Silence, Please!

Archival photos of four children's reading rooms in the New York Public Library system appeared as a back page feature in the New York Times Book Review (November 12, 2023). The photos were gathered by Erica Ackerberg, the Book Review's photo editor.

Out of the four photos, the one that especially caught my attention is the photo taken in 1903 in East Harlem's Aguilar branch, named, said the caption, for Grace Aguilar, a 19th-century Anglo-Jewish writer. Above the checkout counter was a sign that said in big letters SILENCE.

I'm old enough to remember the days when libraries were quiet sanctuaries for bookworms like me. They were places where speaking loudly was unthinkable. Not anymore. And it's not just the patrons. The library staff, not setting a good example, are just as loud.

The only time a patron is admonished is when their mobile phone starts to ring. "Please turn your phone off in the library," a library staffer will announce. Otherwise, the loud talk is ignored and not a word of disapproval is uttered by the librarian or other library employee.

Grading Restaurant Customers

Has it ever occurred to restaurant wait staff in New York City to assign letter grades to the customers for cleanliness, courtesy, table manners (no texting while dining, for example), and tip generosity? Or give a "Grade Pending" status to those who are aware of their shortcomings and promise to do better during their next visit?

Note: The above blog post came to me in a dream.

An Etiquette Book For Young Gay Men

One Saturday evening in February of this year, my friend Robert and I stopped by the Suite, a gay bar on Amsterdam Avenue at 109th Street in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan to relax and chat while sipping sodas.  On a small table near the entrance were several paperback copies (free) of a self-published book called The Essential Sex Venue Etiquette and Resource Guide: For America's Gay and Bisexual Young Men by Robert Brandon Sandor. Browsing through the book (or pamphlet as the author described it), I was particularly fascinated by the glossary which contained many unfamiliar terms such as "bat boy" ("A boy that loves large penises") and "teabagging" ("Placing one's testicles down onto someone's mouth or forehead").

A guidebook such as this one would have been useful to and probably appreciated by previous generations of gay men who had to learn the ropes through trial and error.

I plan to write a much more thorough review of the guidebook for this blog later on.