Sergeant York Update
Follow-up to yesterday's Mysteries of Yorkville entry: I ought to have enlisted Kathleen before announcing defeat. Known as the Spider Woman of Wall Street, Kathleen also ought to be recognized as the Ferret of the Internet. (We've actually talked about her going into business as a sort of Ask Jeeves.) Not only did she find support for my conviction that York Avenue, formerly Avenue A, was renamed after Sergeant Alvin Cullum York, World War I hero, but she uncovered the date: 1928. Who knew that 1928 was also the birthday of "Sutton Place"?
From the Times (scroll down a bit).
From NYC Streets (scroll down almost to the bottom).
And, feeling zesty myself, I went on to ask the Internet how to pronounce "Coenties," as in "Coenties Slip," the name of a street that runs from the East River (more or less) to Pearl Street, in way-downtown Manhattan. Rebecca Mead, of The New Yorker, reports the answer (I must have missed the "Talk" that week), but not at the magazine's site. Any Nederlanders out there want to pitch in?
"Quinches."
