Paddy's Clam House - New York City

Lunch for $1.29 sounds good to me. So does the 5-course lobster dinner. I would suggest that we meet there for lunch, but Paddy's has been closed for many years.

This is from New York City - Around the World in 80 Dinners, originally published in 1959. Paddy died in October 1964.

Paddy's Clam House, 215 W. 34th St., is one of the largest and oldest seafood establishments in New York. Paddy (Joseph Patrick) White opened his first clam house in the Bronx more than 60 years ago and moved to the present location 26 years ago. He is now 80 and engaged in writing a book to be titled Eat Fish, Live Longer.
Paddy, born in Philadelphia, learned his trade at the oyster bar of Delmonico's. He still maintains that Lorenzo Delmonico was the greatest restaurateur of all time. Paddy established a record 59 years ago for opening clams  100 in 3 minutes, 20 seconds and claims this record has never been beaten. Today, his West 34th St. restaurant serves 1,000 people daily; disposes of 5,000 lobsters, 50 bushels of shellfish and 1,700 pounds of fish per week. The restaurant features wooden-topped tables and makes no pretensions to elegant service or appointments. And, Paddy boasts, people stand in line for his $2.55 five-course lobster dinner on Sundays.
Paddy is an avid fight fan, has known all the champs, and used to travel around the country to catch all the big fights of the past half century.

Streetcar Sunday - Limoges, France

Here's a photo from around 1900 of a great intersection with trams in Limoges, France.  Limoges had tram service from 1897 until 1951.  At that time, the system was replaced by trolley buses.

The Limoges tram system was built very quickly with six lines in its first year of operation.  In 1898,  its second year of operation, the system transported four million passengers. By 1928, route extensions brought the system to its maximum coverage of 20 km.

By the 1930s, trams had lost their appeal and were being replaced by trolleybuses. In France, Paris had set the trend by removing all of its trams. Other cities, including Limoges, followed suit. There has been talk in the last few years of bringing trams back to Limoges, but the idea has yet to gain widespread political support.

The Children Have Gone Fishing

Here are some more French Poisson d'Avril  or April Fish cards. Yesterday's cards all featured lovely women; today's all feature children. As the first card explains, these children are continuing a long tradition of offering fish and flowers for the first of April.

A typical card might have a message on the back that says, "Guess who sent you this." The cards are often joking and romantic at the same time.

Here's the back of the first card, sent on April 1, 1904.

To see more Possin d'Avril cards from previous posts, click here.