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.

Recent entries:
“Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
“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)
20-20-20 Rule (for eyes) (3/27)
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Entry from July 19, 2004
Straphanger
A "straphanger" is someone who rides the trains or buses. NYPIRG has a branch it calls "Straphangers Campaign" that studies transit issues. The subway is about 100 years old, but "straphanger" is even older.

16 April 1893, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 33:
But Lili (a dwarf elephant - ed.) weighs only seventy pounds and her tread would not affect a corn as much as that of the dudish strap-hanger whose equilibrium has been disturbed by the sudden jerk of a green gripman.

22 February 1896, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. 7:
"No sane man," said a North-sider yesterday who has been a strap-hanger for years, "expects the street car lines to furnish seats for every passenger during the rish hour morning and evening."

19 April 1899, New York Times, pg. 6:
When the offer of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company to build the underground railroad was published, the million strap-hangers were silent, inert, and helplessly contemplative.
Posted by Barry Popik
Transportation • Monday, July 19, 2004 • Permalink


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