The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Criminy!

My grandmother, a Norwegian immigrant who came through Ellis Island on her way to International Falls, Minnesota, used to say "Criminy" or "Oh, heck" in place of the more New Yorky "sh#t" or "f#ck" or "Jesus Christ." I think it was actually a shortening of the word Christ. A good Lutheran wouldn't take the Lord's name in vain, after all. She also said "Pshaw" a lot, which I assume was a shortening of "piss off?"

Anyhoo, I gets an email from the good folks at Spotcrime.com, a website that's both helpful and sinister. Helpful in that it provides some context for crime nearby, and sinister in that in a dense city it makes you feel like you're surrounded by criminals. As in, don't look at a mapped database of sex offenders. You might lose a night or two of sleep.

Today's email was alarming indeed! Check the date on all these thefts, robberies and burglaries (they're different you know, t,g&b's). All on one terrifying day of crime spree - January 31, 2015 - a day that will live in infamy.

Clicking through, though, I realize that all these crimes were listed as "crime date approximate." So I guess they all got logged at the same time. And yet...if you stand about 20 yards back, the pattern looks alarmingly like a mimeograph of the Shroud of Turin. A miracle? I'll let YOU be the judge.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe spotcrime messed up - that looks to be their entire crime over the past x many years.

Anonymous said...

Nothing on Winthrop! My block is awesome!

babs said...

Wow - my mother often said, "Criminy," and sometimes it comes out of my mouth unbidden too (how I know I'm getting old). I definitely agree with you as to its origins.

So, any French people out there? Because I was taught to say "flute" for "zut" and "mince" for "merde."

So let's all false curse in different languages!

babs said...

Oh heck is in place of oh hell.

ElizabethC said...

Robbery right in front of my building. Not awesome.