… hiking in Harpers Ferry.

I’m under the weather. It’s why I’ve not blogged for a bit. Am making tea. We’ll see.

… hanging out with work buddies. Poor thing.

UD, on this brilliantly sunny and quite cold late afternoon, was standing at one of her front windows idly looking out, and coming down the street were three elaborately costumed girls telling whoever was listening that they could take their picture.

She opened the window.

“So I can take your picture?”

“Yes. You can take our picture.”

“Hold on.”

UD got her phone and went outside. She asked the girls to pose between her two bulls, Ferdinand and Isabella. “You all look great. Birthday party?”

“No. We just decided to dress up.”

UD‘s hometown, Garrett Park, is “the first Maryland town to ban single-use plastic straws,” I’ll have you know. The town council member behind the new law is one of the owners of Founding Farmers restaurant.

***************

UPDATE: From the comments section. UD loves the locally-popular Garrett Parkers are snobs meme cuz it makes her feel all elite. Listen up:

I live just outside Garrett Park.

This new ordinance is silly, because there’s only ONE restaurant in Garrett Park, and they probably find plastic straws are too “common” for their aesthetic anyways.

Hm – ‘just outside’ … Lady Bracknell?

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.

Not only do we Garrett Parkers find anything short of silver straws common, we also find common people who randomly put quotation marks around certain words, and who write anyways when they mean anyway.

... father-in-law.

One of his naughty etchings, in our front hall.

… a very, very cold day.

...UD sat on her back deck with Mr UD moments ago, watching the incredibly clear full moon go through its shadow and its blue and pink and vanishing pearly cap as it eclipsed. We never get skies like this in Garrett Park! We didn’t have to go to Strathmore!

And we’ll go out there again in about a half hour to watch the moon’s red deepen. UD will add another layer to her already ridiculous get-up and she’ll lie next to Mr UD on their loungers and they will silently pass the binoculars back and forth.

William Blake?

The New York Times.

The poetry of tonight’s lunar eclipse.

UD will be out there – probably on the darkish hill in front of the Strathmore Concert Hall (which her uncle, you recall, insisted on building despite UD‘s repeated suggestions that he not). “Dark skies are always a plus, but your backyard or city street will work just fine.” The only things UD will bring are her binoculars and Mr UD.

… on a walk through my woods in today’s rain.

I see the shrieking head of a monster.

… is “Christmas came early for the heirs of the historic building…” — but let that go. The heirs of UD‘s grandfather’s brother just won an appeal of a 2017 Worcester County Court decision that would have allowed Ocean City to take away from them a boardwalk building they’ve owned since 1905. 

UD‘s grandfather, Joseph Rapoport, was one of seven brothers who came here from Russia and settled in Philadelphia, but eventually bought and operated businesses in Ocean City, Maryland. Indeed, Nathan – the brother at the center of the appeal – eventually moved to OC full-time and lived on the second floor of the building at issue (its first floor has, for decades, been a Dumser’s ice cream parlor).

Interestingly, Nathan’s obituary only lists Joe among the many brothers.

Nathan Rapoport, 88, one of the business pioneers in Ocean City, died Wednesday in Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury after a short illness. Mr. Rapoport was formerly of Philadelphia. He was born in Russia. He had operated a games concession business on the boardwalk since 1912, retiring about five years ago. Mr. Rapoport’s wife, Minnie, died in 1968. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Gertrude Goldenberg, who with her husband, Bernie, operates a beach accessory business here; three granddaughters; nine great-grandchildren; and a brother, Joe Rapoport, Baltimore. Funeral services wiil be held Friday at 2 p.m. in the Goldstein Funeral Home, Philadelphia. Interment will be in Roosevelt Memorial Park, near Philadelphia. The family suggests, that as a tribute to the memory of the deceased, contributions may be made to the State of Israel, in care of the Beth Israel Synagogue, Salisbury. 

Ocean City “failed to present sufficient evidence to support the circuit court’s conclusion that the Property is located within the boundaries of the dedicated and accepted public easement of Atlantic Avenue,” so it stays for the time being with the Rapoport heirs, who remain in OC and who get rent from Dumser’s.

The current owner of Dumser’s remembers Nathan:

 I remember him walking on the Boardwalk in the mornings in his long sleeved white shirt with a bow tie. A very quiet man. What I know of him is that he came to this country at the turn of the century, and decided to invest his life in business in Ocean City. He owned the property across the Boardwalk where Daytons and Dough Roller sit today. He had to rebuild after two devastating fires only to lose the property in the depression. He and his descendants have occupied the present building for more than 100 years. This is all that is left of one of our pioneers who took a chance on Ocean City when tourism was all about new businesses.

… warbling a descant at her neighbor’s annual holiday singalong.

… Black Market Bistro.

Seen on an early afternoon walk through
Garrett Park, UD‘s hometown.