Spotless | Ancient Rome | Old Subway | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Spotless is a song on Zach Bryan’s new album and it features The Lumineers. It may not be much of a Christmas or holiday song, but it kills 2 birds with 1 stone for my monthly quota of one ZB & Lumineers song. Spotless fits your classic Sunday Stumblin’ Along tune. I could honestly listen to this song on repeat for days, it never gets old.
My guess is this had to do with distractions we all have from screens such as TVs, phones, social media, etc. I ain’t spotless here, I am prone to watching a ton of sports, checking Twitter or YouTube for news, typing in front of my laptop, and now I even post Stories & Reels on @You_The_Reader every day.
My mother is also an absolute saint. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again!
The previous line is about how you have to be patient “if you wait, everything meant to be will stay.” Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers jumps in, which is why it’s italicized, and it has sort of a “yeah, but” feel to it making it seem like it’s somebody at odds with their own subconscious. If you’re too patient or too much of a people pleaser, you’ll get walked over in life. I concur with the sentiment that fucking telephones have ruined this place, but I ain’t spotless, I play the game, and it’d hypocritical to not admit it.
Friday night I Stumbled Along to Sunnyside, Queens for pints of Guinness. While I was drinking a pint at this pub called “The Wild Goose”, a man named Marty had some great quotes in the half-hour conversation.
1) “Life is nothing but a balancing act.”
2) “If you hang out at the barbers, you’re going to get a haircut.”
3) “Once you start throwing shit, you’re going to get covered in it.”
While Stumblin’ Along drinking Guinness, I’ve been lucky to have met hundreds of people, and have had some awesome conversations. This was just one of the latest encounters and I’ll be sure to write about all the bars in Sunnyside once I get up to them in the Pint&Pen&Papers but I just think it’s funny how this one stood out and works with these lyrics.
Nobody’s spotless, we can all try to be perfect, but we all have our own flaws.
In his Julius Caesar William Shakespeare wrote “Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once”, I think this lyric is more about how we have to shed parts of our pasts or old selves to become new. From my Week to Week Notes perspective, I don’t necessarily think of myself as a critical thinker but I’m constantly forcing myself to think critically, in ways I never would’ve imagined. Between writing about the music element of this, people, sports, athletes, pubs, and what you the reader might be thinking, I try to view things from a multitude of perspectives. I don’t know the right way to put this, but every one of these Notes does feel like I shed a previous thought or feeling and I constantly have to think about what’s next so it always makes it new, at least for me.
Unfortunately, I have to announce that this Stumblin’ Along is the last of the late Subway cars as after today I will have written about all the old trains from the NY Transit Museum. Sad.
Great tune! Now that I’ve written about it, I won’t get to listen to it on repeat like before.
I’ll never be Spotless, and neither will you, but at least this time I’m down to see it through and maybe you should too…
Okay, enough with the rhyming asshole, on to Stumblin’ Along…
This Week’s Bit on The Roman Empire
This week your quick bit on The Roman Empire brought to you by Week to Week Notes featuring Ancient Rome: The Exhibition in New York is on the Tabula of Peutinger.
The Tabula of Peutinger, also known as Tabula Peutingeriana, is one of the world’s oldest maps. The origins date back to 1265 when a monk named Colmar recreated the map of Rome using 12 sheets of parchment. What makes it so unique is that rather than being to scale and true cardinal orientation, it is more of a road map or traveler’s guide to the Roman world at the height of its expansion in the late 3rd Century AD. The Tabula of Peutinger was so detailed that it was intended for the use of government officials. It contained important government-run facilities and key points of interest throughout the Empire. The map itself spanned from the Atlantic Ocean, featuring Great Britain (remember the Romans couldn’t claim Ireland), Northern Africa, and the Pacific Ocean featuring cities in India, plus even indicating the existence of China.
The real question is how much of this land could Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders claim?
Conveniently right in the center of the Tabula of Peutinger was Rome. No wonder all roads led to Rome.
The map was named after Konrad Peutinger, a 16th-century economist and archaeologist who collected antiques. Peutinger was a bit of a Renaissance Man living in the middle of the Renaissance. You can find his map in Vienna at the Austrian National Library, the home of the Tabula of Peutinger since 1738.
That’s all we have on the Roman Empire for today…
NY Transit Museum
Sadly, this is the last of the New York City Transit Museum. I went to this museum in July so, I’d say I’ve stretched out every bit of detail I could find. I now consider myself a full-on expert of all things history of New York City Transit, so if you ever have any questions please don’t be afraid to ask away.
Before iPhones and swiping MTA Cards, New Yorkers had to pay for tokens. With tokens for transportation came “slugs coins” which were counterfeit coins that people would use to ride the bus. Evading payment of the fare is illegal but people found creative ways to do so, whether that creating their own kind of coin or going about complex schemes like jamming coin slots causing paying customers to go to the help desk. While the paying customers were seeking help, the farebeater would “suck the coin out of the slot with their mouth.” The City got wise in catching the farebeaters by implementing deterrents such as “coating the turnstile slot with pepper sauce.” Wow, so I guess New York was always nuts.
Even prior to trains, people would pay fares for horses using a Horse Car Farebox. John B. Slawson invented the first farebox in 1857 and it became the standard for horse cars, plus eventually street cars. For over 30 years, Slawson spent his time trying to perfect the right design for fareboxes, filing 35 patents in the process. The “Wooden Wonder” (all the way on the left) would be in use from the 1880s to around 1915. Slawson, who knew his way around collecting coins, was also the treasurer for the John Stephenson Car Company, which we all know was responsible for The First Street Car In The World because we went over this on Stumblin' Along 9/17 '23. “The Cranker” would be the next farebox to come about. It was used on buses as the driver would have to manually crank the coin down the vault.
There were more details on newer fareboxes but there is no need to belabor the point.
“The Windmill” was a turnstile from 1900 to 1915. It was the earliest type of device used in the New York City Subway system. It was operated by an attendant who pressed a foot pedal to release the arm and let a passenger through. During the off-peak hours, a booth attendant could even pull a rope that ran from the ticket booth to a lever just above the foot pedal. I guess you could get away with stuff like that before the days of Babe Ruth. I’m guessing the operators of these turnstiles had to be very communicable people, a lot of “Good Mornings & How Are You?” must have been exchanged. Sounds kinda nice.
“The Chopper”, to the right of The Windmill, was also used from 1904 to 1920. Not only were coins used as tokens, but paper tickets were also a thing. Passengers would have to buy a paper ticket from a clerk at a booth and then drop it into the ticket “Chopper.” Once the paper ticket was dropped and approved, an attendant would raise the lever which extended from the front of the box. The Chopper became obsolete when the City stopped paper tickets in 1920.
There were more details on newer turnstiles but there is no need to belabor the point.
Old Subway Car (Vol XI)
The final train we’ll cover on Week to Week Notes is the R-10 Car. The American Car & Foundry Company was responsible for its creation. The R-10 served New Yorkers well from 1948 to 1989. It was mainly used on the Independent (IND) Eighth Avenue Express, now called the A Train today. This Subway car was the first of the post-WWII cars and it included many innovations such as dynamic braking that reduced its wear&tear. Due to the innovative braking, it was able to last over 4 decades. Operators of these trains would call them “Thunderbirds” because they could reach a speed of 55 miles per hour. These Thunderbirds were the last subway cars to be delivered with woven cloth covering the seats. As you’ll see from the interior, the woven cloth on the Thunderbirds didn’t make it past the 80s.
Ahhh the last of the late train cars. I gotta soak the interior of the Thunderbirds in. I really like the blue flooring. Also, the yellow lines as lanes would go well for people’s personal space. They almost look like lines on a basketball court. We should all sign a petition to have Mayor Adams bring these back. Hell, we might as well put mini basketball hoops on each of these new hypothetical trains. Imagine getting in a quick 2 v 2 half-court at 7:12 in the morning on a New York City Subway. All the other crazy shit that goes on down there, why not?
Greatest City in the World, no place like it, New York is fun!
YouTube Rabbithole
Zach Bryan LIVE with the Lumineers: Spotless in Franklin, TN 9/24/23