#425 Return to Moote Pointe

#425 Return to Moote Pointe

We ambled through the old stomping grounds recently. A lot has changed. A lot hasn't.

The traffic on Long Island remains miserable. The heat remains miserable. The cholesterol pipe still runs among Taco Bell, Burger King, crosses the street to Wendy's and zigzags back to McDonalds. All those cholesterol fill up stations in a row. Makes the supply chain fast and easy, no small feat in days where gasoline costs more than beer.

The Gangland Amusement Park and the combination donut shop and gun store next to the elementary school have closed. And they've redone some of the sidewalks in "art brick." Art brick? The Moote Pointe Chamber of Commerce points to the sidewalks with pride. Thing is, grass grows between the bricks. Not on many of the lawns, mind you. But the Chamber has had to hire a landscaper to mow the sidewalks once every two weeks.

And a new business has come to town, a used shoe store. What? Yes, a used shoe store. But they're very picky about what they sell. Plenty of Manolo Blancos. A scattering of Jimmy Choos. When you look at their stock, you see absolutely no wear on the soles or heels.

"Are you sure these are used?" a visitor asked. "Yes," said Alan Silverman, proprietor of Moote Pointe Used Shoes. "You have to remember the feet of the residents of Moote Pointe never touch the ground." Good point. Nothing for men yet, though. No manly man from Moote Pointe wants to give up his Mephistos. At least, not until winter.

The fun part of the trip was trying to fall into the gap between the LIRR cars and the platforms. But try as we will, old commuter habits prevented it. Some of those gaps are wide enough to accomodate a small horse. Unless you take a Giant Step. Commuters (and apparently ex-commuters) have trained themselves over the decades to take Giant Steps when boarding or leaving a LIRR car.

The library has more DVDs than books. The town center four-faced clock is still wrong -- four different ways.

The food at the retro diner, greasy as can be, remains among the best-tasting in America, maybe in the northern hemisphere. The Russian barbers remain classy, fast and cheap.

The leaf blower symphony continues unabated. So do the pedestrian fatalities on Sunrise Highway. Some things never change.

(Additional reporting by Slip Chard and Herbert Taryton)


Shrapnel:

--US News has cut its publication back to every other week. Newsweek can't follow. It would have to change its name to "News Every Other Week," which isn't nearly as snappy, and doesn't fall off the tongue as easily.

--Time can't do it either. No name change needed here. But they'd have to face all those jokes about watches running slow, "Time-Out" and the like.

--Newspapers, struggling to use less paper also could cut back. That, too would require name changes. "The New York Every Other Daily News?"

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.(R)
(C)WJR 2008