London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

Last Night in the Metropolis

“If ever there was a summary execution that could make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, that was it.” – Dr. Nathaniel Kernell
On a late summer’s day, 106th and Riverside Drive is the most beautiful place in New York City. Anyone who goes there will know what I mean, and agree that Franz Sigel must surely be one of the luckiest men in history that his equestrian monument is located at that spot. When so many beautiful places in Manhattan have been either marred by eyesores or else destroyed completely, the termination of 106th Street at Riverside Drive remains to this day, thanks be to God.

Last night I stumbled down into the city for the last time before I fly back to Britain tomorrow evening. I had the immense pleasure of taking a coffee with Adam Brenner and Dr. Nathaniel Kernell at Edgar’s Café on West 84th Street. Dr. Kernell, known varyingly as “the Good Doctor”, “Newbury”, “Mistah Lassitah”, and “the Genius of the Carpathians”, is the inimitable man who, in schooldays since past, had the task of teaching me Latin. (Our man Brenner is not a Thorntonian, but rather a Riverdale grad who had Dr. Kernell as a Greek and Latin tutor). His knowledge of subjects as varying as etymology, architecture, crime, and Jai alai is both profound and illuminating. Furthermore, he is gifted with a manner that is warm and inviting, if perhaps tempered by a tendency to ramble. The wandering tangents of Dr. Kernell, however, are not ad infinitum irritations but rather intriguing paths along which one picks up much more information, learning, and amusement than one would ever imagine. School would not have been the same without him, nor the quotations he bestowed upon our ears like priceless pearls. I foolishly only recorded a few in a little notebook I can’t find, but I believe Clara de Soto preserved more for posterity. I will have to get her to send me a few of the jewels.

Nonetheless dear readers, I’m back off to Caledonia tommorrow evening and thus of course it may be a few days before I settle in and get things organised enough to post again. I am, to boot, heading down to London pretty soon for the U.K. launch of the New Criterion as well. Fun shall be had by all!

Published at 10:55 pm on Saturday 17 September 2005. Categories: Journal New York.
Comments

Dr. Kernell is an old friend of mine, who I have lost track of over time, Do you know where he could be found?

— P. VanZante 7 Aug 2006 1:33 pm

Dr. Kernell and I used to read Euripides together on summer mornings at the Airliner on Clinton Street in Iowa City. And hello to you too, Patty!

— Dennis Legane 17 Aug 2006 1:02 am
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