My favorite thing @ Brooklyn Flea

This was the last weekend that Brooklyn Flea was inside the Williamsburg Bank Building for the cooler months. Starting next weekend it will be outside, in Ft. Greene on Saturdays, Williamsburg on Sundays – check out the vendors, hours, and other details at brooklynflea.com. This collection of tiny boxing gloves was the best thing I saw. A pair would make a nice gift for a pugilistic kitty.

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We’ll always call it the Williamsburgh Bank Building

The developers who condo-ized this landmark, the tallest building in Brooklyn, would like it to be known to as One Hanson Place, but that’s not going to happen. In our hearts, it will remain the Williamsburgh Bank Building. Built in 1927, the 37-story building was at the time comparable to the skyscrapers in Manhattan, and it still dominates the downtown Brooklyn skyline. The past few decades, the building had been home to scores of dental offices. I like to imagine the sound of dental drills and a lingering antiseptic smell haunting the luxury apartments. (FYI – A number of units are available for sale or rental, if you’ve got the big bucks.)

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General Baron Johann DeKalb Avenue

I wouldn’t give DeKalb Avenue or the subway stop much thought, but the train conductors have come up with about six ways of pronouncing DeKalb, as if to keep the name fresh in my head.

There are dozens of counties, cities, roadways, and other places called DeKalb across the US, from Missouri to Georgia and Fort Greene, Brooklyn. All can be traced back to Alsatian-born Johann DeKalb, who first came to North America as a spy for the French, then returned with Lafayette as a Revolutionary soldier of fortune in 1777. Appointed a general, DeKalb served under George Washington at Valley Forge and Brandywine and was killed in battle in South Carolina at age 59.

(portrait by Charles Willson Peale)

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