Results tagged “collyerbrothers”

And two reasons why keeping things "simple" at home is a good idea: Patrice Moore's apartment and the legendary Collyer Brothers.

A huge fire (we heard it was either three or four alarm) raged through a Chinatown apartment building yesterday morning. A 37th floor apartment was described as a "fireball" by firefighters; luckily, firefighters were able to contain the fire after two hours and knocking out the wall of an adjoining apartment. No residents seriously injured, though quite a few firefighters suffered burns. The culprit? Francis Wang's "knee-high stacks of newspapers," which probably caught fire from a pot that was left cooking on a stovetop when he went to Atlantic City. Yeah, exactly.

Let this be a warning to you, Jason Kottke, in your effort to read a different magazine each of the 52 weeks in 2004: Recycle your magazines when you're done with them. And be very friendly and outgoing with your neighbors – you never know when you'll need them. (Of course, these are good ideas for everyone, too.)

Franz Lidz looks at the timeless story of the Collyer Brothers for the Times' City section. Two educated brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, lived in Harlem at the beginning of the 1900s and soon their house would have 180 tons of garbage, much of it newspapers, in it. The main impetus to save was when Homer went blind, and Langley, while taking care of him (like feeding him oranges for his sight), saved newspapers for him, adding to a collection that included 10 pianos, a disassembled car (or two) and a dozen gas chandeliers among other things. Unfortunately Langley died when he sprung on of his homemade burglar traps, becoming buried beneath mounds of newspapers, and Homer died from starvation. Police found Homer's body, but did not find Langley's rat-gnawed body until weeks later within the debris, after searching the city for him.