Those of you who follow the blog on other social media accounts may or may not have noticed this already. But it appears Facebook and Instagram have both removed links to this blog without my consent. Even the link in my profile to this blog’s homepage gets an error message. I’ve tried deleting it and retyping it by hand, but to no avail.

Facebook seems to have removed all links to the blog itself for “violating community standards”. I’m not sure what community standards I’ve violated - the blog does not post pornography or NSFW content. I don’t post hate speech or threats of violence.

Is this because I said John Laurens was gay? Is the ghost of Henry Laurens trolling my Facebook ?

Instagram is even worse. It doesn’t even give me a reason why, and doesn’t give me an option to ask to have this problem reviewed.

I’m looking into the issue now, but as you can imagine, I’m not optimistic about it. Mostly I’m just annoyed and confused as to why this is happening at all. I’m not a “big name” blog so it’s not like I’m losing money on this but I still rely on social media to get people to read this, or else I’d just be screaming at myself in a vacuum.

If anyone has ever dealt with anything like this before please tell me what you did in this situation because I am at my wit’s end.
-Nym

How to Relive the Twenties in NYC...

...while you're waiting for summer to come around so you can go to the Jazz Age Lawn Party again! (No, that will not be on this list, as everyone already knows about it and also it's not accessible for everyone.)

Cue "Rhapsody in Blue"

Look, we're almost in the twenties again, and the scene nowadays isn't entirely dissimilar to 1919. Fascism and nationalism are on the rise worldwide, Europe is in shambles, newly-obtained rights (then - women voting! now- gays marrying!) are making manbabies cry, everyone is broke as fuck, and dada humour is back en vogue.

I'm not saying I want everything in the 1920s to come back. I don't want the Ku Klux Klan to be as powerful as they were back then (though it looks like that may be happening anyway, gross). I don't particularly want Prohibition or segregation to return. But sometimes I do want to take a time machine back just to get kind of a sense of what it was like to live through all that. I can't do that yet but there are ways to get a bit of that jazz age flavour injected right into my veins. Figuratively, of course. And here I've amassed a few of them!

P.S. I'm sorry I do not know the Bronx or Staten Island well enough to include anything from those boroughs; please tell me about cool 20s-esque places there and maybe I'll make a sequel to this post! I did try to include places from Brooklyn and Queens whenever possible

A Self Guided Walking Tour of the West/Greenwich Village

I will be completely honest with you - I have been living in New York for a couple years now and I'm still not entirely sure on what the distinction is between Greenwich Village and the West Village. As someone who mostly frequents the East Village, anything west of Broadway kinda blends all together in my mind. Either way, though, that infamous neighbourhood to the west is known for being quite charming, full of history and quaint shops and brownhouses and winding cobblestone streets that don't match up to Manhattan's grid at all. And honestly, I don't think New Yorkers know the distinction either - I've asked like ten of y'all, and everyone gave me a different answer for what the difference is between them two.

There are, of course, a plethora of self guided walking tours available all over the web. But none were catered to my specific interests. So - with the help of google maps - I spliced them together and added a few things and created my own, with the things I'm interested in - early American history, gay history, cool architectural details, and ghost stories. And after taking it... well, I figured I'd share it with all of you

Pocket Altar 101

Witches and pagans hear me out! Everyone else, ignore this post!

Have you ever been out in the park and suddenly thought "hm I'd really like to do a magical/religious thing right now but all my supplies are at home!"? You've probably already heard of the concept of a "pocket altar" but let me tell you, it is a lifesaver, and if you haven't made one yet then you really should! I mean, far be it from me to tell anyone how to do their own spiritual thing - like, you do you, obviously - but it is a nifty little thing that comes in handy.

First things first, you're gonna need an Altoids tin.