Reader Contribution Du Jour: Altitude

April 30, 2010 by missheather
Filed under: 11101, 11222, Blissville, Blissville Queens, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Long Island City, Long Island City Queens, Sunnyside, Sunnyside Queens

Before I proceed with this post I would like make it known that today’s postage will be decidedly lite. There are two reasons for this:

For those of you who are not in the know, my mother has paid our fair city a visit. She left yesterday. I have been running around a lot the last week.
In the process of said “running around” I managed to pick up head cold. Lucky me.

I am tired. But not too tired to share this shot taken by fellow Shit Tit enthusiast, my very own mother, as her plane approached La Guardia Airport.

What first caught her eye was how the sun seemed to be shining right on them as if to say:

Welcome to Greenpoint!

Potential tourist attraction or not, they certainly make for a striking view for would-be visitors and this photograph lends a note of veracity to Emily Lloyd’s assertion that these bad boys (girls?) can be seen from the Empire State Building!

In closing (and for those of you who care to know) my mother had a grand time. She was unable to attend the visitor’s center grand opening due to a scheduling conflict but did pay Mr. Acconci’s fountain its respects. She was impressed. But arguably the most interesting part of her visit to New York was not to be had by her at all. It was by a friend of hers —we’ll call “S”— and it came to pass in Queens.

Long story made very short, “S” had to change hotels. So my mother, being helpful, recommended the Best Western City View in Sunnyside. She spent the night there and got up bright and early to catch her 5:30 a.m. flight. When she ducked into the lobby at 3:30 a.m. the desk clerk appeared to be nervous. He suggested— repeatedly— that she wait for her car in the lounge and added that he had just made a fresh pot of coffee. She refused— repeatedly— and as a result became privy to a hushed conversation between said desk clerk and a potential “client”. She only caught a snippet, but that snippet pretty much says it all:

It will be $60 in cash and you have to leave by 7:00 a.m.

“S” did not see this chap’s “companion” or ascertain how much she (he?) cost, but given she had not set foot in our fair city in 25 years suffice it to say it made for quite a memorable conclusion to her visit.

Miss Heather