Author: Stacy Horn

The pandemic continues to break my heart. Since I started working at the ASPCA I’ve been passing by this store inside the Times Square subway stop, Record Mart. I love it because I’m a nostalgia junkie and they always had great hifi nostalgia displays. So I was very sad to see this note pictured on their shuttered store when I returned to work at the ASPCA Hospital last month. I’m glad that they will continue online, but I will miss their window displays.

Could they really be the oldest record store in Manhattan, as they say in this sign? How is it possible the first opened as late as 1958? Here is their history. Okay, according to a quick search they are not the oldest, no disrespect to Record Mart. The Commodore Music Shop opened in 1935 on 42nd Street. And the Casa Latina del Bronx record store opened in 1951, and moved to a new location in 1955 as Casalegre. Okay, that’s the Bronx, not Manhattan. Anyway, I’m sure there are many contenders. Doesn’t matter. I miss passing Record Mart by and I hope people will shop at their online store.

Here’s a picture of their window that I posted last year.

Please go to the Cats Act website and help save cats from horrific experiments. I don’t even want to describe what they’re doing. It’s monstrous.

I got to sing carols in the park with my choir, The Choral Society of Grace Church. It was great, but I thought we were going to end with the Hallelujah Chorus and we didn’t. I don’t think our director, John Maclay, thought we were up to it given we haven’t been singing regularly since March. (Maybe he was right, maybe not.) This is John handing out our music. The picture that follows is of a ballet class we passed by on our way home.

I decided to get a wreath. The thing is, it’s within the cat’s reach. I’m okay with them ripping it to shreds, if that’s what happens. In that case I will call it their Christmas present.

Because cats. Readers of my blog may remember how the cats broke the glass lampshade on my floor lamp, which I only recently replaced. It took me over a year to decide I could even afford to replace it. Then, I wasn’t sure about the proportions of the shade. It is too big? But I decided it was perfect and came to love it. To prevent the cats from knocking the lamp over again I barricaded it with an end table. All was well. The end.

Well, the happy ending lasted, what? Just a little bit over a month. A couple of nights ago the cats came at the lamp again, and instead of knocking it over they jumped at it and slammed it into the wall. It didn’t completely shatter, but the pieces that broke off did. Mostly. So except for a few pieces that survived, I couldn’t glue it back together.

I looked at replacement shades, but then I thought, what’s the point? They’ll just break whatever I buy. What else can I do? The jagged, broken parts were all along the top rim. I thought, maybe I could find something to wrap around the rim to cover them. A pretty ribbon perhaps. Maybe some tulle? I headed off to Mood.

Here is the lampshade before …

And here it is after. The bad bits are in the back, covered by the bow that I tied with the ends of the material. The bow part looks a little cheesy, that’s why it’s in the back. But I love the sparkly material I found. It’s an $8 fix! Once again, all is well, and my cats still suck. Because you know they are not done with this lampshade.