Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Not Quite a Castle, but It's Home - New York Times
Not Quite a Castle, but It's Home - New York Times
Habitats | Upper East Side
Not Quite a Castle, but It's Home
Not Quite a Castle, but It's Home
IF the Ottoman Empire were restored, it would make one New York City landlord very happy.
His tenant, Ertugrul Osman, would become the Ottoman sultan — the head of a dynasty that ruled from 1299 to 1924, when the Turkish Republic was established. The job would come with a house in Istanbul, the 285-room Dolmabahce Palace, now a museum.
New York law, not to mention noblesse oblige, would require the sultan to surrender his two-bedroom apartment over a restaurant on Lexington Avenue in the 70's. He has lived there since 1945, and his rent is $350 a month.
But the empire isn't coming back. "I'm a very practical person," said the prince, trim, sharp and well dressed at 93. "Democracy works well in Turkey."
(Titles are not coming back either: the tenant on Lexington Avenue is technically His Imperial Highness Prince Osman Ertugrul, but after six decades in the United States, he has learned to answer to just plain Osman.)
Ali Tayar, an architect from Istanbul who became friends with Osman in the early 1990's, put the prince's status in perspective. "He has no ambitions to return, and he doesn't want anyone to think he does," Mr. Tayar said. "But he's an incredibly important link to Turkey's past."
Since they don't plan to go anywhere, Osman and his wife, Zeynep, a niece of the last king of Afghanistan, expect their landlord, Stephen Kirschenbaum, to maintain their current home in safe condition.
In 2005, part of the couple's bathroom ceiling collapsed moments after the princess had left the room.
"I could have died," she said.
"I could have sued," said her husband, his comic timing sharpened by nearly a century of practice.
The princess is so courtly that she phones a reporter in advance of a visit to ask whether he would like coffee or tea. So imagine how she feels warning the reporter to be careful, because there aren't any light bulbs in the narrow stairway leading to the third-floor apartment.
Illuminated or not, the stairs are so steep that it's hard for anyone, much less anyone who's 93, to climb them. Still, Osman and Zeynep (who is nearly 30 years his junior) descend and ascend daily. Their haunts include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park and their favorite restaurant, Swifty's. They speak knowledgeably — in English, Turkish and French — about music, art and politics.
"When I first met him, I didn't know how to address him," Mr. Tayar said. "Even the formal 'you' in Turkish seemed too meager. But he made things easy."
Mr. Tayar said that Osman, a devotee of contemporary architecture, visited Pop and Waterloo, downtown restaurants Mr. Tayar designed. "He really gets it."
The pair are not above poking fun at themselves. A needlepoint pillow in the couple's bedroom says, "It's not easy being a princess."
Indeed. After the ceiling collapsed, the couple wrote to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Soon the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development was rebuilding their roof, while the couple lived in a hotel.
Mr. Kirschenbaum, who practiced law in New York for nearly 30 years but now owns a resort in Santa Fe, N.M., said that he was preparing to rebuild the roof when the city stepped in. (A spokesman for the city confirmed that the Housing Department had made the repairs to the apartment.)
Although New York State considers the apartment to be rent-controlled, Mr. Kirschenbaum said he was not sure it qualified for that status, because it was the only residential unit in a commercial building. He added that the couple's lease, originally drafted 60 years ago, requires them to make repairs to the apartment.
Maddy Tarnofsky, the couple's lawyer, disagreed. "There is an ancient lease that does provide for the tenant to make certain repairs, but not structural repairs," she said, adding that she did not believe the provision would be enforceable in any event.
Ms. Tarnofsky contends that the rent sounds better than it is. "If you add in the amount they have spent over the years to keep the boiler running, and to do the types of repairs that are the responsibility of the landlord, it has actually been a very expensive apartment," she said.
The couple is now suing Mr. Kirschenbaum to force him to make further repairs to the apartment.
If the geopolitical situation were different, the prince and princess, who married in 1991, would have servants to handle such matters. Twelve years ago, Osman became the oldest male member of his family — and thus the 45th head of the dynasty founded by Osman I in 1299. He is the last living grandson of any Ottoman emperor (his grandfather, Abdul Hamid II, ruled from 1876 to 1909). After him, Zeynep said, "the tradition of the family will disappear because the rest of the members were born abroad."
Their annual visits to Turkey are front-page news there. Turkey is seeking admission to the European Union, hat in hand, a process that some Turks find humiliating. By contrast, Osman symbolizes a time when the Ottomans exercised vast power.
He also represents a moderate approach to Islam. "If the caliphate were restored," Zeynep said, referring to the sultan's traditional role as the leader of Sunni Muslims, "the world would be a better place."
Born in 1912, Osman was sent to school in Vienna as a child. In 1924, the royal family was expelled by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. "The men had one day to leave," he said. "The women were given a week."
Osman, who was already studying in Europe, remained there until he moved to New York in 1939. His first trip back to Turkey was 53 years later, in August 1992, at the invitation of the prime minister.
Of course, he wanted to see Dolmabahce Palace. Eschewing the red-carpet treatment, he insisted on joining a tour group, despite the summer heat. "I didn't want a fuss," he said. "I'm not that kind of person."
Still, even he was ruffled when a guard told him he couldn't step up off a plastic mat onto the parquet floors, which he had played on as a child.
As a young man, Osman, who is now retired, was in the mining business and often traveled to South America. Because he claimed to be a citizen of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire did not exist, he refused the passport of any nation. For years, he traveled with a homemade passport, and then a permit issued by the United States government. Incredibly, that worked for decades, and might have continued to work had Sept. 11 not led to tighter security. In 2004, he received a Turkish passport for the first time.
Zeynep had also led the life of an exile. Her family left Afghanistan after King Amanullah, her uncle, was forced from power in 1929. In Istanbul, her mother, who was Turkish, worked as a surgeon and ran her own hospital. "But she never lost her femininity," Zeynep said. "I never even heard her raise her voice."
After moving to New York in 1971, Zeynep supported herself by selling Turkish-made clothing under the brand name Zana. (She has recently begun marketing some of the same clothes at www.fashionmodem.com.) At a party in 1989, she met Osman, then a widower with no children. She was smitten, but he worried that the age difference between them was too great. "Eventually," she recalled, "'I told him, 'If you won't marry me, I'll marry someone else.' It was an empty threat, but it worked."
After they married in 1991, Osman's apartment, with its 25-by-40-foot living room and huge terrace facing a leafy backyard, was the obvious place for them to live.
At one time, Osman said, he had 12 dogs in the apartment and kept neighborhood children busy as dog walkers. These days, the couple are down to two cats, Dodo and Silvermix.
The furnishings are comfortable but modest. In one corner of the living room, a collection of silver objects that belonged to Osman's family evokes past grandeur. He is too modest to show them off, so Zeynep does the honors.
An ornately framed mirror bears a portrait of a long-ago sultan. "He's the one who laid siege to Vienna," Osman said matter-of-factly.
Then, seeing the reporter admire the silver, Zeynep announced, "Everyone who visits us leaves with a token." There was a long pause, and then she pointed to the visitor's jacket. "Cat hairs."
Osman offered reassurance. "The hairs," he said, "are silvery in the right light."
And in the right light, this is Dolmabahce Palace.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Iranian Media Pounces On McCain Comments - World Watch - CBS News
Iranian Media Pounces On McCain Comments - World Watch - CBS News
He sounds like George W Bush before the humbling.
He sounds like George W Bush before the humbling.
Mattress Dimensions
Mattress Dimensions
Twin
39" wide x 75" long
Twin Extra Long
39" wide x 80" long
Full
54" wide x 75" long
Full Extra Long
54" wide x 80" long
Queen
60" wide x 80" long
Queen Split
Two 30" x 80" long
King
76" wide x 80" long
King Split
Two Twin Extra Long beds together
California/Western King Mattress
72" wide x 84" long - Two Twin Extra Long beds together
Desktop Wallpapers | Vladstudio.com - free desktop wallpapers, widescreen, dual monitors, iPhone wallpapers, backgrounds for mobile phones, wallpaper clocks, e-cards
Desktop Wallpapers | Vladstudio.com - free desktop wallpapers, widescreen, dual monitors, iPhone wallpapers, backgrounds for mobile phones, wallpaper clocks, e-cards
Somebody's got talent!
Randomly found this guy.
Somebody's got talent!
Randomly found this guy.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Santa Barbara County Fair
http://santamariafairpark.com/cm/main/Santa%20Barbara%20County%20Fair.html
July 15 - 19th 2009
July 15 - 19th 2009
Anne Carlini - Exclusive Magazine
Anne Carlini - Exclusive Magazine
Your album title 'Powerful Stuff' is an interesting choice, but perhaps it originates from a more personal standpoint for you? "These days women have to take care of themselves and become female McGyvers ready to handle any situation and that's powerful."
Your album title 'Powerful Stuff' is an interesting choice, but perhaps it originates from a more personal standpoint for you? "These days women have to take care of themselves and become female McGyvers ready to handle any situation and that's powerful."
Mitch Ryder tickets, concerts and tour dates. Official Ticketmaster site.
Mitch Ryder tickets, concerts and tour dates. Official Ticketmaster site.: "Mitch Ryder"
Mitch Ryder
Biography
In-depth Biography
The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels' blue-eyed R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line. Born William Levise, Jr. in Hamtramck, MI on February 26, 1945, as a teen Ryder sang with a local black quartet dubbed the Peps but suffered so much racial harassment that he soon left the group to form his own combo, Billy Lee and the Rivieras. While opening for the Dave Clark Five during a 1965 date, the Rivieras came to the notice of producer Bob Crewe, who immediately signed the group and, according to legend, rechristened the singer Mitch Ryder after randomly selecting the name from a phone book. Backed by the peerless Detroit Wheels -- originally guitarists James McCarty and Joseph Cubert, bassist Earl Elliot, and drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek -- Ryder reached the Top Ten in early '66 with "Jenny Take a Ride"; the single, a frenzied combination of Little Richard's "Jenny Jenny" and Chuck Willis' "C.C. Rider," remains one of the quintessential moments in blue-eyed soul, its breathless intensity setting the tone for the remainder of the band's output.
Ryder and the Detroit Wheels returned to the charts weeks later with their reading of "Little Latin Lupe Lu," scoring their biggest hit that autumn with the Top Five smash "Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly." "Sock It to Me Baby!" followed in early 1967, but at Crewe's insistence Ryder soon split from the rest of the band to mount a solo career; the move proved disastrous -- outside of the Top 30 entry "What Now My Love," the hits quickly and permanently dried up. In 1969 Ryder teamed with Booker T. and the MG's for an LP titled The Detroit/Memphis Experiment before returning home and reuniting with Badanjek in a new seven-piece lineup known simply as Detroit. The group's lone LP, a self-titled effort issued in 1971, remains a minor classic, yielding a major FM radio hit with its cover of Lou Reed's "Rock and Roll"; however, the years of performing were taking their toll, and as Ryder began suffering more and more from severe throat problems, he retired from music, relocating to the Denver area in 1973. In time he began writing songs with wife Kimberley, also taking up painting and working on a novel.
Ryder resurfaced in 1978 on his own Seeds and Stems label with How I Spent My Vacation, his first new LP in seven years; Naked but not Dead appeared a year later, and he continued his prolific output in 1981 with two new efforts, Live Talkies and Got Change for a Million?. In 1983 ardent fan John Cougar Mellencamp agreed to produce Ryder's major label comeback, Never Kick a Sleeping Dog, which generated a minor hit with its cover of the Prince classic "When You Were Mine" but otherwise failed to return the singer to mainstream success, at least at home -- in Europe, and particularly in Germany, he retained a large fan following, releasing In the China Shop on the German label Line in 1986. After satirizing the Iran-Contra debacle with the 1987 single "Good Golly, Ask Ollie," Ryder issued the full-length Red Blood, White Mink the following year; subsequent efforts include 1990's The Beautiful Toulang Sunset, 1992's La Gash and 1994's Rite of Passage. He continued touring steadily in the years to follow and also worked on an autobiography. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Mitch Ryder
Biography
In-depth Biography
The unsung heart and soul of the Motor City rock & roll scene, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels' blue-eyed R&B attack boasted a gritty passion and incendiary energy matched by few artists on either side of the color line. Born William Levise, Jr. in Hamtramck, MI on February 26, 1945, as a teen Ryder sang with a local black quartet dubbed the Peps but suffered so much racial harassment that he soon left the group to form his own combo, Billy Lee and the Rivieras. While opening for the Dave Clark Five during a 1965 date, the Rivieras came to the notice of producer Bob Crewe, who immediately signed the group and, according to legend, rechristened the singer Mitch Ryder after randomly selecting the name from a phone book. Backed by the peerless Detroit Wheels -- originally guitarists James McCarty and Joseph Cubert, bassist Earl Elliot, and drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek -- Ryder reached the Top Ten in early '66 with "Jenny Take a Ride"; the single, a frenzied combination of Little Richard's "Jenny Jenny" and Chuck Willis' "C.C. Rider," remains one of the quintessential moments in blue-eyed soul, its breathless intensity setting the tone for the remainder of the band's output.
Ryder and the Detroit Wheels returned to the charts weeks later with their reading of "Little Latin Lupe Lu," scoring their biggest hit that autumn with the Top Five smash "Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly." "Sock It to Me Baby!" followed in early 1967, but at Crewe's insistence Ryder soon split from the rest of the band to mount a solo career; the move proved disastrous -- outside of the Top 30 entry "What Now My Love," the hits quickly and permanently dried up. In 1969 Ryder teamed with Booker T. and the MG's for an LP titled The Detroit/Memphis Experiment before returning home and reuniting with Badanjek in a new seven-piece lineup known simply as Detroit. The group's lone LP, a self-titled effort issued in 1971, remains a minor classic, yielding a major FM radio hit with its cover of Lou Reed's "Rock and Roll"; however, the years of performing were taking their toll, and as Ryder began suffering more and more from severe throat problems, he retired from music, relocating to the Denver area in 1973. In time he began writing songs with wife Kimberley, also taking up painting and working on a novel.
Ryder resurfaced in 1978 on his own Seeds and Stems label with How I Spent My Vacation, his first new LP in seven years; Naked but not Dead appeared a year later, and he continued his prolific output in 1981 with two new efforts, Live Talkies and Got Change for a Million?. In 1983 ardent fan John Cougar Mellencamp agreed to produce Ryder's major label comeback, Never Kick a Sleeping Dog, which generated a minor hit with its cover of the Prince classic "When You Were Mine" but otherwise failed to return the singer to mainstream success, at least at home -- in Europe, and particularly in Germany, he retained a large fan following, releasing In the China Shop on the German label Line in 1986. After satirizing the Iran-Contra debacle with the 1987 single "Good Golly, Ask Ollie," Ryder issued the full-length Red Blood, White Mink the following year; subsequent efforts include 1990's The Beautiful Toulang Sunset, 1992's La Gash and 1994's Rite of Passage. He continued touring steadily in the years to follow and also worked on an autobiography. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Michael Hart, the inventor of eBooks, says the Kindle won't go | Project Gutenberg News Portal
Michael Hart, the inventor of eBooks, says the Kindle won't go | Project Gutenberg News Portal
I just adore Project Gutenberg, but Hart, the guru of ebooks is quite wrong about the Kindle.
Point by point:
First: the Kindle screen is the perfect size - between a phone and a netbook
Second: Everyone knows you use cell phones to type in shorthand. lol.
Third: There will always be bibliophiles. Regardless, books are quite handy and convenient and never require power.
Fourth: you don't even have to understand what your Kindle is doing. Is it wifi? Is it cell technology? Who cares? Press a button and book delivered. As much as I love my netbook, the press a button part is irresistible. And I'm a techie. Think how much the non-techies are going to love the press a button magic.
Fifth: PDA's suck. Crappy interfaces or if they're smart phones the monthly charges are killer. Kindle free. Yup. By once. Then free. No monthly charge. No monthly fee.
Sixth: love my netbook, but would never read with it. I can cozy up with my kindle in bed whereas the netbook will strangle me with cord or burn the bed up with overheating. When I get too sleepy to read, just click once, and it reads to me. Happy, happy me.
Seventh: Uhhhh... like the iPod? it seems to be doing ok...
Eighth: not yet. but if this Luddite bibliomaniac can learn to embrace the Kindle, then anyone can. And my Kindle can read books from Project Gutenberg. It's kind of simple... err press a button. Yippy!
I don't care how many people buy the Kindle. It's the best. I love my Kindle. It reads to me when I'm sleepy. It stores 1000 heavy books that would be cluttering my house. Technical books that I just throw away in five years - now I don't have to feel bad about all the trees. Non-fiction books about topical subjects, anyone remember all the books about someone named George W? well I'm tripping over them.
Yeah, Kindle! No passwords, no monthly fees, no charging every night. Freedom!
Pink O. Korner
Founder
Pinko Korner
I just adore Project Gutenberg, but Hart, the guru of ebooks is quite wrong about the Kindle.
Point by point:
First: the Kindle screen is the perfect size - between a phone and a netbook
Second: Everyone knows you use cell phones to type in shorthand. lol.
Third: There will always be bibliophiles. Regardless, books are quite handy and convenient and never require power.
Fourth: you don't even have to understand what your Kindle is doing. Is it wifi? Is it cell technology? Who cares? Press a button and book delivered. As much as I love my netbook, the press a button part is irresistible. And I'm a techie. Think how much the non-techies are going to love the press a button magic.
Fifth: PDA's suck. Crappy interfaces or if they're smart phones the monthly charges are killer. Kindle free. Yup. By once. Then free. No monthly charge. No monthly fee.
Sixth: love my netbook, but would never read with it. I can cozy up with my kindle in bed whereas the netbook will strangle me with cord or burn the bed up with overheating. When I get too sleepy to read, just click once, and it reads to me. Happy, happy me.
Seventh: Uhhhh... like the iPod? it seems to be doing ok...
Eighth: not yet. but if this Luddite bibliomaniac can learn to embrace the Kindle, then anyone can. And my Kindle can read books from Project Gutenberg. It's kind of simple... err press a button. Yippy!
I don't care how many people buy the Kindle. It's the best. I love my Kindle. It reads to me when I'm sleepy. It stores 1000 heavy books that would be cluttering my house. Technical books that I just throw away in five years - now I don't have to feel bad about all the trees. Non-fiction books about topical subjects, anyone remember all the books about someone named George W? well I'm tripping over them.
Yeah, Kindle! No passwords, no monthly fees, no charging every night. Freedom!
Pink O. Korner
Founder
Pinko Korner
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
USC Neurologists
Nerses Sanossian, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
Neurocritical Care and Stroke Division
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
Neurocritical Care and Stroke Division
@ IT Facts
@ IT Facts
What is this?
It appears to be a summary of press releases and pseudo-science which allows people to bibliograph whatever facts they can find to pre-support their positions.
Pseudo-facts for the pseudo-world.
What is this?
It appears to be a summary of press releases and pseudo-science which allows people to bibliograph whatever facts they can find to pre-support their positions.
Pseudo-facts for the pseudo-world.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Kids In Glass Houses - Nobody Does Hospitality Like The Japanese - The Bands' Blog - NME.COM - The world's fastest music news service, music videos, interviews, photos and free stuff to win
Photo from AP Photo - News, photos, topics, and quotes
Photo from AP Photo - News, photos, topics, and quotes
Random but cool photo. The skin only the young can have.
Random but cool photo. The skin only the young can have.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Dear Domino magazine reader: Inside AD: architecturaldigest.com
Dear Domino magazine reader: Inside AD: architecturaldigest.com: "Domino magazine"
Domino magazine gone already. I liked it.
Domino magazine gone already. I liked it.
Just So:Abantika Ghosh's blog-The Times Of India
Just So:Abantika Ghosh's blog-The Times Of India
Indian woman against affirmative action for women in India. Not exactly news.
Indian woman against affirmative action for women in India. Not exactly news.
busynest cards - calling cards for the business of life!
busynest cards - calling cards for the business of life!
This is new. Actually, very old made new again.
This is new. Actually, very old made new again.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Friday, June 05, 2009
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome - Los Angeles Times
For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome - Los Angeles Times
Why does every new generation think they have found something that no previous generation ever thought of????
Let's see... I spent my funemployment time in 1991 traveling Europe and studying in Sevilla.... 1993 funemployment was spent discovering my genealogy and finding some new uncles and aunt for my mom, not to mention cousins...
but, oh right, funemployment was "just now" discovered by the new generation because they are so "narcissistic" .... and no one knew that corporate life sucked before Dilbert ... thank heavens we have all these young people to explain everything to us old fuddy duddys!
Why does every new generation think they have found something that no previous generation ever thought of????
Let's see... I spent my funemployment time in 1991 traveling Europe and studying in Sevilla.... 1993 funemployment was spent discovering my genealogy and finding some new uncles and aunt for my mom, not to mention cousins...
but, oh right, funemployment was "just now" discovered by the new generation because they are so "narcissistic" .... and no one knew that corporate life sucked before Dilbert ... thank heavens we have all these young people to explain everything to us old fuddy duddys!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’ - NYTimes.com
For Teenagers, Hello Means ‘How About a Hug?’ - NYTimes.com
The Media is so behind the times. This started 30 years ago.
The Media is so behind the times. This started 30 years ago.
Monday, June 01, 2009
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