Everybody's Talking About Ice Cream

Today was the hottest yet. Even in the evenings when the air temperature has dropped a bit, it's still so hot because of the heat radiating from the concrete. H enjoyed her class today and got some great feedback from the teacher who is a short Russian man with a heavy accent. I got her sketchbook and took pictures of a couple of things she had worked on. This sketch was to help her with painting the model's nose. She finished her painting today and tomorrow plans to work on one of his legs and feet.

I spent the morning at the New York Public Library on 5th Avenue and 42 Street. Here's some of what I learned...

It was finished in 1911 at a cost of $9.5 million. At the time a 9-room Madison Avenue apartment was $50. The city budget this year for the library is $280 million, down $40 million from last year. It has 88 miles of shelves of books. It is one of the six largest libraries in the world. It is free and open for the public's use, although it is not a lending library. It has many special collections, including a special Declaration of Independence exhibit with a hand-written copy by Thomas Jefferson.

A clock on 5th just above the library.

One of the lions in front of the building. The facade was covered in scaffolding. They are cleaning the building in preparation for the 100th anniversary next year.

Inside the 5th Avenue entrance, Astor Hall.

The ceiling tiles are actually molded Plaster of Paris!

A painting of Gutenberg and his printing press. The library has on display one of the Gutenberg Bibles. He printed 180-190 of these Bibles in Latin. Only about 40 are still in existence.

The Reading Room in the library. If you need a book, you find it in the on-line card catalog, and then you take a request slip to the librarian who sends it up in a metal tube just as they did 100 years ago. The librarian in the stacks then finds the book and sends it back to the librarian on a book elevator. The guide said it usually takes about 10 minutes to get your book.

I told H that I was going to start counting how many times I heard the word "ice cream" on the street. It got be funny. H and I had burgers at Rue 57, went to Whole Foods, and then stopped at the Columbus Circle location of Grom Gelato. H got peach and I, of course, had to get the dark chocolate. It was wonderful but melted really fast.