Broadway – Bradley Farless

The Liberato Helicopter

I’ve spent most of the last three days sick. Snotty, achy, fatigued sick. So, I spent almost all of this beautiful weekend either sleeping, sitting in bed, or sitting in front of my desk, trying to entertain myself with books. That was sort of hard because I was having trouble concentrating. Time Warner’s internet also went down for about 24 hours starting Saturday afternoon. That wasn’t very fun.

I would rather have been outside. It was such a nice weekend, or at least the weather app on my phone made me think it was a nice weekend.

I did manage to get out of the house for a little while this evening. I was tottering along the street. I joked to my wife that I felt like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

We were on a mission to find a mango, and I wanted a little fresh air. I also had some letters I wanted to mail and I needed to get a thank you card for a rabbi that hosted my wife and I for an evening this past Shavuot.

While we were out on this walk, looking for a mango, we went down Broadway and visited some stores we hadn’t seen before. That’s where I saw the cool helicopter mascot thing at Liberato, a small grocery store on the corner of 163rd Street.

Anyway, we wound up finding an Associated Supermarket on 161st and Broadway, which we hadn’t realized was there. I guess we never took enough time to explore the neighborhood when we moved here last year. We were always so busy. Associated had our mango. In fact, they had our mango on sale, so we got three, and it tasted great in our veggie sushi rolls.

A street fair on Broadway near Union Square Park.

Today, Broadway was closed down from 14th Street, where Union Square is, down to 8th Street for a street fair. The road was lined on both sides with stalls selling everything from costume jewelry to barbecue pulled pork. There were even stalls set up by The New York Times, trying to get people to buy subscriptions, and a booth promoting Islam. This is a story best told with pictures:

Costume jewelry for sale at a street fair in New York City.

This costume jewelry was laid out in a huge pile across a few tables. It was on sale. A closeout sale in fact. Only $3.00 apiece. Doesn’t seem like much of a sale to me. I’m sure if you looked hard enough you could find this stuff for a dollar apiece. It’s pretty to look at though, especially when it’s laid out together like it was.

Kettle Corn NYC.

Some $9.00 bags of kettle corn. If you’ve never had kettle corn, it’s sweet. It tastes awesome and smells great.

Shirts for sale at a street fair on Broadway in New York City.

Japanese balls. Yum!

I stopped by this booth to look at what they had to offer. The sign on the front of the table says that everything on the table is free. The guy in the blue jacket on the right spoke fluent English and Spanish, and the Korans he’s putting down are translated into Spanish. The Lower East Side has a lot of Hispanic families, so maybe that’s the demographic they were mostly prepared for. I took a few of the flyers. I’m sure they’ll make great reading material for the train. The guy in the blue jacket seemed encouraged by my interest in the flyers and asked me what I know about Islam, so I started talking about dates, like Mohammad’s birth, death, the first revelation, etc. I know these things, since I just learned about it in an Art History course and I’m taking a test over it tomorrow. He asked me if I wanted to spend a few minutes learning about the basics of the Islamic faith. I thanked him, but said no. It’s not that it wouldn’t be interesting, but given recent events, I don’t want to hang around anything promoting Islam. Some nutball might show up and do something violent. Besides, I have a feeling he was going to tell me about the 5 pillars of the Islamic faith: Attestation (“There is no god but God, and Mohammad is his prophet.”), Alms, Prayer (5 times a day), the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), and fasting during Ramadan.

Marrakesh: Moroccan Bazaar and Decor booth at a street fair on Broadway.

There were even Moroccan rugs!

Funnel cake stand.

And funnel cakes! I love funnel cakes. I didn’t get one though, because I was on my way to meet my mom for lunch. It was Mother’s Day, and I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.

I saw a LOT more than just this street fair today, including some Asian cultural festivities, but I’ll save that for a post tomorrow, or the day after. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Tag: Broadway

The Liberato Helicopter

Broadway Street Fair, 14th Street to 8th Street