by Danielle Berg

Photo via fleabythesea.com.

This is cross-posted from my blog, old dan yeller. “The other night” was about three weeks ago, just so you know. I’ll be cross-posting a couple more posts, for now, just to get this site rolling a bit.

The other night, my boyfriend Matt, my friends Becky and Josh, and I went to a Brooklyn Cyclones game. Since I work two stops from Coney Island, I got there before them, and spent some time walking through the park. I’d been to the boardwalk, and to Surf Ave., but never in between.

Joe Sitt, the developer who bought up most of the central amusement area of Coney Island, belongs to the Syrian-Jewish community of New York (and New Jersey). Which means, in Syrian-Jewish tradition, he likely has handfuls of cousins with the same name, as first children are named for their paternal grandparents, second children are named for their maternal grandparents (unless they’re a different sex, in which case they’ll be named for the other paternal grandparent), and after that - I don’t know, I suppose they get creative. I wonder, as I walk past booths manned by teenagers and 40-year-olds joined together by their bright T-shirts and booming voices, whether any of the other Joe Sitts resent the bad rap of their cousin, the Joe Sitt; or whether, perhaps they are proud. Or whether, simply, they feel like the unimportant twin, leaving their slightly smaller houses, parked on the only lot they own.

After the game, we got some Nathan’s fries and walked to the beach. On the way, we passed the empty tents of the Flea by the Sea. Signs along the fence read, “Flea by the Sea: Much, Much More Than a Flea Market.” I stopped, and read it again. My first thought: That reads like a subhead you’d read in the magazine I work for. We’re very literal. Well, it looks like something I’d write for my magazine, which contains no masthead, no name to prove I work there, and no obligation, then, to attempt creativity. It’s awful. And probably the worst tag line I’ve ever read. My second thought: How is it more - nay, much, much more - than a flea market? Is it also an upscale bar/restaurant? A portal to another dimension? A strip joint? No, I’m pretty sure it’s just a flea market.

I wonder who the guy is that wrote that. Maybe Joe Sitt was doing his cousin, Joe Sitt, a favor by giving him some work. But if he paid someone to write that - and the copy on the website, “The treasure’s here, but it ain’t buried, honey” - he could have paid me to do a much better job. A much, much better job.

Detailed reviews of the flea market can be read here and here.

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July 29, 2009 at 12:06pm ∞