....Stranahan!!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My family and I are lucky enough to live in close proximity to Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.

Laid out by Vaux and Olmstead in 1870 as the central approach to Prospect Park, it is the site of one of the world’s great Triumphal Arches, dedicated to the heroes of the Union Army around the turn of the last century.

Also here are the nifty 1932 art-nouveau Bailey Fountain, and the Egyptian-influenced Moderne facade of the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

What REALLY catches the eye, though, and makes Grand Army Plaza one of the great showpieces of the East Coast, is the fine array of memorial statuary that rings the Arch.

Yes, all of the Great Men of New York are here, in equestrian bronze and bas-relief tablet form…Skene…Maxwell…Warren…Slocum…

…but, by far, the greatest of these is…STRANAHAN!

Betwixt the Library and the main Park entrance stands the balding bronzed form of this 19th-century Luminary, clutching his top hat in one hand and his stick in the other, a venerable pilgrimage site for his millions of fervent admirers.

As my son and I head home after his swim class at the Athletic Club on Eastern Parkway, we always stop and say a silent prayer, and discuss the enduring brillance of the man who was Stranahan.

“See that? That’s STRANAHAN! He was a great man! A GREAT MAN!”

“What did he do…? Well…Stranahan was the FIRST MAN to put CHEESE in a BLITZ!!!”

“Stranahan? Stranahan was the 1898 first baseman and batting champion of the Brooklyn Dodgers!”

“Stranahan singlehandedly dug the Gowanus Canal!”

“Stranahan was the first to circumvent Brooklyn in a dirigible!”

“Stranahan invented the frankfurter at Coney Island, but sold the rights to Nathan’s!”

“Stranahan told Whitman to revise the working title of his poetry collection Leaves of Hyacinth!”

“Stranahan negotiated the historic cease-fire between Macy’s and Gimbel’s!”

“Stranahan planted the first Bush in Flatbush!”

“Stranahan invented the cheesecake, and cured the first pastrami ever seen in New York City!”

All we can say is, thank god for Stranahan. The world would be a less joyful place without the warmth and radiance he so generously bestowed upon us here in Brooklyn.

2

OMG! INCOMING!

(A truly scarifyin’ scenario.)

3

Meanwhile, across the river in the real United States…

4

“Stranahan was the first to circumvent Brooklyn in a dirigible!”

Is this sorta like the “Hindenburg” trying to circumvent Lakehurst NJ?:smiley:

5

Uke, is the triumphal arch of which you speak the same one that’s in When Harry Met Sally? You know, the scene where Sally drops Harry off in NYC after their drive from Chicago?

Jes’ wunnerin’.

With Love, GfH (Whose only exposure to NYC has been through movies and on one Sunday in May - The Five Borough Bike Tour)

6

For everyone else’s information except Uke’s --because I’m sure he knows this – from The Museum of the City of New York’s website:

Sounds like a pretty great guy to me!

7

I think you mean “circumnavigate.” Unless he tried to keep Brooklyn from being Brooklyn from aloft, which is a whimsical mental image, but probably not a realistic one.

Yeah, I’m a pedantic fuddy-duddy, what of it?

8

Ewwwwww…there’s copyeditors all over! Get’ em offa me! Get 'em OFF!

GfH: Yeah, yeah, I looked him up myself, and the other guys, too. Did you know that General Slocum was responsible for the deaths of over one thousand German-Americans in June of 1904? What a bastard!

– Uke, master of disinformation

9

:: removes glove and slaps Ike across the face with it. ::

This insult shall not stand, sir. It shall not, I say!

Pistols at dawn!

10

If he’d take his hand off his stick, we’d know if he was circumnavigated or not.

11

Oh, the statue is not that boring guy. He’s most likely one of these:

http://www.stranahanfoundation.org/
One of the Stranahan brothers, Frank and Robert, founders of the Champion spark plug co.

http://users.aol.com/stranahan/roscoes.htm
This odd fellow, Lee Stranahan has posted his review of the House of Chicken and Waffles on the web. Not sure if it’s the same guy, but there’s also a “Masturbation Celebration” website by a Lee Stranahan. Prob’ly is. Bet he “clutches his stick” plenty, too.

http://www.paulstranahan.com/
Don’t forget Paul Stranahan, modern jazz, fusion drummer (and major nerd, from the looks of him)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/augusta/history/news/2001/03/31/frank_stranahan/
And then there is controversial golf cheat, Frank Stranahan, son of one of the Spark Plug guys, btw.

http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/01-04-12/stranahan.htm
Bud Stranahan whose wife Ella is from Brooklyn, you sure that’s not a statue of him?

http://www.cabcallowayschoolofthearts.com/stranahan.htm
Surely it isn’t a statue of Mrs. Stranahan, the PE teacher from hell (and such a model of robust health!).

12

No, No, No, Gazelle from Hoboken. The triumphal arch in Harry met Sally is in Manhattan. The Washington Square Arch is in Washington Square Park at the foot of Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village. For the past several years it’s been surrounded by a fence so it doesn’t fall down on any poor passerby.

The arch Ike is talking about is in Brooklyn, not Manhattan.

13

I thought this was a thread about Michael Strahan and Mike Shanahan … :smiley:

14

Well, Uke, you can stop all the disinformation now.

Send your boy to me because I can tell him all about James S.T. Stranahan. Want me to prove it? Well, you know that quote from Gazelle from Hell? I wrote it. It’s part of my script for my Greater New York documentary that ran at the MCNY. (This is a first for me – being quoted as a third party on the SDMB!)

As as for the General Slocum business, I know all about that too. Don’t confuse your statues and wooden pleasure boats!

15

Ah…I knew you’d end up in here sooner or later, as I understand you do vanity searches based on the phrase “bald bronzed form.”

Much as we are tantalized by the thought of a two-hour lecture on the Herculean life and prodigious feats of Stranahan, my son and I will unfortunately be washing our hair that day.

…so, how did THESE guys get memorialized in Brooklyn’s best public space, as opposed to, say, Walt Whitman and George Gershwin and Jimmy Durante and Marianne Moore?

From what I can make out, they’re all Civil War generals with nebulous attachments to the borough, or railroad tycoons, or bankers. And Skene seems to have been some sort of exalted clap doctor.

16

. . . in his best Sunday clothes. And did you know the second-to-last survivor of the General Slocum recently died, at the age of 109?

Where are the monuments to the other great New Yorkers of days of yore, like Madame Restell, the Florodora Girls and Steve Brodie?

17

Billdo, you’re funny. Hey, do you tittilate as much as your handle suggests? If so, are you busy tonight?

::smacking myself for my brazenness::

:::wondering if I spelled brazennness correcccctttllly:::

18

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through a Brooklyn overpass
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Stranahan!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion came
The accents of that unknown name,
Stranahan!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the subway stations shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Stranahan!

“Try not to pass!” the old man said:
"Dark is the walk sign overhead,
The Boulevard is deep and wide!
But loud his silly voice replied,
Stranahan!

“Oh stay,” his Wifey said, “and rest
Thy weary head upon my breast!”
A tear stood in his pale blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Stranahan!

“Beware the pine-tree’s withered branch!
Beware that homeless chick named Blanche!”
This was flatfoot’s last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the Height,
Stranahan!

At break of day, as was their rule
Yeshiva students walked to school
Uttering their oft-heard prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Stranahan!

The fellow, by a faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Stranahan!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Stranahan!

19

I suddenly feel like I need to take a 15 minute stroll up there and pay my homage. :smiley:

20

Actually, Stranahan is the guy all those countries are named after: Pakistranahan, Kazakhstranahan, Afghanistranahan…