october12–25, 2020 | newyork 79graffitiasart:A subwaycargraffitiedbyNOC 167 reaches96thStreet,1981.Broadway
Brownstone RowhouseC
Café Society
Cel-Ray Soda
Chabad Judaism
Chemex Coffeepot
Christian Realism
Christmas Lights
Club Kids
Club Sandwich
College Entrance Exam
Cooperative Apartment
Building
Crayon
Credit Reporting
Agency
Cronut ▼
The Cronut, a cross
between a filled
doughnut and a
croissant, invented by
French-born pastry
chef Dominique Ansel,
made its debut at his
Soho bakery onMay
10, 2013, heraldedby
Hugh MerwinonNew
York’s Grub Streetblog
as a “Hybrid ThatMay
Very Well ChangeYour
Life.” The touristsare
still lining up forit.
CrosswordD
Department-Store
Holiday Window
Display
Deuterium
Digital Ad Exchange
Disco ▼Discount Store
Dollar Slice
Double Dutch
Dow Jones Industrial
Average
Downtown
Dry Cleaning ▼
“Letterspatentbeing
grantedundertheGreat
Sealofthe UnitedStates
ofAmerica untoThomas
L.Jennings, Tailor, 64NassauStreet, New
York”—thusrana line
intheNew YorkPoston
March 27 , 1821,marking
thefirst U.S.patent
issuedtoanAfrican
AmericanforJennings’s
systemof“Dry Scouring
Clothes,andWoollen
Fabricsingeneral,so
thatthey keeptheir
originalshape.”We’dcall
it “drycleaning” today,
andtheadvertisement
says the technique“also
removes stainsfrom
cloth.” Jenningswasa
free man, but hiswife,
born in slavery, wasan
indentured servant;he
made enough money
off his inventionto
buy her freedom.E
Easter Parade
Egg Cream
Eggs Benedict
Electrical Grid
Elevator/Escalator
Ex-Lax ▼
A year or so after
he graduated from
Columbia University’s
pharmacy programin
1904, Max Kissfellinto
a conversationwitha
doctor who mentioned
Bayer’s new drugphenolphthalein,which
relievedconstipation.
Mindfulofchildrenwho
resistedswallowingtheir
repulsivespoonfulsof
castoroil,heembedded
thephenolphthaleinin
chocolateandintroduced
hisproductin1906.
Henamedhisproduct
Ex-Laxfora Latinate
phrasehe’d pickedupin
Hungary that describes
politicaldeadlock:Ex-
lex is a conditionunder
which the Constitutionis
temporarily suspended
and Parliamentis
dissolved, during
which no legislation
can, uh, move.F
Façade Law
Federalism
Federal ReserveSystem
Flashmob
FM
Freak Show
Free VerseG
Game Show
Gay-Rights Movement
General Tso’s ChickenGentrification
GinRummy
GossipColumn
GraffitiAs Art
GumH
HalalCart
HareKrishna
HalliganBar▼
Virtually every fire
department in the U.S.
buys its men and women
the same tool: a steel bar
a couple of feet long with
a forked chisel at one
end and an adz and spike
at the other. It’s called a
Halligan bar, and it can
pop open a door, break
a window and clear the
frame of glass shards,
bash through a Sheetrock
wall, and provide the
leverage to open a stiff
water valve. The FDNY
chief Hugh Halligan
designed and patented
it in 1948, improving
on a cruder predecessor
known as a Kelly tool
(invented a generation
earlier by another New
York fire captain, in fact).
Hall of Fame
Harlem Shake
Hedge Fund
Highway, ElevatedHip-Hop▼
Citiesarea lot like
bodies.Proper circulation
keepscities alive; cut
offaccess,and rot sets
in.RobertMoses—the
famed“master builder”
ofNew York Cityand,
byextension, thewhole
urbanUnited States—
frequentlydecimated
neighborhoods and
shoveledfamilies into
public housing that
displaced Latinoand
African American
residents with surgical
precision. And hip-hop is
the child of the disorder
that Moses visited on
communities of color.
In those decaying
neighborhoods, Bronx
youths created their
own infrastructure and
then their own culture.
In the summer of
1973, the Jamaican-
born Bronx kid Clive
Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Kool
Herc, cleverly crossed
Kingston dancehall and
soundsystem culture
with thriving American
funk music. Herc,
while DJing his sister’s
birthday party, decided
to show off a trick he’d
been practicing. Instead
of playing songs all the
way through, he cued up
PHOTOGRAPH: ©MARTHA two copies of thesame^