Car – Bradley Farless

NYC BMW Has Hood Crushed By Construction Backhoe

October 21, 2012 Bradley Farless2 Comments

After a fine dinner at Pinche Taqueria, my wife and I were walking down Bleeker Street (between Lafayette and Bowery) and, well… this:

I had to stop to make sure I was seeing it right, and sure enough, the hood of the car is being smashed in by the backhoe.

Close up of backhoe resting on (aka smashing) BMW hood.

I suppose seeing me standing there taking photos was drawing attention, because by the time I left, there was a crowd of people looking at the car, people peering out of apartment windows, lots of laughing, lots of joking, and people calling “shotgun” on who gets to post this to Reddit first.

A number of questions come to mind. Whose car is this? Why did the person driving the backhoe do this? Was it intentional? Did the BMW driver piss off the backhoe operator? Was it stupidity? When will the lawsuit drop and who’s going to pay for this?

Work Permit at construction site for BMW with hood crushed by backhoe.

Regardless of whether this makes the NYC news or not (I’m sure there will be too many stories about Honey Boo Boo or something equally stupid to show this), I’m sure the driver of the construction vehicle will be fired, but the work permits were applied for by a guy named Martin Donovan, so I guess he’ll be held ultimately responsible for footing the bill. (Update 2: Noticed that both vehicles were parked illegally in a spot that has no parking b/t 7 am and 7 pm, Mon – Fri. Makes the question of legal responsibility for the damage a little more muddy, doesn’t it?)

Vehicle information and more photos in the gallery:

Update:

Found this photo on Reddit of the car earlier today, before the backhoe dropped onto the hood.

Classic New York City Taxi

November 3, 2010 Bradley Farless10 Comments

Old fashioned New York City Taxi.

I saw this old fashioned taxi cab parked on the side of the road. I assume it’s still being used, but I could be wrong. Maybe someone bought it and is using it as a personal vehicle and they enjoy the novelty of driving it.

I don’t ride in taxis much here. They’re way too expensive. With a little foresight and time management, you could save yourself 20 dollars or more and just take the bus or train. I guess a lot of people do use them though, because sometimes I get the impression that there are more taxis on the roads here in the city than any other types of vehicles combined.

A Car Blessing in the Philippines

September 26, 2010 Bradley Farless14 Comments

Do people actually do this in any other country? I’ve never heard of it before. Is it strictly a Catholic thing?

A car being blessed by a Catholic priest in the Philippines.

In the image above, you can see a group of people gathered around a new vehicle. The man in the white top and black pants is a priest, probably from the nearby Our Lady of Peace Cathedral, which is a popular pilgrimage destination for people who are about to embark on trips.

I’m not sure if there’s a process to this, if different parts of the vehicle are blessed at different times and I just stumbled across them as they were getting to the engine, or if having the hood raised and the engine running is just the standard way of having a vehicle blessed.

As weird as this seems, it makes sense in a way, and makes sense that they’d come to the Cathedral that’s known as a place for travelers to receive blessings to have it done.

If you stumbled across this post looking for information about how to get your car blessed at the Cathedral, click this link and then scroll to the bottom of the post to see a picture of the sign showing the hours for car blessings, as well as contact numbers.