Fringe Benefit

There are few things to cheer oneself with when an piece of gritty New York history is torn down to make way for some plain-Jane newbie condo complex. But one frequent fringe benefit keeps cropping up on a regular basis: the uncovering of old signs and ads.

I have written recently about L&M Equities' speedy tear-down of the building at the corner of Columbia and Warren in Cobble Hill West. Well, it's all gone know. But feeling the sun for the first time in half a century or more is an old advertisement by that onetime king of outdoor signage, the O.J. Gude Company. The sign's pretty smudged, but based on the discernible slogan, "The Flavor Lasts," and the dominant color of green, it was once an ad for Wrigley's gum.

I find it highly amusing that, while the ad has faded plenty, the name of the company that painted it is still completely legible.