The News 12 guy said a cab driver with Mount Pleasant Taxi, which is based out of the (otherwise) closed Hawthorne station house, left a dead rabbit on the front step of the cab depot today. The guy said the disgruntled cabbie was a Vietnam vet who, presumably, went a little nuts.

News 12 will have the story at 5 today.

And to think–the past few weeks, I’ve been walking around with a Mt. Pleasant Taxi business card in my pocket in case The Missus went into labor while I was working in the city. Mr. Dead Rabbit could’ve been the guy driving me to Phelps to witness the arrival of Little Miss C!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, We’re just recycling the motor, we should be up in a few minutes.”

Another dirty deed done dirt cheap, and we were soon off…

–Jerseyjim
 

I was wondering; I can occasionally hear this whistling sound from the engineers cab and he slows down. I was wondering if the whistling indicates distance between trains is getting too close or is it generated for some other reason such as schedule time?
Thanks
Joel F.

–

If any of the rail fans Trainjotting picked up thanks to our Track 61 expertise can help Joel, I’m sure he’d be appreciative.

As any veteran of a Music Together class or CD knows, the session kicks off with a little “Hello, everybody” song, in which the mothers are covered with a “Hello, to all the mommies,” while the lone dad and lone nanny each get their own shout-out.

The class ambled on through a little “Jumpin’ Josie,” then “I’m a Bell,” and later, the little egg-shaped shakers came out for “Train to the City.”

As the leader started the song–adults and kids alike, on their feet, shuffling in a circle as if to mimic a train–the tune reminded me of some old Peter, Paul and Mary hippie nonsense I’d heard as a kid; something about a train that didn’t allow gamblers, womanizers, cigar smokers and other profligates.

The lyrics have been cleaned up for the thigh-high set–This train is going to the city, this train, and This train is going to Grandma’s, this train…

At one point the leader, an aging hippie with straight iron-gray hair, started to improvise. This train, she sang through cartoonish teeth, is going to the station, this train…

Mid-verse, she said she couldn’t come up with a rhyme for station. Uh, I thought, An on-time train ain’t but an abberation, for starters, or Metro-North’s drinks got hit by inflation, or Not commuting for a week fills me with elation, but I bit my tongue.

The leader redeemed herself on the next verse by coughing up this clever bit of poesy:

This train is going to Yonkers, This train
This train, is going to Yonkers, This train

This train is going to Yonkers/

The engineer has gone bonkers, this train

The mommies, the nanny and I laughed when we heard that one.

[images: eplkids.blogspot.com, haverstrawlife.com]

As a result, this week’s posts may lack frequency, wit and insight.

Note how much fun everyone is having in the “Let’s Stay Together” vid.

We always kind of chalked that up to an urban myth, like the Samaritan who grabbed the stray puppy off the mean streets of Gotham, only to have it turn out to be a giant rat, or the one about the family who was robbed of everything but their camera and (tainted) toothbrushes.

Well, the MTA actually makes these subways schedules available online (our apologies to everyone who’s known this since the ’60s). Here’s the link.

Back to that 6 train–if it seems like she’s pulling into Grand Central every three minutes or so during rush hour, she is, at least theoretically. The 6 is scheduled to arrive at 9:04, then 9:07, then 9:10, and on, until it lags to every four minutes at 9:23.

Good luck downloading the sked to your Blackberry–it’s a pdf file.

I can still feel the guilt-vibes from No Impact Man for footprinting another dreaded coffee cup on my carbon-account, but I’ve been chipping away at my impact here and there. Looking around on the train, lots of folks are switching from paper to re-usable containers.

I stopped at (the not so evil) Starbucks in Jersey before boarding the train, and they filled up my (Fleet Bank) steely travel coffee mug without a shrug, which was nice–and only charged me $1.66 for it…which is nice.

The guy fixing his broken coffee mug at the fixins bar asked, “Did they fill that up for you?” and I said, “Yup!”

I tried not to sound victorious, or cooler-than thou, but he was drinking ice coffee anyway–so I felt tres un-cool, not making the switch to ice-coffee here in May.

As luck would have it, when one Googles “Track 61″–as thousands, perhaps millions did this morning, none other than Trainjotting is the first listing to pop up. The link brings readers to an Ask Engine Bob column devoted to every last detail about Track 61, which FDR used to sneak in and out of Grand Central and hide his disability (he had severe polio) from the public.

As a result of our stellar Google placement, we had nothing short of stunning traffic on ol’ Trainjotting. (A link from Gothamist helped as well.)

Lauer ended up with a nice 7-minute segment, with some commentary from colorful Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker and Brooklynite historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. He spoke about not only the phantom track, but the mysterious bulletproof freight car still located under the Waldorf that played some sneaky role in presidential security.

[photo: MSNBC.MSN.com]

I must say, much as I was skeptical that Metro-North would uphold their end of the bargain, the whole experience was ruthlessly efficient. I contacted Metro-North April 17, the same day their train ripped my decade-old Gap khakis. I was told to write a letter, which I did, then received a call on April 29 instructing me to email a digital photo of my train pass and the torn pants.

I did that late on April 29, the check was issued May 1, and arrived May 7–”representing full and final settlement of the aforementioned matter.”

If only Metro-North’s trains were as prompt.