Latest news with #observatory
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Lake District's first observatory and planetarium opens to public
A new planetarium and observatory has opened in a national park to offer people the chance to explore the Observatory is the first planetarium to open in the Lake District National Park and has been built in the hope of making Cumbria a destination for follows on the success of similar observatories in Kielder in Northumberland, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Gary Fildes has worked in astronomy outreach centres for years and said it was exciting to be involved in opening the Lake District's first observatory. "I was a founder of Kielder Observatory and worked there for many years, and the Grassholme Observatory in Teesdale," he said."It is really exciting to be opening this beautiful venture here in Grizedale in the heart of the Lake District."Mr Fildes said the observatory's equipment was powerful enough to take a picture of the Andromeda galaxy, which is our closest neighbouring galaxy. The facility has been opened in partnership with Forestry England and its planetarium can cater for up to 20 people at a wishing to stargaze at the site are able to use its fleet of 8in (20cm) Dobsonian telescopes and its two 16in (40cm) large aperture also has a fully robotic telescope housed in a custom-built dome. The larger telescope is connected to TV screens which can be used to display the images. Grizedale Observatory's Ben Marshall said the facility also contained an indoor education site, which includes its meteorite room."We've spent a bit of money and collected a load of meteorites that have fallen to Earth," he said. One of the collection's prize pieces is its lunar meteorite - which is an actual piece of the was created when something hit the moon hard enough to eject part of it, said Mr Marshall."It's then flown across space, got into our gravity and landed on Earth." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
CNN
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The greatest city park in America? A case for LA's Griffith Park
Griffith Park is a massive, mountainous, wild oasis in the middle of the dense urban sprawl characterizing much of this fabled city. Yet its identity is still very LA — fun, sunny and it's been in enough films and television series that were it a person it would have its own star on the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 4,210 acres, Griffith outshines other extraordinary city parks of the US, such as San Francisco's Golden Gate, which barely tops 1,000 acres, and New York's Central Park, a mere 843 acres. Griffith's peaks tower above those flat competitors too, with nearly 1,500 feet in elevation gain, making it practically vertical in orientation. And LA's crown jewel of a park is still largely uncut, much of it remaining a wilderness area preserved more than 100 years ago, and barely developed, unlike the pre-planned 'wild' designs of Golden Gate and Central Park. Add its history, views, recreation opportunities, unique and hidden spaces, a free Art Deco observatory and museum, the most famous sign in America and the park's overall star-power, and you have a compelling case that Griffith is not just epic in scope but the greatest city park in the nation. There's something for everyone there: a zoo, playgrounds and an old-timey trainyard for the kids; challenging and steep trails for hikers; dirt paths for equestrians; paved roads for bikers; diverse flora and fauna for nature enthusiasts; and museums for the science and history learners. Prev Next The modern history of the park begins with a tax write-off so big it has its own deed, scrawled out like the Declaration of Independence. You can see a copy of it in the park's visitor center. 'To be used as a PUBLIC PARK for the uses of recreation, health and pleasure for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the said City of Los Angeles, forever,' reads the 1896 deed to the original 3,000 acres, donated by mining magnate Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith. Griffith was no relation to the famous and controversial silent film director D.W. Griffith of the early 20th century, but Col. Griffith flirted with infamy himself. Though a public advocate of Prohibition, Griffith shot his wife in the eye in a drunken rage. (She survived, but justifiably divorced him.) Before Griffith started buying up the land he'd later give away, it was previously occupied by José Vicente Feliz as part of a Spanish land grant. Before that, the Tongva, an Indigenous people of California, lived in these hills. You can learn more about those eras in the excellent Autry Museum of the American West, located in the park, including a debate about whether local Spanish missionaries committed genocide on the Native people. The high level of sensitivity in the exhibits may be surprising for a history and art museum named after 'America's favorite singing cowboy.' There are moving displays about slave markets for local Native people, the local gay rodeo movement that began in the 1970s, beautiful modern Western art, Billy the Kid's actual rifle, an old, recreated saloon, and memorabilia about TV cowboy Gene Autry himself. In park history, and near the museum, Griffith Park's Merry-Go-Round was where Walt Disney got the idea in the early 1950s to build his eponymous amusement park, according to a sign on a bench (now on display in Disneyland) from the ride. The carousel was also the epicenter of a race riot in 1961 following police being called on a group of young Black boys jumping on and off it. The Merry-Go-Round is currently closed for repairs. Behind the carousel, supplied with a paper map from the nearby visitor center and the spotty reception of your phone's map app, you can start a challenging scramble up to the highest peaks of Griffith on the east side of the park. First you'll passed the old Los Angeles Zoo, which closed in 1965, much of it built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews. The old animal enclosures are now open for exploring, or a picnic. On a sunny April day, a gathering of Furries (the friendly subculture known for dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters) were fittingly hanging out in what was once a polar bear cage. The new, currently operating zoo is about two miles away, still in the park. After passing the old zoo's bird cages, a narrow dirt trail snakes up toward the hive-looking Bee Rock peak. The incline is so steep there are times when hikers slip-slide on all fours, grabbing onto shrub roots for purchase as tiny lizards dart under their hands. At 1,800 feet above sea level, and looking beyond the maze of trails zigzagging through the park, the 360-degree CinemaScope views of the city are stunning — well worth the effort of the sweaty climb. A majestic red-tailed hawk hovering on an upward air current up there is not uncommon. On the way back down, you can scramble through the semi-tamed tiers of Amir's Garden — packed with plants and trees that a man named Amir Dialameh began hauling up, by hand, in the early 1970s when those trees were saplings. 'In the land of the free, plant a tree,' Dialameh, an immigrant from Iran, is quoted on a sign in the park. One hike or bike destination is 'Cathy's Corner' off Mt. Hollywood Drive, famous for the singing-and-dancing bench scene of 'A Lovely Night' in the film 'La La Land.' Other than the view, there's not much to see (the bench is not there), unless you happen to approach the hairpin turn at the same moment as a baby deer — then suddenly you're in a Disney movie. You can continue a self-guided 'La La Land'-in-the-park tour at the Griffith Observatory, which is immortalized in a long list of other films including 'The Terminator,' 'Bowfinger' and 'Rebel Without a Cause.' A bust of James Dean, star of 'Rebel,' is on display outside the arresting and iconic whitewashed Art Deco observatory. Built 90 years ago, the observatory is free to explore, and admission to its excellent planetarium is only $10. The small museum it houses is a greatest hits of exhibits, including a Foucault's pendulum, a camera obscura, an actual moon rock, and a Tesla coil that shoots lightning bolts during short presentations scheduled throughout the day and night. The observatory is open every night until 10 p.m., so a drive up after the sun sets promises lights above and below. Just outside the hilltop observatory you get an eye-level view of the fabled Hollywood sign, restored and preserved primarily by late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. You can hike above or below the 45-foot-tall letters, but you can no longer go up and touch them. In the Griffith Park visitor center it's explained that the sign originally read 'Hollywoodland' because it was an advertisement for a real estate subdivision below. To reach the famous Batcave (aka Bronson Caves) from the kitschy 1960s 'Batman' television series, take a modest hike alongside prickly pear cacti from the parking lot of the Bronson Canyon entrance. (The location inspired the stage name of action actor Charles Bronson, née Buchinsky.) Due to the risk of falling rocks, you currently can't walk into the cave, but you can see it clearly through the chain link fence across the entrance. At the base of the park, the free Travel Town Museum is an ideal kids' birthday party setting full of trains, both the vintage kind you can climb through and the miniature kind you can ride. The 'town' has been featured in so many films and TV series they have a large sign listing them all, from 'The Monkees' to 'Quantum Leap' and dozens in between. Just above the gentle, winding Fern Dell nature trail section of the park, with its cascading waterfalls, lies the outdoor coffee shop, The Trails. You can enjoy pastries, coffee drinks and light lunch fare on concrete picnic tables under shady trees. It's a perfect stop before or after the hike up to Griffith Observatory on the southwest side of the park. At Golden Road Brewing's beer garden, you can wash the dust out of your mouth from a hike on the east side of Griffith Park with a crisp and fruity Ride On West Coast IPA. Located just over the LA River from the old zoo and Autry Museum, Golden Road is a lively spot with great beer and grub (try the fried avocado tacos), a fun spot to relax and talk about your favorite parts of the park or plot out the next day's exploration
CNN
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The greatest city park in America? A case for LA's Griffith Park
Griffith Park is a massive, mountainous, wild oasis in the middle of the dense urban sprawl characterizing much of this fabled city. Yet its identity is still very LA — fun, sunny and it's been in enough films and television series that were it a person it would have its own star on the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 4,210 acres, Griffith outshines other extraordinary city parks of the US, such as San Francisco's Golden Gate, which barely tops 1,000 acres, and New York's Central Park, a mere 843 acres. Griffith's peaks tower above those flat competitors too, with nearly 1,500 feet in elevation gain, making it practically vertical in orientation. And LA's crown jewel of a park is still largely uncut, much of it remaining a wilderness area preserved more than 100 years ago, and barely developed, unlike the pre-planned 'wild' designs of Golden Gate and Central Park. Add its history, views, recreation opportunities, unique and hidden spaces, a free Art Deco observatory and museum, the most famous sign in America and the park's overall star-power, and you have a compelling case that Griffith is not just epic in scope but the greatest city park in the nation. There's something for everyone there: a zoo, playgrounds and an old-timey trainyard for the kids; challenging and steep trails for hikers; dirt paths for equestrians; paved roads for bikers; diverse flora and fauna for nature enthusiasts; and museums for the science and history learners. Prev Next The modern history of the park begins with a tax write-off so big it has its own deed, scrawled out like the Declaration of Independence. You can see a copy of it in the park's visitor center. 'To be used as a PUBLIC PARK for the uses of recreation, health and pleasure for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the said City of Los Angeles, forever,' reads the 1896 deed to the original 3,000 acres, donated by mining magnate Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith. Griffith was no relation to the famous and controversial silent film director D.W. Griffith of the early 20th century, but Col. Griffith flirted with infamy himself. Though a public advocate of Prohibition, Griffith shot his wife in the eye in a drunken rage. (She survived, but justifiably divorced him.) Before Griffith started buying up the land he'd later give away, it was previously occupied by José Vicente Feliz as part of a Spanish land grant. Before that, the Tongva, an Indigenous people of California, lived in these hills. You can learn more about those eras in the excellent Autry Museum of the American West, located in the park, including a debate about whether local Spanish missionaries committed genocide on the Native people. The high level of sensitivity in the exhibits may be surprising for a history and art museum named after 'America's favorite singing cowboy.' There are moving displays about slave markets for local Native people, the local gay rodeo movement that began in the 1970s, beautiful modern Western art, Billy the Kid's actual rifle, an old, recreated saloon, and memorabilia about TV cowboy Gene Autry himself. In park history, and near the museum, Griffith Park's Merry-Go-Round was where Walt Disney got the idea in the early 1950s to build his eponymous amusement park, according to a sign on a bench (now on display in Disneyland) from the ride. The carousel was also the epicenter of a race riot in 1961 following police being called on a group of young Black boys jumping on and off it. The Merry-Go-Round is currently closed for repairs. Behind the carousel, supplied with a paper map from the nearby visitor center and the spotty reception of your phone's map app, you can start a challenging scramble up to the highest peaks of Griffith on the east side of the park. First you'll passed the old Los Angeles Zoo, which closed in 1965, much of it built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews. The old animal enclosures are now open for exploring, or a picnic. On a sunny April day, a gathering of Furries (the friendly subculture known for dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters) were fittingly hanging out in what was once a polar bear cage. The new, currently operating zoo is about two miles away, still in the park. After passing the old zoo's bird cages, a narrow dirt trail snakes up toward the hive-looking Bee Rock peak. The incline is so steep there are times when hikers slip-slide on all fours, grabbing onto shrub roots for purchase as tiny lizards dart under their hands. At 1,800 feet above sea level, and looking beyond the maze of trails zigzagging through the park, the 360-degree CinemaScope views of the city are stunning — well worth the effort of the sweaty climb. A majestic red-tailed hawk hovering on an upward air current up there is not uncommon. On the way back down, you can scramble through the semi-tamed tiers of Amir's Garden — packed with plants and trees that a man named Amir Dialameh began hauling up, by hand, in the early 1970s when those trees were saplings. 'In the land of the free, plant a tree,' Dialameh, an immigrant from Iran, is quoted on a sign in the park. One hike or bike destination is 'Cathy's Corner' off Mt. Hollywood Drive, famous for the singing-and-dancing bench scene of 'A Lovely Night' in the film 'La La Land.' Other than the view, there's not much to see (the bench is not there), unless you happen to approach the hairpin turn at the same moment as a baby deer — then suddenly you're in a Disney movie. You can continue a self-guided 'La La Land'-in-the-park tour at the Griffith Observatory, which is immortalized in a long list of other films including 'The Terminator,' 'Bowfinger' and 'Rebel Without a Cause.' A bust of James Dean, star of 'Rebel,' is on display outside the arresting and iconic whitewashed Art Deco observatory. Built 90 years ago, the observatory is free to explore, and admission to its excellent planetarium is only $10. The small museum it houses is a greatest hits of exhibits, including a Foucault's pendulum, a camera obscura, an actual moon rock, and a Tesla coil that shoots lightning bolts during short presentations scheduled throughout the day and night. The observatory is open every night until 10 p.m., so a drive up after the sun sets promises lights above and below. Just outside the hilltop observatory you get an eye-level view of the fabled Hollywood sign, restored and preserved primarily by late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. You can hike above or below the 45-foot-tall letters, but you can no longer go up and touch them. In the Griffith Park visitor center it's explained that the sign originally read 'Hollywoodland' because it was an advertisement for a real estate subdivision below. To reach the famous Batcave (aka Bronson Caves) from the kitschy 1960s 'Batman' television series, take a modest hike alongside prickly pear cacti from the parking lot of the Bronson Canyon entrance. (The location inspired the stage name of action actor Charles Bronson, née Buchinsky.) Due to the risk of falling rocks, you currently can't walk into the cave, but you can see it clearly through the chain link fence across the entrance. At the base of the park, the free Travel Town Museum is an ideal kids' birthday party setting full of trains, both the vintage kind you can climb through and the miniature kind you can ride. The 'town' has been featured in so many films and TV series they have a large sign listing them all, from 'The Monkees' to 'Quantum Leap' and dozens in between. Just above the gentle, winding Fern Dell nature trail section of the park, with its cascading waterfalls, lies the outdoor coffee shop, The Trails. You can enjoy pastries, coffee drinks and light lunch fare on concrete picnic tables under shady trees. It's a perfect stop before or after the hike up to Griffith Observatory on the southwest side of the park. At Golden Road Brewing's beer garden, you can wash the dust out of your mouth from a hike on the east side of Griffith Park with a crisp and fruity Ride On West Coast IPA. Located just over the LA River from the old zoo and Autry Museum, Golden Road is a lively spot with great beer and grub (try the fried avocado tacos), a fun spot to relax and talk about your favorite parts of the park or plot out the next day's exploration
CNN
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
The greatest city park in America? A case for LA's Griffith Park
Griffith Park is a massive, mountainous, wild oasis in the middle of the dense urban sprawl characterizing much of this fabled city. Yet its identity is still very LA — fun, sunny and it's been in enough films and television series that were it a person it would have its own star on the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame. At 4,210 acres, Griffith outshines other extraordinary city parks of the US, such as San Francisco's Golden Gate, which barely tops 1,000 acres, and New York's Central Park, a mere 843 acres. Griffith's peaks tower above those flat competitors too, with nearly 1,500 feet in elevation gain, making it practically vertical in orientation. And LA's crown jewel of a park is still largely uncut, much of it remaining a wilderness area preserved more than 100 years ago, and barely developed, unlike the pre-planned 'wild' designs of Golden Gate and Central Park. Add its history, views, recreation opportunities, unique and hidden spaces, a free Art Deco observatory and museum, the most famous sign in America and the park's overall star-power, and you have a compelling case that Griffith is not just epic in scope but the greatest city park in the nation. There's something for everyone there: a zoo, playgrounds and an old-timey trainyard for the kids; challenging and steep trails for hikers; dirt paths for equestrians; paved roads for bikers; diverse flora and fauna for nature enthusiasts; and museums for the science and history learners. Prev Next The modern history of the park begins with a tax write-off so big it has its own deed, scrawled out like the Declaration of Independence. You can see a copy of it in the park's visitor center. 'To be used as a PUBLIC PARK for the uses of recreation, health and pleasure for the use and benefit of the inhabitants of the said City of Los Angeles, forever,' reads the 1896 deed to the original 3,000 acres, donated by mining magnate Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith. Griffith was no relation to the famous and controversial silent film director D.W. Griffith of the early 20th century, but Col. Griffith flirted with infamy himself. Though a public advocate of Prohibition, Griffith shot his wife in the eye in a drunken rage. (She survived, but justifiably divorced him.) Before Griffith started buying up the land he'd later give away, it was previously occupied by José Vicente Feliz as part of a Spanish land grant. Before that, the Tongva, an Indigenous people of California, lived in these hills. You can learn more about those eras in the excellent Autry Museum of the American West, located in the park, including a debate about whether local Spanish missionaries committed genocide on the Native people. The high level of sensitivity in the exhibits may be surprising for a history and art museum named after 'America's favorite singing cowboy.' There are moving displays about slave markets for local Native people, the local gay rodeo movement that began in the 1970s, beautiful modern Western art, Billy the Kid's actual rifle, an old, recreated saloon, and memorabilia about TV cowboy Gene Autry himself. In park history, and near the museum, Griffith Park's Merry-Go-Round was where Walt Disney got the idea in the early 1950s to build his eponymous amusement park, according to a sign on a bench (now on display in Disneyland) from the ride. The carousel was also the epicenter of a race riot in 1961 following police being called on a group of young Black boys jumping on and off it. The Merry-Go-Round is currently closed for repairs. Behind the carousel, supplied with a paper map from the nearby visitor center and the spotty reception of your phone's map app, you can start a challenging scramble up to the highest peaks of Griffith on the east side of the park. First you'll passed the old Los Angeles Zoo, which closed in 1965, much of it built in the 1930s by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews. The old animal enclosures are now open for exploring, or a picnic. On a sunny April day, a gathering of Furries (the friendly subculture known for dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters) were fittingly hanging out in what was once a polar bear cage. The new, currently operating zoo is about two miles away, still in the park. After passing the old zoo's bird cages, a narrow dirt trail snakes up toward the hive-looking Bee Rock peak. The incline is so steep there are times when hikers slip-slide on all fours, grabbing onto shrub roots for purchase as tiny lizards dart under their hands. At 1,800 feet above sea level, and looking beyond the maze of trails zigzagging through the park, the 360-degree CinemaScope views of the city are stunning — well worth the effort of the sweaty climb. A majestic red-tailed hawk hovering on an upward air current up there is not uncommon. On the way back down, you can scramble through the semi-tamed tiers of Amir's Garden — packed with plants and trees that a man named Amir Dialameh began hauling up, by hand, in the early 1970s when those trees were saplings. 'In the land of the free, plant a tree,' Dialameh, an immigrant from Iran, is quoted on a sign in the park. One hike or bike destination is 'Cathy's Corner' off Mt. Hollywood Drive, famous for the singing-and-dancing bench scene of 'A Lovely Night' in the film 'La La Land.' Other than the view, there's not much to see (the bench is not there), unless you happen to approach the hairpin turn at the same moment as a baby deer — then suddenly you're in a Disney movie. You can continue a self-guided 'La La Land'-in-the-park tour at the Griffith Observatory, which is immortalized in a long list of other films including 'The Terminator,' 'Bowfinger' and 'Rebel Without a Cause.' A bust of James Dean, star of 'Rebel,' is on display outside the arresting and iconic whitewashed Art Deco observatory. Built 90 years ago, the observatory is free to explore, and admission to its excellent planetarium is only $10. The small museum it houses is a greatest hits of exhibits, including a Foucault's pendulum, a camera obscura, an actual moon rock, and a Tesla coil that shoots lightning bolts during short presentations scheduled throughout the day and night. The observatory is open every night until 10 p.m., so a drive up after the sun sets promises lights above and below. Just outside the hilltop observatory you get an eye-level view of the fabled Hollywood sign, restored and preserved primarily by late Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. You can hike above or below the 45-foot-tall letters, but you can no longer go up and touch them. In the Griffith Park visitor center it's explained that the sign originally read 'Hollywoodland' because it was an advertisement for a real estate subdivision below. To reach the famous Batcave (aka Bronson Caves) from the kitschy 1960s 'Batman' television series, take a modest hike alongside prickly pear cacti from the parking lot of the Bronson Canyon entrance. (The location inspired the stage name of action actor Charles Bronson, née Buchinsky.) Due to the risk of falling rocks, you currently can't walk into the cave, but you can see it clearly through the chain link fence across the entrance. At the base of the park, the free Travel Town Museum is an ideal kids' birthday party setting full of trains, both the vintage kind you can climb through and the miniature kind you can ride. The 'town' has been featured in so many films and TV series they have a large sign listing them all, from 'The Monkees' to 'Quantum Leap' and dozens in between. Just above the gentle, winding Fern Dell nature trail section of the park, with its cascading waterfalls, lies the outdoor coffee shop, The Trails. You can enjoy pastries, coffee drinks and light lunch fare on concrete picnic tables under shady trees. It's a perfect stop before or after the hike up to Griffith Observatory on the southwest side of the park. At Golden Road Brewing's beer garden, you can wash the dust out of your mouth from a hike on the east side of Griffith Park with a crisp and fruity Ride On West Coast IPA. Located just over the LA River from the old zoo and Autry Museum, Golden Road is a lively spot with great beer and grub (try the fried avocado tacos), a fun spot to relax and talk about your favorite parts of the park or plot out the next day's exploration
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Stargazing in a Cemetery, Where It's Dark and Quiet
Good morning. It's Friday. Today we'll look at amateur astronomers and a cemetery in Brooklyn that is giving them a permanent place to look up at the sky. We'll also get details on a deal in Albany to weaken a law that mainly affects all-boys Hasidic Jewish schools, known as yeshivas. 'It seems incongruous, doesn't it?' Julie Bose said. It was more of a statement than a question. She was talking about how amateur astronomers set up telescopes in a cemetery — specifically, the cemetery she runs, the Evergreens, in Brooklyn. The astronomers like it there, and not just for the rolling hills and the architecture. (One of the architects of the former chapel that the cemetery uses for offices was Calvert Vaux, who is better known for designing Central Park with Frederick Law Olmsted.) Mostly, the astronomers like that the Evergreens is dark. 'You don't have all the light pollution from the city,' said Bryanne Hamill, the chairwoman of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York. Now the cemetery is planning a $20 million center that can be used for what Bose called 'celebrations of life' as well as community meetings and outside gatherings that do not involve funerals. For the astronomers, there will be a separate observatory. The association said that a partnership with the cemetery would create 'a permanent hub' for public stargazing and astronomy education. The association will outfit the observatory with telescopes and guidance systems. The group will provide the volunteer astronomers to lead educational programs. Astronomy can be an expensive hobby. A portable telescope can cost nearly $20,000, and Hamill, a retired lawyer and Family Court judge, said that there were no public places in the city where people could go to look at stars through telescopes. The association members bring their own equipment to events at the cemetery, like the association's Spring Starfest, which had been planned for tonight but was rescheduled for May 30 because clouds and rain were in the forecast. As the association looked to make astronomy more accessible, the cemetery was looking for new ways to 'make our place more open to the public,' Bose said. 'Modern-day cemeteries are rethinking how they make connections to the community and try to continue to be relevant as we continue to honor the people who are buried here.' In collaboration with the City Department of Veterans' Services, the Evergreens started a landscaping training program for veterans who live in New York, with college-level courses and hands-on training by specialists from the Davey Institute, the nonprofit research arm of the Davey Tree Expert Company. Five people graduated last year, and two now work in Central Park, Bose said. Seven finished the program this year. She expects to sign up 10 more next year. But the Evergreens is above all a cemetery. The African American performer Bill Robinson, known as Bojangles, is buried there. So is the etiquette arbiter Amy Vanderbilt. Yusef Hawkins, a Black teenager who was surrounded by white youths and shot to death in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn in 1989, is, too. There are also several victims of the explosion of the General Slocum steamer in 1904, as well as a single grave for six from the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 who were not identified until a century later. And there is the grave of Anthony Comstock, a 19th-century postal inspector who led a push for a rarely enforced anti-vice law that has figured in recent court cases on abortion pills. Like several other cemeteries in Brooklyn, the Evergreens was a Victorian creation. 'Today we regard death much differently than the early Victorians who built these cemeteries,' Suzanne Spellen wrote in Brownstoner in 2020. 'Life was hard for most people, life expectancies were much shorter in general, and for rich and poor alike, death could easily come from childbirth, disease, accident or war.' Modern medicine and improved living conditions have 'pushed death as far away as possible' now, she wrote, but 'the Victorians embraced it as a part of life.' 'Funerals generally took place in the home, and burial in a beautiful park where one could visit, and even make a day of it, proved extremely popular,' she added. In those days Green-Wood Cemetery, a few miles from the Evergreens, was the No. 2 tourist destination in New York State, after Niagara Falls. Hamill said she found it 'poetic' to look at the stars in a cemetery, 'appreciating that we are all born of stardust from exploding stars, and in cemeteries, we return to dust.' 'That puts life in perspective,' she said. Expect some rain and possibly a thunderstorm, with the temperature reaching 63. The rain will continue into the evening, with clouds and a dip to about 53. In effect until May 26 (Memorial Day). The latest Metro news Looking to 2026, Hochul pushed to weaken oversight of religious schools Changing a century-old law that mainly affects all-boys Hasidic Jewish schools, known as yeshivas, has been a top priority among leaders of New York's Hasidic communities, which tend to vote as a bloc. Now Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing criticism over her efforts to weaken that law. A proposal to water down the state's oversight over religious schools was a last-minute addition to the state budget package. Hochul, looking ahead to what promises to be a tough re-election fight next year, was apparently looking to win over Hasidic Jews. The measure passed the Senate on Thursday and was sent to the Assembly, where it is also expected to be approved. Education experts, including the chief of the State Education Department, have accused Hochul of seeking political support at the expense of children, as have some legislators and several members of the governor's own staff. Betty Rosa, the state education commissioner, told The New York Times last week that the changes in the measure amounted to a 'travesty' for children who attend religious schools that do not provide a basic secular education. This week, Rosa's spokesman called the measure 'interference.' The push to adjust the rules for Hasidic schools, which collect hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars but sometimes do not provide a basic secular education, was led by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. His conference includes ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic legislators who are skeptical of any government involvement in their schools. Support also came from non-Jewish legislators who represent parts of the lower and middle Hudson Valley, where Hochul and congressional Democrats will be fighting to stay in office next year. Any opportunity to court the Hasidic community, which tends to vote as a bloc, would improve Democrats' prospects against Republicans, who have played to the Hasidic community's increasing conservatism and support for President Trump. Heastie characterized the measure as an effort to give religious schools various options for complying with state law. 'It's not a loosening,' he said. 'We used a lot of the regulations that the State Board of Regents put in. It's just allowing yeshivas and schools to get themselves in compliance.' But Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, described the measure with the changes as a 'secretive backroom deal.' And Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, the director of Yaffed, a group supporting secular education in yeshivas, called the move 'a direct assault on the futures of tens of thousands of Hasidic children.' Very Kind Dear Diary: I was in the audience for a performance of Rebecca Frecknall's production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In the play's final minutes, my heart was in my throat, and tears were flowing. In my clouded peripheral vision, I noticed a young woman next to me. Her shoulders were shaking softly as she wept. After the house lights came up and the ovation died down, I turn to her. 'Could I give you a tissue?' I asked. 'Yes, actually,' she said. 'That's very kind.' I handed her a tissue. 'The kindness of strangers?' I said sheepishly, unable to help myself. She took the tissue and blew her nose. 'Too soon,' she said. — Deborah M. Brissman Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@ Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
