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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and during this membership drive, we're breaking it up with some fun each day in the form of a New York, New Jersey geography quiz. We're going borough by borough and region by region with guest quiz leaders every day. We did Manhattan and Brooklyn so far. Today it's on to Queens. If you think you know Queens, my hometown, call in and take a shot at it, 646-435-7280, that's our on-air line, of course, not our donation line. We don't ask you for money when you're on the air. 646-435-7280. If you get two in a row right, we'll give you a prize of a Brian Lehrer Show New York City skyline mug.

Who knows where things are in Queens, you don't have to be from Queens to enter, call up and play at 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. I am so delighted to welcome back as our guest quiz leader today, the head of the Queens library system, Dennis Walcott, who was just here last week, as some of you will remember, to talk about the end of library book fines in New York City, late fees. As some of you know, he has also been to New York City Schools Chancellor in the past. Hi, Dennis, thanks so much for having this bit of fun with us. Welcome back to WNYC.

Dennis Walcott: Good morning to you, Brian. It is a pleasure to be back. You should know, I am wearing red to match up your big red Donate button on your website.

Brian Lehrer: Well, thank you very much. As some calls are coming in, as we wait for those calls, how many library branches are there in Queens at this point?

Dennis Walcott: There are 66 Queens Public Library branches. Right now, we have roughly 55, 56 open. Couple of them are under construction and couple of them suffered damage from Ida. We're getting them ready as well. We're excited and in one major construction and that soon we'll be opening Glendale and then Far Rockaway will be a brand new branch, hopefully opening in the middle of '22. We got a lot of capital work going on and serving the public, and we're seeing more and more customers come through our doors.

Brian Lehrer: That's great. There was just news this week, as I'm sure you know, that Brooklyn got its first new branch in decades in Dumbo. You're telling us that Queens is also getting some new branches. From the geography quiz standpoint, do they span the borough from Rosedale to Astoria, from Littleneck to Breezy Point?

Dennis Walcott: From Seaside to Hunters Point, every Queen's resident lives a mile to a mile and a half within a Queen's library. We're really out there. With Far Rockaway, it is going to be a gorgeous new design, and we are far out as 116th Street in the Rockaways with our Seaside branch, and then we're on the tip of Queens with LIC as well as with Hunters Point.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Let's see who knows Queens and who might win some mugs. Adam Woodside--

Dennis Walcott: I want to give away your mugs. I want to give away your mugs.

Brian Lehrer: Let's see if you can do it, Dennis. Adam in Woodside, you're on WNYC. Hi, Adam, are you ready for question?

Adam: I'm so nervous. [unintelligible 00:03:35] 15 years in Queens and 20 years in the city. I got a lot of pride running on this.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Dennis, hit him with your first question.

Dennis Walcott: Don't be nervous at all. The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, that gigantic globe was designed for what year's World Fair?

Adam: That's easy, I think it was 1964.

Brian Lehrer: That is correct, 1964-65 World Fair the panorama at the Queens Museum dates from then, too. All right, Dennis, next question. One more right and Adam in Woodside will win a mug.

Dennis Walcott: Next question, Queen's Public Library is celebrating a major anniversary this year, one of the quarter-century marks. How old is the Queen's Public Library?

Adam: Queen's Public Library.

Brian Lehrer: One of the quarter-century marks is the clue there, means the answer here for how old the Queen's Public Library is. It's divisible by 25. [chuckles]

Adam: Okay, it can't be 100, but I'm going to assume it's more than 100. Let me say 125 years.

Brian Lehrer: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

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Adam: There we go. Oh, wow, yes.

Brian Lehrer: You broke through your nerves and did it. Hang on, we're going to take your address off the air, and we'll send you a Brian Lehrer Show mug. How about that? That's a good start, right?

Dennis Walcott: One mug down. Quick question, Brian, how many times did you go to the World's Fair?

Brian Lehrer: I was a kid and just old enough to go on my own, and I went a lot. It was really easy to get there, in my case, by a bus and then one subway stop. I went a lot. One of my memories is I once went to a Mets giants doubleheader at Shea Stadium to buy tickets at the door only to find out it was sold out. I walked across the street and went to the World's Fair.

Dennis Walcott: The glorious thing and rode the monorail there. One side question for the public not part of the game is that which car came out or was debuted that day, that World's Fair?

Brian Lehrer: Was it like the blue, number seven train?

Dennis Walcott: No, no, no. What actual car? One of the pavilions was sponsored by Ford. The 1964 Mustang.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, [unintelligible 00:06:08] that, didn't know that. Debbie in Jackson Heights. Hi, Debbie, you ready for a quiz question?

Debbie: Yes, do I-- Okay, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, we got you, Debbie. Here we go. Just listen to-

Debbie: First I just want to say, I was a teacher at Francis Lewis and I know, Dennis Walcott is one of our most illustrious alumni.

Dennis Walcott: [laughter] Thank you very much, and it's a pleasure to say thank you for all the teaching that you did as well. Queens and Brooklyn, each can claim to be the biggest burl. One has the most people and one has the most land, which is Queens?

Debbie: The one with the most land.

Brian Lehrer: Which has more land, Queens or Brooklyn?

Debbie: Queens has more land.

Brian Lehrer: That is right. Dennis, right?

Dennis Walcott: That is correct. I was waiting for your ding, ding, ding. That is correct.

Brian Lehrer: That's just one, we'll ding, ding, ding if she gets a second in a row correct.

Dennis Walcott: Queens is the largest, it has 108.1 square miles basically, Brooklyn is second with 69.5, Staten Island 58 and then Bronx with 42 miles and Manhattan, of course, 22.8 or rounded up to 24. Next question.

Brian Lehrer: Brooklyn has more people, Queens has more land. Listeners, if you've never taken a good look at the New York city map, or the Queen's map, Queens is pretty big geographically. It goes all the way from the Nassau County line, obviously like think up in the north Little Neck, which we referenced before next to Great Neck, which is in Nassau. If you go all the way Southwest from there, and wind up at Breezy Point, in the Rockaways, you're halfway under Brooklyn. If you think of Brooklyn as West and Queens as East, Queens extends so far at the bottom that it's halfway back to Manhattan across Brooklyn. That's just a little geeking out on how big Queens is. Debbie, here comes your second question, Dennis, go.

Dennis Walcott: Where did Astoria get its name?

Debbie: From-

Brian Lehrer: Oh, oh.

Debbie: -the Astor family who-- I don't remember particularly which Astor, but--

Brian Lehrer: I'd say that is close enough.

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Brian Lehrer: Debbie in Jackson Heights, you've won yourself a mug. Technically, it was one particular Astor, Dennis, right?

Dennis Walcott: John Jacob Astor, America's first millionaire. He was in the hopes that he would invest in the area as well. One tragic side fact is that his great-grandson went down with the Titanic.

Brian Lehrer: Did not know that. All right, hang on, Debbie, congratulations. We'll take your address off the air, of course. Amina in Flushing, you're on WNYC. Hi, Amina, ready for quiz question about Queens?

Amina: Sure.

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Dennis.

Dennis Walcott: Good morning, good morning. Atlantic City isn't the only place with ties to a board game. Scrabble was invented in which Queens neighborhood, and I'll give you a hint with Brian's permission?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Dennis Walcott: It's two words, and the first letter of the first word would be worth eight points.

Brian Lehrer: [laughter] A little Scrabble clue there, Amina. A two-word neighborhood name in Queens, first letter of the first word, feel like real shorts, first letter of the first word is worth eight points in a game of Scrabble.

Amina: I'm thinking Rockaway, but that doesn't seem right.

Brian Lehrer: No, no, no. You live in Flushing, you only have to get on your local subway stop and ride to a place where you could pick up the E or the F or the G. That's the last clue I'm going to give you, though.

Amina: Don't know.

Brian Lehrer: All right, thanks for trying. We're out of time. We're going to give Lucy in Elmhurst a shot at this one. Lucy, did you hear the question about the Queens neighborhood?

Lucy: I did.

Brian Lehrer: Where Scrabble was invented? Do you have it?

Lucy: I think it's going to be Jackson Heights.

Dennis Walcott: That is correct.

Brian Lehrer: It is, of course, Jackson Heights-

Dennis Walcott: That is correct.

Brian Lehrer: -with the J worth eight points in Scrabble. Dennis, next question.

Dennis Walcott: Next question is Landing Lights Park offers good views of what much visited Queens site?

Lucy: Oh, no.

Brian Lehrer: Landing Lights Park.

Dennis Walcott: Think about it.

Lucy: I [unintelligible 00:11:23] airports.

Brian Lehrer: Well, pick one.

Lucy: Okay, you said that it offers a view-- Oh, pick one of the airports. JFK?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, you had a 50% chance. Lucy thanks for trying. Let's try Marcia in Bayside. Obviously, the answer to that one was LaGuardia. We're going to go on to the next question. I didn't know about Landing Lights Park, that's a Queens place that I didn't know, Dennis.

Dennis Walcott: Just so you'll know, 78th Street and 25th Avenue to the Grand Central Parkway.

Brian Lehrer: Marcia in Bayside, you ready for a quiz question?

Marcia: I am ready.

Dennis Walcott: Good morning. Count Baise--

Bayside: Good morning.

Dennis Walcott: Good morning to you. Count Basie, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Fats Waller all lived in one Southeastern Queens Historic District, that's part of a larger area where I grew up. Can you name the smaller enclave of the bigger neighborhood?

Brian Lehrer: We're going to say or the bigger neighborhood.

Dennis Walcott: Or the bigger neighborhood.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Either answer will be right.

Marcia: Because I know Louis Armstrong was in [unintelligible 00:12:40] but South Eastern Jamaica?

Brian Lehrer: No, not-

Dennis Walcott: Can I give a little hint?

Brian Lehrer: Oh, sure, Dennis.

Dennis Walcott: It is the bigger neighborhood and a smaller enclave, two names but the bigger name, somebody can say that you're really a princely person or a blank and that's the name.

Brian Lehrer: The two name larger neighborhood, the first name-

Bayside: [inaudible 00:13:10]

Brian Lehrer: Could be the first name of the two-name neighborhood, could be-- You're such a good person, you're like a--

Marcia: [laughter] Not a mensh.

Brian Lehrer: [unintelligible 00:13:24] religion. [laughs]

Marcia: Come on, give me another hint.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, Marcia, I think we can't.

Dennis Walcott: That's it.

Brian Lehrer: It's taken too long. All right. Let's give it to a non-Queens person a shot at this. At one of them, we've been taking Queens calls. Thank you Queens listeners for flooding in for this. Raphael in Franklin Square, so a little further east out on the island. Raphael do you have a guess about the neighborhood in Queens, either the smaller enclave or the bigger better-known neighborhood where Count Basie, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Fats Waller all lived?

Raphael: Well, the clue you gave helped me. Got to be St. Albans.

Dennis Walcott: That is correct.

Brian Lehrer: Absolutely right. I guess if you're Jewish, you're a [unintelligible 00:14:18], if you're Catholic, you're a saint, we don't have to go further down that road.

Dennis Walcott: Hey, Brian one quick back to light on that. In addition to all the Blacks individuals that I named, the celebrities, there was one white celebrity who lives there back in the 20s and hasn't gotten a lot of attention and that was Babe Ruth.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, did not know that. All right, Raphael, if you get one more question right, as we're starting to run out of time for this, then you are going to win one more Brian Lehrer Show New York skyline mug. Dennis, hit him.

Dennis Walcott: Here you go. Simon and Garfunkel's song best known as Feeling Groovy is actually titled for a bridge in Queens, which one?

Raphael: Well, 59th Street Bridge.

Brian Lehrer: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding ding ding. Bonus question, now known as?

Raphael: The Koch bridge.

Brian Lehrer: The Ed Koch bridge but nobody calls it that. [laughs]

Dennis Walcott: Oh, I don't know.

Brian Lehrer: Everybody still says the Triborough, everybody still says the Tappan Zee, and everybody still feels groovy when they say the 59th Street Bridge. Raphael, hang on, we're going to take your address off the air for a mug. Dennis Walcott, head of the Queens library system, this has been so much fun and you've been such a great quiz leader. We'll have to figure out an excuse to do it again.

Dennis Walcott: Thank you, Brian. This is pleasure and all my best, and thank you for everything that you do for us.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Much more to come including Jad Abumrad next.

 

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