As Wilma would say..."now that is rich"! S.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ross Bender Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 12:36 AM To: UnivCity University City List Subject: [UC] The Gigantic Private Bathhouse Campaign I just wanted to "weigh in" with my "two cents" and second Elisabeth Dubin's breathtakingly brilliant idea about a gigantic public/private bathhouse in Clark Park. At the moment I'm splashing around in Japanese onsens doing a little research and when I get back I expect I'll be able to add some truly professional perspectives on what, as is sadly the case with this tawdry email list, is already turning into a sordid mudslinging food fight with ad hominen attacks, personal slander, really boring stories about cats, etc. PEOPLE can't we just get ALONG? A little bit of civility, PLEASE. Or I may have to cancel my fucking subscription again. To begin with, a little personal perspective. The most truly fabulous public bathhouse I have ever had the privilege to visit was the Continental Baths on New York City's Upper West Side. I went there not for the baths, of course, nor the lewd and rampant promiscuity, but to hear Patti Labelle and the Blue Bells (Sara Dash, Nona Hendrix) in their prime. A truly romantic and dazzling evening, even though my programme got a little soggy in all that steam. Not long after this epochal performance the venue underwent a sea change and turned into a cheap glitzy outfit known as Plato's Retreat. But the Continental Baths had a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain quaint and decadent atmosphere which recalled Venice in the 20s or perhaps the Grand Seraglio in Constantinople back in the day. To wit, vast bevies of stunning pear-bottomed ladies clothed only in towels, offering peeled grapes, hashish, precious wines and other favors to those whom they fancied. Now it may seem a bit farfetched to imagine such a splendid institution taking root in dead old Clark Park. I mean, GET REAL, Elisabeth Dubin. Can't you just see staid solomonic old Anthony West forming a Baths Subcommittee to explore the possibilities of, on the one hand, a fenced in public bath, or, on the other, not a fenced in public bath. Plus which, what would our puritanical Mayor say, not to mention the University City Old Ladies Sewing Circle and Gentrification Committee? Seriously, think what such a place would do to the REAL ESTATE prices in the neighborhood! Personally I think a much more sensible, not to mention environmentally sound, solution is to dig up the underground sewers and let the Mill Race flow free, as I believe has been mentioned as a possibility previously on this list. Wash all the dogshit out of the Bowl, drown all the irksome dog people AND toddlers, thus killing two contentious birds with one stone. Plus in the winter there would be skating. Ladies in long Victorian skirts, men in cummerbands and bandanas. Ross Bender http://rosslynnbender.org/nikki.html On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 11:43:40 -0500, Daniel Flaumenhaft <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Jan 27, 2005, at 10:44 AM, Dubin, Elisabeth wrote: > > > Let's say I am a person who really believes that there should be a > > gigantic public bathhouse in Clark Park for all to use. Don't I have > > the right to self-select myself to campaign for this? And if I get a > > group of like-minded people together to enact change, don't we have > > the right as a group to work towards out goals? We aren't elected > > officials, so we are not obligated to reflect the views of anyone but > > ourselves. > > Actually, there *was* a movement to get the Rec Department to start > building public bathhouses in parks. While Boston, New York, > Baltimore, and Chicago *did* build indoor bathhouses, Philadelphia was > too cheap for that and just built swimming pools. There were certainly > no servants with grapes. > > There were a number of quasi-public baths, including ones built by a > "Public Baths Association" in Germantown (designed by Cope & > Stewardson), and near 4th and South (by Furness and Evans). There was > also the "Western Soup Society Public Baths" at 16th and South. (I > think the "Western Soup Society" had the name because it started out > as a soup kitchen, but by that point, it was a settlement house > connected with the Christian Association at Penn). Chicago had the > charmingly named Free Bath and Sanitary League. > > See Marilyn Thornton Williams. *Washing The Great Unwashed: > PublicBaths in Urban America,1840-1920*. Columbus: Ohio State > University Press, 1991. > > > You would of course have the right and social obligation to form a > > counter-group, called something like "Neighbors Against Sweaty > > McBathhouseification" or something. > > No, that's the *private* bathhouse that Penn is evicting the Cinemagic > to build. They'll have servants with *peeled* grapes. No doubt Ross > Bender can tell you all about it. > > Daniel > > ---- > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the > list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see > <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. > -- Ross Bender http://rossbender.org ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
