A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 18, 2006
Idiotarod (with shopping carts!)
The "Iditarod" is the famous dog sled race in Alaska.

The "Idiotarod" is a shopping cart race that's been held in New York since 2004.

http://www.precisionaccidents.com/
Idiotarod 06
Absurd shopping cart race
January 28, 2006
2pm; $5 per person
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
718 288 8970
http://www.precisionaccidents.com

The Iditarod is the famous long-distance race in which yelping dogs tow a sled across Alaska. Our Idiotarod is pretty much the same thing, except that instead of dogs, it's people, instead of sleds, it's shopping carts, and instead of Alaska it's New York City.

The third annual event happens January 28, 2006. It will start in Brooklyn, run into Manhattan, and end approximately five miles later. Teams of five will race for a cash prize. And glory.

*Who can race?*

Anyone. Everyone. Last year we had 500 runners. We anticipate more this year. You can forward this invitation to anyone you know.

*Isn't it going to be cold?*

You can count on it. The race goes off rain or shine, blizzard or breeze. Bundle up.

*What's the route?*

That's up to you. The race begins in Brooklyn at 2pm. We will announce two checkpoints and a finish line on our website a week before the race. You choose the fastest path. You will be held for 20 minutes at each checkpoint. There will be booze at the checkpoints.

http://www.iditarod.com/geninfo/sleddograce.php
General Information - The Iditarod Sled Dog Race
By Don Bowers

Even after the advent of the airplane, dog teams continued to be widely used for local transportation and day-to-day work, particularly in Native villages. Mushers and their teams played important but little remembered roles in World War II in Alaska, particularly in helping the famous Eskimo Scouts patrol the vast winter wilderness of western Alaska.

After the war, short and medium distance freight teams were still common in many areas of Alaska even when President Kennedy announced that the United States would put a man on the moon. During the 1960's, however, it was not space travel but the advent of the "iron dog" (orsnowmachine, as it's called in Alaska) that resulted in the mass abandonment of dog teams across the state and loss of much mushing lore.

To help save some of Alaska's fast-vanishing mushing heritage, Dorothy Page, a planner for the 1967 Alaska Centennial celebration, conceived of the idea of a dog race over the historically significant Iditarod Trail, which by then had been disused for many years. Local mushers' groups, with the leadership of Joe Redington, Sr., and retired Air Force Col. Norman Vaughan, threw themselves into the project. (Vaughan, by the way, was Admiral Byrd's dog wrangler in Antarctica in 1928. He later used dogs for search and rescue work in Alaska and Greenland during World War II).

With much volunteer labor (the start of a fundamental Iditarod tradition), the first part of the trail was cleared and a short race over the Susitna Valley portion north of Anchorage were held in 1967 and 1969. Finally, in 1973, with the Army helping clear portions of the trail not already in use as winter snowmachine trails, and with the support of the Nome Kennel Club (Alaska's earliest, founded in 1907), the race went all the way to Nome for the first time. Even so, the mushers still had to break much of their own trail and take care of their own supplies, and the winner of the first Iditarod, Dick Wilmarth, took almost three weeks to reach Nome.

The race is really a reconstruction of the freight route to Nome and commemorates the part that sled dogs played in the settlement of Alaska. The mushers travel from checkpoint to checkpoint much as the freight mushers did eighty years ago -- although some modern dog drivers like Doug Swingley, Martin Buser, Jeff King, Susan Butcher, and Rick Swenson move at a pace that would have been incomprehensible to their old-time counterparts, making the trip to Nome in under ten days.

Since 1973, the race has grown every year despite financial ups and downs. The Iditarod has become so well-known that the best mushers now receive thousands of dollars a year from corporate sponsors. Dog mushing has recovered to become a north-country mania in the winter, and some people now make comfortable livings from their sled-dog kennels.

(Trademark)
Word Mark IDITAROD
Goods and Services IC 041. US 107. G & S: PROMOTING THE HISTORICAL PRESERVATION OF ALASKA THROUGH THE CONDUCT OF A SLED DOG RACE. FIRST USE: 19730200. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19730200
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Design Search Code
Serial Number 73627960
Filing Date October 31, 1986
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition September 26, 1989
Registration Number 1572466
Registration Date December 19, 1989
Owner (REGISTRANT) IDITAROD TRAIL COMMITTEE, INC. CORPORATION ALASKA MILE 2.2 KNIK ROAD WASILLA ALASKA 99654
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL-2(F)
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20010119.
Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20010119
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

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Holidays/Events/Parades • Wednesday, January 18, 2006 • Permalink


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