My son was home for spring break this past week, and today I walked him to the subway on his way back to school. I haven’t recovered from it.

Mrs. Bob said that was the reason she didn’t go on the walk. She could have told me that before I left.

I asked a friend for some pics of her kids (she has a brand-new one!) and wow are they adorable. I shared two pics back of my kids (from long, long ago).

While I have tens of thousands of photos, I only have two photos on my Mac easily accessible via Finder.

Sharing my two back somehow made me think of my dad (gone 32 years now). When he died, he lived alone, and the only pictures he had of his short married life were contained in a plastic cube that held a total of six square pictures. He never asked for any updated ones (despite never seeing us).

I’m glad my brain took a nice thing and made me sad. Sigh.

On Saturday, March 8, 2025, we attended Night in the Library at the Central Branch of the public library.

I love libraries and think they are one of the best ideas we’ve come up with, and boy do I love the Central Branch (and not just because it’s so close to me).

Despite all of that, I have very mixed feelings about this event. While I 100% believe it should be free, they need to limit the number of people attending. There is no way they can hold that many people safely. Basically, the event was oversold, and no one appeared to have experience managing crowds.

The main room (which used to be where the Circulation desks were) housed DJs and a small stage in addition to a pop-up bookstore. Now, I know I’m a cranky old fart, but if the music is so loud that the bookstore guy has to keep asking me what I said (at least, that’s what I think he said), then something’s not working.

Of course, the library rooms aren’t meant to be staged for lectures requiring a lot of seating. Sure, there are tables and chairs, but we’re talking about tables and chairs for 30 people, not the 200¹ that were in the Society, Sciences & Technology room. Same for the 200² in the History, Biography & Religion room. Folks were standing in the stacks, peering through openings, generally fussing about to be able to hear and get as comfortable as possible.

Media for Workers was the first event I attended. I was, as stated above, relegated to the stacks (along with lots of others), and it was a little hard to hear. And, of course, the room heated up pretty quickly with everyone in there. Summary: Support the media you want to keep enjoying. I’m all for that (see my Washington Post cancellation post), and I pay for as much as I can afford.

I wanted to stay in the room to hear the The Fire This Time: Baldwin & the Essay, but they had us all leave, and there was no way to get back in because the line for that talk was super, super long.

Next, I went to Podcasting & the Future of Democracy. Halima Gikandi was very charming, and I’d like to hear more about what she has to say as I found the talk a bit too light on what I expected her to talk about. I did love that she mentioned the library has resources to help folks out if they want to get started recording their own shows. I did have a seat at a table, although it was to her back, but the audio was generally fine.

I was able to stay in the room to listen to Win Working Class and didn’t even have to give up my seat. Bhaskar Sunkara was likewise charming and funny.

The one talk I am extra disappointed I couldn’t even get into the room for was Jacobin Magazine: Who Owns the Working Class? A Debate

Overall, the idea of event is a 10, but execution was a 6 at best. Look, I am fully aware libraries are always on the brink of being closed and by and large every single person involved did put forth an honest effort. But it was oversold which made it a less-than-fun experience.

What I think I’d do (I’m aware I’m spending money that isn’t mine and likely doesn’t even exist): Make it a weekend event.

Hold the event Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Use the Dweck Center for the talks over the three days. Figure out a better ticketing system and set up the little lobby down there for meet-and-greets and things. The featured speakers could then push folks to their own sites for more information, etc.

I also don’t know why the library itself didn’t have a booth to promote itself. There are so many damned cool things at the library that folks don’t know about³. And maybe this isn’t something that’s allowed⁴, but the library should make sure folks know who to write to to insist there is funding for the library.

I feel like I dropped a giant turd on this event and I so don’t mean to. The library is the best, the services that are offered there are great, and all of the staff I’ve ever interacted with have been wonderful and helpful.

And the good news is folks want more of this at the library. I hope the folks at the best library system in NYC figure out how to get more folks involved to make this run more smoothly.

This is a review of the Battle Hill Tavern¹ restaurant in Brooklyn. I am of a mixed mind about this. If I write how I really feel about this restaurant, I fear I will no longer get a table, but if I don’t tell folks about it, I will feel like I’m letting my reader down.

Atmosphere

We went to Battle Hill Tavern on Friday March 7, 2025, at about 6:50 p.m. Its little dining room was packed. Literally every table was full. And, wonderfully so, the dining room was packed with children (I’d say there were about 8 children when we got there). Some looking at screens, some drawing, toddling about. And some just fussing their little heads off. Since there were no tables, we sat at the bar waiting for a table to open up.

There is no vestibule when you walk in, so on a very cold day opening the door is likely to freeze the folks near the door and at least a few at the bar.

As I said, between the size of the room and the fact there is no vestibule, you feel like you are a part of the place as soon as you walk in.

At the far end of the room, opposite the front door, was a half-height brick wall to separate the pizza-making area from the rest of the room, but the heat from the pizza did help with the cold from the outside. It also was a bit like a fireplace (from the right angle you could see the fire), so it did add physical and visual warmth to the room.

I think the friendly staff and little kids made us both like being there. The bar stools, however, were pretty uncomfortable, and there was nowhere to hang our coats. I wished there were hooks under the bar.

Food and Drink

At the bar, we each had a Guinness. Canned. I was disappointed to not have looked around more, because I would have gotten a draft of something. I really enjoy a Guinness, but I’d so much rather have it from the tap. I’m not a connoisseur, so maybe the can and tap taste the same here in the U.S., but still, I’d rather have it from the tap.

By 8pm the children were heading home, and tables were opening up.

OK, the food. We ordered a small arugula salad with sliced pears and goat cheese ($19), the meatballs ($15), and the sausage pizza ($22).² Based just on prices, I thought it was maybe a little high, but it was a night out and so be it. Note: While there is table service, I had to go to the bar to order and to pay the bill. Of course, I don’t mind that, but I feel a little foolish for not understanding that. Maybe once you know, you know, and it’s fine. And now you know. Oh, maybe this isn’t the case, and they were just extra busy. In any event, I don’t ding them for that. They clearly weren’t rushing us out.

I didn’t like that they brought all our food at once, but in fairness, I didn’t say to wait for the pizza. Anyway, wow, did we like what they brought.

The salad was bigger than I expected, and so now I will go back and order the large salad just to see how big it is. It comes with almond slices, which we opted out of. We’re pretty good eaters, and yet we took the salad home for lunch. So the small salad gave us 4 side servings. I think the pear could have been sliced thinner (I’m aware of my food foibles), and maybe a crumble or two more of goat cheese, but it was a good salad that was not overly dressed. I worry that dressed salads don’t hold up well to the next day, but this was fine.

The meatballs come as a three-fer with a small baguette-shaped pre-cut loaf. The bread was still hot and easy to rip. I don’t know the mixture of the meat, so I’m not quite sure how they got the meatballs to be so soft yet not mushy, but they did. I don’t have a lot to say about the meatballs other than to get them. You will absolutely enjoy them. We each ate half a meatball and saved the rest for the next day. They also reheated up well.

The sausage pizza comes with red onions, but not too many. I thought maybe they were shy with their onioning, but they clearly know what they are doing because you could taste the crust, the cheese, the sauce, the onion, and the sausage. Nothing overwhelmed the other. Speaking of the sausage, what’s up with this sausage? One bite in and we were both “This is really good.” We each ate two slices and brought the other two slices home. If you reheat the slices properly (hot skillet or griddle), they are just about as good as from their oven (but not quite).

Simple rating: Thumbs up.

Not too simple rating: We’re going back and bringing our neighbors next time.

More detailed rating:

Atmosphere: 5 of 5
Seating: 4 of 5 (need better barstools somehow)
Staff: 4 of 5 (I can see if you go here often it would be a 5 of 5)
Food: 5 of 5 (but we need to try a lot more to really say for sure, but we’re up to the challenge).

If you are looking to find out if you should eat at Battle Hill Tavern, then wonder no more. You will like it. Go at 5:45-6 p.m. if you have little ones, else 7:45 -8 p.m. And not because you don’t want little kids around, but because there are likely to be more tables open by then.

Parenting I have this feeling that nags at me that I’ve been a less-than father despite having a two great kids (22 and 19 years old). You know, short on patience, long on sitting down and not spilling anything so I can eat in peace. It was wonderful to see (and, again, it filled me with regret or shame, not sure of the word I’m reaching for here) a dad holding a very fussy baby (crying, reaching for nothing, trying not to be held) while eating his slice of pizza. I would have been the frowny-faced dad, and I don’t like remembering that about me. This dad was just eating his pizza, wearing his hipster hat, and just holding the most important thing in the world without any look of annoyance on his face. Good job, Dad.

Yeah, I hope we’ll be OK.