scale CHECK YOUR COAT!  You either spent a lot of money to get in or got in for free, so another buck or two is not going to kill you.  So CHECK YOU COAT.

It might take you an extra few minutes when you get there.

But do you want to be this guy?

Or this guy?

Or her?















So, come on, it  is a big museum, you are gonna spend the entire day there.  CHECK YOUR COAT.

First Middle School Trip

I gotta say it is great to raise city-kids.  Some people see the appeal of some of your own grass and a place to park store your car.  But, my kids went on a trip to the American Museum of Natural History and were back in the school for lunch.  The B train stops on the school's corner.   28 minutes later we are on Central Park West and W81st St.  We did not even have to go outdoors once we were there.

6th grade trips are easy.  No breaking up into little groups.  No holding everyone's pencils.  The kids got their worksheets and we went directly to the Akeley Hall of African Mammals.



I got to sit back and appreciate the art that surrounds the dioramas.  Above that glass case filled with taxidermied beasts was this bronze relief.

The kids understood that these were not plastic animals.  They are the real preserved skins and hides of actual animals that were hunted so we could study them for ever.  The could deal with that.  


Then they realized there were baby animals there too.


It is old news, but there used to be a guy who would dumpster dive in Chinatown and using the skills of a taxidermist create new dead creatures.

Fun with Google Streetview

I think the Google Car caught a diaper changing moment.  Check out the Streetview.

44 W 81st St.  Across the street from the American Museum of Natural History.

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