FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Farewell to the 4th Avenue Station Staircase of Terror as F train service returns to "normal."Photo by Park Slope Lens

Rise and shine FIPSters, and welcome to your day! In NYC news, One World Trade Center reaches its 100th floor. In music news, BK's own Sufjan Stevens has traded in the 50 States for the Solar System, and in Political news, Bubba says he's down to the be the First Man if Hillary runs in 2016.

ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1923):

Man, we've got some tragic Willy Loman shit going on in this piece, except 40 year-old Charles Tifford Greene from Ocean Avenue was a sad lawyer poet, and not a sad traveling salesman. Poor Charlie, depressed for being a successful lawyer rather than poet, rented a hotel room in the Sagamore Hotel on Surf Avenue in Coney Island and took to the gas pipe. When police busted down the door they found five jets from the room's heater spewing gas. Greene's body was on the bed, a Bible in his right hand. They also found a suitcase overflowing with his poetry. 

Although there is nothing funny about suicide no matter what the time period, there is one slightly humorous aspect to this story. The genius detective who ruled the case a suicide did it not because Greene rented a hotel room, threw open every gas jet, and lay himself down with a Bible in his right hand. This clearly could have been any typical Thursday night for a melancholic poet. What tipped the detective off to suicide was a passage from one of Greene's poems entitled "The Fatigue of Earth."

I try to find the truth in holy places, / And all I see is falsehood everywhere; / I am tired, and I believe that God above / Is tired and weeps over his labor of love.

Honestly that sounds more like lyrics to Jewel song than an indication of suicide. Just sayin'. 

 [READ THE FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES] 

ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY: 

• 2009: Our App For The "No Cussing" Club Was Fucking Rejected