Butler 4

Here is to fast, sleek bikes and here is to big brothers! Huzzah!

Labels: bicycle

Sheep's Meadow in Central Park was the scene of a delightful afternoon picnic/gathering. Carol, Suvi, & Ben were all in attendance.

I Think I Love You With Roller Skates from Jeffrey Butler on Vimeo.

The radiator is stacking.
and the table is overflowing with books.
it was good while it lasted... and I rode it as long and as far as I could.

When on adventure it's always fun to have unplanned adventures. On the ER adventure I happened upon The Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park. The Walkway Over the Hudson bridge was planned before the start of the civil war as a railroad bridge. It was completed January 1st 1889, just six years after the completion of the greatest bridge in the world, the Brooklyn Bridge. The Hudson bridge was used by the railroad until 1974. It underwent renovations and was opened in 2009 as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge.

I rode my bike over it and back. It is so high that it spans over the town of Poughkeepsie. Here is looking north over the Hudson River.
This is looking south down the Hudson River.
This is the train station in Poughkeepsie. You can see the bridge in the back ground.
The train ride up and down Metro North was really beautiful. It ran along the Hudson river the whole way. From the train I saw West Point. It looks like a giant castle on a cliff over looking the Hudson. I also saw a castle on a island in the middle of the river. Did you know that there is a castle in the middle of the river. Weird right? Its called Bannerman's Castle. Click here for more info.On top of the bridge.
Here is a link to more info about the bridge.

I'd been planning a trip to visit Eleanor Roosevelt house for months. May 14th was the planned date. It was easy to get everyone together to go because... well... I was the only one that went. I have a knack for getting myself where I need to be. Where I needed to be on May 14th was on a train going north along the Hudson River. The train left from Grand Central Station at 9:54AM. I rode by bicycle from my Brooklyn residence to Grand Central. I arrived with two minutes to spare. The train ride north was just under one hour and forty minutes. During that time I read The Right Stuff by Thomas Wolfe. Turns out... Chuck Yeager is a man's man.

Upon arrival at Poughkeepsie I mounted my bicycle and started peddling the remainder distance of 5 miles to my destination of Hyde Park Ny where the Eleanor Roosevelt home is located. Before reaching the site I had to take care of something vital to the success of the trip....
find two chilli and cheese hot dogs to purchase and consume.
On the road I found this hotdog truck. A seemingly nice old lady is the proprietor. Turns out that she is a hustling old lady. I told her I'd like a ('a' when used as unit of measure means one of such unit) chilli-n-cheese hotdog. She served me up two. I thought to myself, "well played old lady... I'm not going to complain just buy what I didn't order and never do business here again." She already knew this. She also knew that I'm not from these parts and wouldn't be a return costumer anyway.
The reason that I wanted to eat hot dogs is because of the historical significance of this porch. This is Top Cabin where FDR would go to get away from everything and everyone. It's located a mile behind Eleanor's house. This is the porch that FDR served King George VI of England and his wife (the parents of the current Queen of England) their first hot dogs they had ever had.
It was a lovely hike up to Top Cottage through the woods of upstate.
This is Eleanor's house. It is built inside the defunct furniture factory Val-Kill. The house is situated next to a stream and large pond. It is really beautiful with birds and trees all around. Eleanor had the most wonderful sleeping porch. You can see it on the left of the picture below. It over looks the wetlands that surrounds her house. This house was the get away house for Eleanor's family. There was a pool, tennis court, and bbq. FDR's main house was really his helicopter mother's house and so they had to follow her rules while there. But this house they could remove their leg braces.
It was so lovely to be out in the forest and breathe the fresh air and take in some historical sites. It was a grand day trip.

Labels: Eleanor Roosevelt

Labels: Union Jack

In one of my dollar book runs to Strand Book Store I purchased The Faber Book Of America. It is a collection of essays about America. A few weeks ago I read an essay by Frank Lloyd Wright about Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was one of the pioneering architects of sky scrapers. In the essay Wright mentions The Getty Tomb which Sullivan designed.

He said, "The Getty Tomb in Graceland Cemetery was entirely his own; fine sculpture. A statue. A great poem addressed to human sensibilities as such. Outside the realm of music what finer requiem."

This interested me, so I did further research on Wikipedia (click here). Researching the tomb even inspired me and I sketched out some designs.

I had forgotten about the tomb. While in Chicago Brigham said that he wanted to visit Graceland Cemetery. It sparked my memory and I hoped that "this was the cemetery that that one tomb was in". It was a race against time as the ground keeper told us that he was locking the gate in 40 minutes. I rushed all over that place trying to find it. Finally in a back corner I saw it. I recognized it as soon as I spotted it. This tomb is a registered Chicago Landmark.




Louis Sullivan is laid to rest in the cemetery. I didn't know that and I didn't see his tomb, but others in our cemetery party had come across his grave.
Brigham found the spookiest tomb he could and documented it.

P.S.– Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked in Brig's parents neighborhood. The 'hood' is packed with original Frank Lloyd Wright homes around every corner.

The first morning in Chicago we were ravenous with hunger and needed nourishment. However, we were in a strange and foreign land with a food all it's own. Although there is a menu, it might as well be written in Greek. Brigham instructed us in the locals way to order food. My order sounded like this, "combo, hot, juicy.... fries"

This is what it translates too:
Combo=Italian Sausage topped with beef.
Hot=Hot Peppers
Juicy=Some sort of juice splashed on the finished product
Fries=Fries
This thing was so hot I hallucinated for a bit. This was a great opening culinary event in a trip full of culinary delights. Long Live The Chicago Way of Food!

Rumor had it there was a Darth Vader House in Brigham's neighborhood. We set out to investigate...

The thing that you need to know about my friends and I is this... We love the Star Wars. Like many of our age group and gender we are attached to Star Wars as kids from the 20's and 30's are stuck on Babe Ruth.

Our love for Star was is so great that for birthday gifts Collin painted Brig and I Star Wars character portraits to adorn our homes with!
Brigham got Jabba holding a heart shaped pillow.
I got Admiral Ackbar.


Here is the artist with the highly honored and happy recipients.
Oh we did find that Vader house. As reported... it looked like Vader.
Jeff R. leaned over to Collin and said,"Collin... I am your father."

And Collin said,"Nooooooooo...... that's impossible!!!!"

There are two Chicago spectacles that have been on my "must see list" for some time.

1. Go to Wrigley Field and see a Cubs game.
2. Go to the Museum of Science and Industry for the U505 exhibit.

I have accomplished one of these and it did not disappoint.

The Cubs were out of town when I was in Chicago for Brigham's birthday bash, but the Uboat was in port. Because.... well.... it's 5 stories underground in the museum's basement and it isn't going anywhere.

This is what you need to know. The Uboat, U505, is one of the coolest things I have ever seen with my eyeballs and one of the greatest things I have walked through with my feet. The U.S. Navy Captured U505 off the coast of Africa on the 4th of June 1944. On board the Navy found a mighty bounty of intelligence in the form of code books and an enigma machine. Also the Navy captured torpedoes. Which was a treat because the Allies up to that point did not know the technology that enabled German torpedoes to track their targets.

I could go on and on with stories about U505, but I will tell you only one. Then let you get to the good stuff... the pictures. The Navy had possession of U505 for about ten years before it was donated to the Museum. In that time parts and pieces of the boat were taken as souvenirs. When the museum prepared the boat for exhibit they contacted the original manufactures to see the possibility of having replacement parts made. The manufactures realized that the boat would be on display, wanting to show the excellence of German engineering, they agreed to make replacement parts and they did it for free.




Here Brigham is preparing for the exhibit by reading up on the headlines of the early 1940's.



Here is a code book that is edged with lead. This way, instead of getting into the hands of the enemy, the book would sink to the ocean floor. I am currently converting all my note books to do likewise.
Here is Brigham putting his knowledge that he learned earlier by demonstrating what it would be like to be a cook on U505.
This is the rudder of U505. It's wood covered in sheet metal. This reduced the weight, making it easy to swivel back and forth.
Here is a weather beaten US flag. This is a WWII flag which means 6 rows of 8 stars. Do the math and what do you get?... 48. Stars for Hawaii and Alaska where not added until 1959 when they were made states.


You do not want to be where this torpedo is going.
Brigham finds out what made these torpedoes so great.

The boat sat outside of the Museum from 1954-2004. It was then moved and placed in it's new exhibit as it sits today. As you might have guessed. It takes a lot to move a Uboat.


for further reading of this trip click here

Labels: Uboats

I break this extended blog silence to inform you that the universe has bestowed upon me a mighty treasure! Huzzah! Folks.... do not misunderstand me here. Hard work and dedication were required to qualify for this artifact.

While riding my bike into Manhattan from Brooklyn I spotted a new vintage shop by the Navy Yards. Which was odd because it is an industrial area. I chatted up the shopkeeper while looking through a box full of old pictures and postcards. I pulled out a postcard that was postmarked Jun 15th, 1910 and addressed to Mr. George Kreidel of St. Joseph's Seminary located in Yonkers, New York. It was of....

Teddy!.... TR.... Col. Roosevelt.... Mr. Theodore Roosevelt himself. A period post card from right after is presidency. What luck! Bully! Upon inspection of the card something caught my eye... but I kept my cool and calmly asked the shop attendant how much for the postcards. Five dollars was the response. I continued to browse around. Nonchalantly I said, "I'll take this postcard of Teddy". Got it wrapped up in plastic and headed out of the store as giddy as a school girl. For... the thing that I noticed was not only was this a postcard of Theodore Roosevelt, but....
it could be from Theodore Roosevelt! Walking into Lars' studio before I even sat down I said, "Lars... look up Theodore Roosevelt's signature on line". As far as we two fashion designers are concerned–this is a Theodore Roosevelt signature. Judge for yourselves. Below I have a book from my reference library of Teddy's signature with the postcard right above it.


I researched as much as I could about the card. I know when George was born, when he died, who his parents were, how many siblings he had, what he did for a profession, et cetera, et cetera. Then I thought to myself that there must be something I can learn about the date and it hit me! After leaving the presidency TR went on an African Safari. When did he return you might ask...? June 1910. That fits the inscription which says, "Dear George, I am coming home, yours truly, Theodore." Only Teddy would send a postcard of himself. I have written my favorite PBS show The History Detectives about my find. I hope they come to investigate.

This Theodore Roosevelt signature and my Third Reich Typewriter (click here for that story) really make me feel like a man with a serious archive. It's only going to get better from here folks.

Labels: Theodore Roosevelt