The Model Engineer's star turn in Motherless Brooklyn

I'm sleep deprived and have some sort of nasty cold or something - no, not the one that starts with C that's freaking out the world - so my mind is stirred up. I thought I'd try and ease the fire by watching Motherless Brooklyn. Things were going good, but then around the 35 minute mark what do I see than none other than 2 copies of the British magazine The Model Engineer tacked to a newsstand wall. They're those 2 blue magazines on the left, at about middle height.

Me being me, I had to try and figure out what issues they were. The all-knowing internet suggests the one hanging at an angle with some sort of beam engine on the cover is #2770, from June 24 1954, and the one above it and to the left is #2747, from January 14, 1954. 

The wikipedia entry for the movie says the story is set in 1957, so the newsstand is apparently dealing in old back issues of British magazines :-) I might have outfitted the set with old issues of Railroad Model Craftsman as it was being published out of New Jersey at that time :-) But, maybe since civil engineering is a sub-theme of the movie, flashing the The Model Engineer title seemed a good subliminal message of some sort, and since Alec Baldwin's character, Moses Randolph, was said to not like railroads as he couldn't get a piece-of-the-action, the appearance of RMC might undercut other themes :-) There also seems to be a lot of home repair booklets for sale. There might be a lot of DIYers in the neighbourhood, or maybe they're just another subtle message as demolition and deliberate building degradation are another theme :-) Yikes! Set decoration is fraught with problems :-)

It looks like 2 more issues are for sale in the stand's end rack, or maybe they're just the same 2 repositioned for the new shot.

Reading material concerns aside, it's a good movie. I also enjoyed reading the book many years ago. I seem to recall carrying it with me everywhere I went until I finished it. At one point a woman saw me reading it in my optometrist's waiting room and commented that it must be a real sentimental tearjerker with a title like that. How wrong she was, but go find out for yourself.