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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“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
“Anyone else boil the kettle twice? Just in case the boiling water has gone cold…” (3/27)
“Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
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Entry from December 26, 2012
Dirt Tank

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Google Books
Third Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1891
By Geological Survey of Texas (E. T. Dumble, State Geologist)
Austin, TX: Henry Hutchings, State Printer
1892
Pg. 143:
The water is first pumped in to a large wooden trough, out of which the cattle drink, and the surplus runs into an open dirt tank, so that if at any time the water is exhausted in the trough there will be enough in the pool.
 
Google Books
Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide, Volume 1904
Galveston, TX: A. H. Belo & Co.
1904
Pg. 317:
With a windmill and dirt tank two acres of land can be irrigated.
 
Google Books
Farm Buildings: A Compilation of Plans for General Farm Barns, Cattle Barns ...
By Sanders Publishing Co
Chicago, IL: Sanders Publishing Company
1908
Pg. 173:
A 100,000-gallon dirt tank costs very little more than a 10.000-gallon cypress cistern. Hundreds of these dirt tanks have been made, and are being made in Western and Southwestern Texas.
 
Google Books
Texas Tomboy
By Lois Lenski
Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott Co.
1950
Pg. ?:
“Let’s go over to the dirt tank and shoot cottontails.”
 
Google Books
The Regional Vocabulary of Texas
By Elmer Bagby Atwood
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press
1962
Pg. 41:
Artificial pool of water. A body of water impounded for the watering of livestock and for other purposes is known throughout most of the state as a tank (70); this term occurs in all but the easternmost extremities (Pg. 42—ed.) of Texas (Map 26). This sort of pool is occasionally referred to as a stock tank (4) or a dirt tank (2.6) if it is felt that a modifier is needed. Pond (10) is rare except in East Texas, but it is usual in Arkansas and Louisiana. Pool (3.7) is mostly confined to Northeast Texas, but it also shows a few occurrences in Arkansas and Louisiana.
 
Dictionary of American Regional English
Volume II D-H
Frederic G. Cassidy, Chief Editor
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Pres of Harvard University Press
1991
Pg. 82: 
dirt tank n TX
(...)
1967 DARE (Qu. C4b) Inf TX22, Dirt tank—formed by dam across a river, a small reservoir.
 
Talk Like a Texan
What Is a Dirt Tank?
By TalkTexan – May 4, 2008
Up in Central Texas, as soon as you start to get into rolling hills, you start to see dirt tanks. I’ve seen them in other parts of Texas, too, but apparently the term is not used much outside of Texas.
(...)
Because the pond is just something you built into the side of the hill with dirt to hold water for livestock, we call it a dirt tank (like stock tank, which is a metal container for watering livestock).
   
My Texas Mornings
Published June 26, 2012
Windmill and dirt tank (Photograph—ed.)

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Wednesday, December 26, 2012 • Permalink


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