A TRUE AND SOMEWHAT WINDING TALE

Baslow lives at the very top of Manhattan, in Inwood, a part of Manhattan with which most Manhattanites are not familiar. It is scenic in an entirely different way than is Midtown or the Lower East Side or Wall Street. It is hilly. There are houses, real houses, cheek-by-jowl with eight-story apartment buildings...quite a rarity in Manhattan. One local park has (small) caves and a plaque marking the spot where Peter Minuit believed himself to have purchased the island from the local Native American tribe. A few blocks away is Dyckman House, the last remaining farmhouse in Manhattan, built in 1785.

The producers of Law and Order have fallen in love with Baslow's neighborhood. This evening, crossing Broadway on his way home, Baslow encountered yet another phalanx of trucks (equipment trucks, dressing-room trucks, catering trucks, etc.) ranged between 211th and 214th. Baslow ambled over to where the action was...a scene was apparently going to be shot at the 211th Street entrance to the A train.

This is the fourth time Law and Order has filmed here, three of them in the last few months. Once, they filmed right outside Baslow's building, forcing all the occupants to exit by the back way to get to work in the morning. It hasn't been too inconvenient (except, sometimes, finding a parking space) but, on the other hand, most of the fun stuff happens while Baslow is at work or having dinner.

Baslow chatted, for a minute, with a crew member guarding the perimeter of the filming area. Baslow was reminded of the time, when his offspring were very little, when The Devil's Own was filming in the neighborhood. The babysitter, seeing the filming, steered the offspring over to the site. They spied, in the distance, Harrison Ford. "Who's that?" asked Baslow's oldest, pointing at Ford. "Harrison Ford," he was told, by a member of the crew keeping spectators at bay. Baslow's oldest knew Ford only from Star Wars. "Harrison Ford is OLD!" blurted Baslow's oldest.

The crew member leaned over and said "Time passes, kid."