Saturday, February 06, 2010
Haley and Lilly at the End of a Successful "Day of Ray" at Sidewalk Cafe : $1300 Raised for Ray!
Save Ray's ! Saturday , February 6 Noon to 6 PM at Sidewalk Cafe , 6th Street and Avenue A
Friday, February 05, 2010
Con Edison Pulls and Chops Cable While Ray Packs Fries and Tells Big Fish Tales ...
Thursday night Con Edison was at work out front of Ray's Candy Store .Using an assemblage of hardware suggesting a harvesting machine fancifully melded with a serious set of chomping steel mouth parts and a drilling rig , the work crew pulled an old 3 inch cable from a conduit below avenue A and chopped it into foot long pieces . The chopped cable pieces , mostly copper , were dumped into a large container on the bed of a heavy truck to be hauled away and sold as scrap . This copper scrap to be melted down and recycled .
Inside Ray's store , Ray was busy packing Belgian fries for a customer and telling his friends that would listen a sharks tale .
Ray claimed that while serving as a boiler fireman 3rd class in the Turkish Navy he often caught and ate shark . In the bowls of his ancient retired British navy destroyer that had been passed on to the Turkish navy , down in the boiler room everything was hot . Ray said that many things were in fact too hot to touch . A sailor had to be careful ; thoughtful and deliberate in his moves in this little boiler room world or he could be cooked . It was hot and Ray used that heat at times to cook fish .
Ray told his listeners of how before he went on duty he often left a line and baited hook over the side trolling. Later when he had some time free he went to check the line .Ray and a sailor with an ax pulled the line up the side of the ship . When a sizable fish , usually a shark , was pulled on deck the sailor with the ax severed with a blow from his primitive but sharp edged tool the head , with it's large mouth and sharp teeth , from the silver gray fishy torso .Care was necessary ; the shark could chomp on the incautious right there on the deck and wiggle free with a mouthful of sailor , overboard , returning to it's briny world .
The headless shark was taken below to the boiler room . Somehow , Ray wasn't clear about this , the shark was placed in or near the white hot heat of the boiler's firebox . In 10 seconds the fish was removed . The outside was charred black , the deep interior , the guts , was cold and inedible but the fleshy part in between was perfect for consumption .
All as told by Ray on Thursday night in his candy store.
What's Coming to Tompkins Square Park ?
An NYPD stake truck unloaded these barricades this afternoon .
Fresh Left-Overs in Tompkins Square Park ...
What with all the Hawks rapaciously consuming rodents in the trees of Tompkins Square Park , there's bound to be a few left-over body parts strewn about .
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Ray and Marlene in Better Times ...
Marlene (a.k.a. Hot Dog) is doing time on Rikers Island . She should be back on the street at the end of April . Ray is as most know facing eviction from his candy store on avenue A . 77 year old Ray has no pension nor has he as yet secured his Social Security benefits .
The picture above is from a better time when Ray and Marlene were friends . A short time later Marlene--laughing hysterically with a 40 ounce Budweiser in hand--slammed the steel bulkhead doors on Ray's head as he was coming up from his basement .
For this senseless drunken deed Marlene spent 3 years upstate in prison . Seriously injured Ray refused a trip to the hospital fearing what might happen to his candy store in his absence . According to the medical technicians that treated Ray that night , Ray came very close to dying in his candy store . Ray's coordination hasn't been the same since .
Ray and Marlene are no longer friends.
"Day of Ray" at Sidewalk Cafe , Noon to 6 PM , Saturday ...
For all the details see EVGrieve :
Tompkins Square Park Tuesday Night : Tompkins Square Park Wednesday Morning
Monday, February 01, 2010
Ray Pays January Rent on Tuesday ...
Tuesday morning Ray will pay both his January commercial rent and his January residential rent .There are now of course the February rents due .
Remember the "Day of Ray" coming this Saturday February 6 with an afternoon concert at Sidewalk Cafe from noon to 6PM . There may be some extra surprise events at other locations on this "Day of Ray" too.
Go to Ray's Facebook group "Save Ray's" for other breaking news .
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Avenue A Saturday Night Ice Cream Fights ...
For all the 5 minutes of shrill fuss not much damage was done . There was some grappling and a roll in the gutter . But we didn't see one good punch land squarely anywhere that counted . Though they all scuffled on the infamous avenue A sidewalk-a venue with a long history of hard core battlers fighting with knives and guns-no one in these 2 groups seemed to know much about fighting .This night the weapon of choice was Ray's ice cream .
We were told that unpleasant words had passed lips over Belgian fries in Ray's . Then a bit later outside on the sidewalk more was said . Someone called someone "faggot". This we heard . A bellicose female charged first and several others were to follow .
As far as we know no worse than bruised egos and hurt feelings was the result of this minor avenue A donnybrook ...and perhaps the dry cleaners bill to remove all the smeared Ray's ice cream. Later someone had to clean the sidewalk too .
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