Last week, The Onion ran an article with the headline: “Phantom Diner Appears Only To Those In Their Drunkest Hour.” For some in the neighborhood, the Bushwick version of such a place may be Tina’s Restaurant on Wilson and Flushing. Tina’s, which opens every day at 3:30 in the morning, often serves as the knockout punch in an all night bout of unhealthy consumption for locals from the nearby Morgantown lofts and beyond.

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A large painting featuring two lambs, an owl, plenty of skulls, and several bathtub rowing super-heroes (I think) was put up yesterday on the brick wall of the New York Garment Washer’s building on Jefferson St. and Wyckoff Avenue, right outside the Jefferson L street station. Here’s what was on the wall before that. I don’t know whether the building owners knew if the piece was going to be put up, although it wasn’t a stealthy operation: my friend saw artists setting up the wall with massive sheets yesterday afternoon. I prefer this to a Barack Obama mural but wonder how soon it will be until it gets tagged over with stuff like that annoying “you go girl” phrase.

Nestled between the high-rise brick buildings of the Bushwick Houses is a chlorine oasis: Bushwick’s own public pool, aptly named Bushwick Pool. I was unaware of a pool in the area until my roommate, who works for the Parks Department, informed me of one’s existence. So, on Tuesday, I headed over to the projects on Bushwick and Flushing to go check it out.

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One often sees odd things in Bushwick. Live chickens in someone’s driveway might top my list of all-time neighborhood quirks. But right below Bushwick free-range chicken has to be the playground on Jefferson St. between Knickerbocker and Irving. The playground, which sits on a lot between two apartment buildings, wouldn’t be so bizarre was it not for the space’s strange motif: the red and blue playground is strewn with the insignia of the storied NHL franchise, the New York Rangers.

I believe I can say with 99% certainty that not one child on this predominantly Hispanic block plays hockey (here’s the extensive Wikipedia list of Latino Ice Hockey Players). So why is there a New York Rangers playground on Jefferson Street?

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