If you live in Rockaway and love jazz, you have some great options in Manhattan. A ferry ride will get you to several potential destinations in the city. Let’s take a look at a few.

The Jazz Standard club is on East 27th Street, and is downstairs from the barbeque restaurant, Blue Smoke. The venue is cozy, and tickets are relatively inexpensive. The mermaid and I saw the Mingus Big Band there one night and it was only $30 per ticket. Dinner is available, and is pretty good and the cocktail

 Do you know that area on Rockaway Beach Blvd. that has two semi-circular paths bounded by Beach 120th Street and 121st Street? There are London Plane trees all around it, American flags, benches, and sometimes flowers. I never really stopped to look around. I never looked at the concrete and metal markers surrounding both sides of the park. It’s worth a look, and maybe more. Those markers are in honor of fallen World War II soldiers who lost their lives defending our right to live in the

 A Prince has many great and noble qualities. First and foremost, a Prince is a gentleman in the oldest and truest sense of the word. They have an air of chivalry about them, they are generally the one who will lay their jacket across a puddle for a lady to be able to walk across. They hold doors, they say please and thank you. They never overstay their welcome, although they are always the first to be there when you need a hand. They give up their seat to a person older or in need of a seat

If you are of a certain age, you will remember that late at night network TV stations actually broadcasted a test pattern instead of a show. In those days there were three major networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, accompanied by some local stations on channels 5 and 11. Public television broadcasted on Channel 13. It was not unusual for families to gather around the black and white TV set and watch a popular show. It’s actually not that long ago.

Today there is never a test pattern broadcast, because

 With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, I thought I would share a couple of fun New York things to do. While it’s traditional to send flowers with hearts, and take one’s love out to dinner for Valentine’s Day, my interests tend more to the macabre, as you well know. So, here are two fun, slightly scary things to do this weekend.

The McKittrick Hotel is an event space like no other, located on West 27th Street on the far west side of Chelsea. It is the host of the immersive, "Sleep No More,"

So, if you hadn’t noticed it, Plum Tomatoes on Beach 129th Street has changed owners. Not much to notice from the outside but there are changes on the inside. Plum Tomatoes used to be a pizza place that also served dinners. You could get slices and hang out on the side at a table. There was a wall that kind of separated the slice eaters from the diners. The various types of pizza slices were displayed under a glass case at the counter.

The new owners have renamed the place La Sorrentina and