Gem Spa: New York's Finest Egg Cream

The Gem Spa is an institution in New York City celebrated for its delicious egg cream. Allen Ginsberg wrote about it, as did Lou Reed...

Rain-wet asphalt heat, garbage curbed cans overflowing
By Allen Ginsberg

I hauled down lifeless mattresses to sidewalk refuse-piles,
old rugs stept on from Paterson to Lower East Side filled with bed-bugs,
grey pillows, couch seats treasured from the street laid back on the street
– out, to hear Murder-tale, 3rd Street cyclists attacked tonite–
Bopping along in rain, Chaos fallen over City roofs,
shrouds of chemical vapour drifting over building-tops –
Get the Times, Nixon says peace reflected from the Moon,
but I found no boy body to sleep with all night on pavements 3 A.M.
         home in sweating drizzle –
Those mattresses soggy lying in full five garbagepails –
Barbara, Maretta, Peter Steven Rosebud slept on these Pillows years ago,
forgotten names, also made love to me, I had these mattresses four years
        on my floor –
Gerard, Jimmy many months, even blond Gordon later,
Paul with the beautiful big cock, that teenage boy that lived in
        Pennsylvania,
forgotten numbers, young dream loves and lovers, earthly bellies –
many strong youths with eyes closed, come sighing and helping me
       come –
Desires already forgotten, tender persons used and kissed goodbye
and all the times I came to myself alone in the dark dreaming of Neal or
       Billy Budd
– nameless angels of half-life – heart beating & eyes weeping for lovely
       phantoms -
Back from the Gem Spa, into the hallway, a glance behind
and sudden farewell to the bedbug-ridden mattresses piled soggy in dark
      rain.

Today I had my first - a frothy, vanilla egg cream on St. Mark's Place and 2nd Avenue in the East Village.

Here's Lou Reed on the wonders of this awesome refreshment...

Common Ground: Islam In The U.S.A.

What better place than "Ground Zero"? The construction of 13-storey mosque and Islamic cultural centre would be a slap in the face to terrorists on all sides of the religious spectrum. It would be tantamount to saying "No fear." The pathetic cowards who are trying to suggest that it would somehow be an affront to the victims of 9/11 are a disgrace to the values that created the founding documents of the grand ol' U.S. of A. One idiot actually went as far as to say on his radio program:

"If you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up...I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up. And I mean that...It’s right-wing radicals like me that are going to keep this country safe for you and everyone else from the people who are flying the planes from the country you fled from. If you want to identify with those people, go live with them."

That's right - show the terrorists who the real terrorists are! Religious tolerance is the American way and the American dream. What place is better suited to promote reflection and dialogue about Islam and other faiths than ground zero? To try and expunge references to Islam anywhere is fundamentally Un-American. I have a real problem with the ongoing conflation of terrorism with Islam which informs these fear-based reactions. This article from The New York Post spells out the source of the fear:

"Americans must always remember the horrors of 9/11 and must be vigilant in not allowing political Islam to wear down the principles that built our country."

How can the "principles" that created the U.S. be so vulnerable? I've got news - that will only happen if they are aided by these types of gutless buffoons, the equivalent of those who would threaten murder over a drawing of Mohammad. Islam can't be used as a motivation for violence any more than Christianity. If it is, than as with terrorists in Northern Ireland, it ceases to be about any faith. Here's a discussion from CNN on the issue: