December 2010
26 posts
“$100 TO SOUTH FERRY! $100 TAXI TO SOUTH FERRY!”
– Some guy calling out on the street. We both laughed. Not sure if he was joking though. {Guest post.}
Having a Good Day Already
{Guest post.}
A girl at the bus stop asked if I knew if the bus was running today. She and I both agreed we’d only heard about delays but no suspension of the M15 service.
Waiting for the bus was not fun, though, with the strong winds carrying particles of ice hitting our faces. I asked her if she knew if the J line was running and we decided to try the subway instead.
We waited on...
WatchSpring Story Part II: Munchkin in action.
A Spring Story
Since you’re all covered in snow, I thought I’d share a little story from the first Saturday the snow melted last spring to tide you through the blizzard.
I took my soccer ball to Prospect Park and no sooner had I settled in to kick the thing around a bit than a handsome little munchkin ran up to me and asked to play along. He was barely big enough to stop the soccer ball when it...
Yarn Art
I’ve alerted you to things covered in yarn before:
Kalispell, Montana
Bikes:
(And bikes covered in other things too: here, here.)
But this takes the cake:
“Olek, a New York based guerrilla artists sends her warmest wishes. ‘This crocheted cover represents my best wishes to all of us. It will be a great, prosperous year with many wonderful surprises!’”
...
WatchI’m sure all you people saw this in real time but this slightly-homesick New Yorker stranded for a longer-than-intended vacation (positive spin!) was blown away by this clip from Michael Black. Thank you sir, for making me feel like I was there (as I sip a glass of Washington wine and watch the snow girl I made melt in the warm Chinook that blew through the state the other day).
Speaking of Christmas miracles:
It’s beautiful the way just “doing what seems right” sometimes turns out to be downright heroic.
Happy Christmas Eve.
***
It was every subway rider’s nightmare, times two.
Who has ridden along New York’s 656 miles of subway lines and not wondered: “What if I fell to the tracks as a train came in? What would I do?”
And who has not thought: “What if someone else fell? Would...
“I should say what I loved and lost, what I pine for with my starved senses, my...”
– Because Jonathan Lethem Misses New York (via housingworksbookstore)
The Power of Cool
{The article excerpted below, available in full here, discusses the idea of Brooklyn as a brand. Via emilyinternet / meredithbklyn; as the former says, “I love my borough, even as it does increasingly become invested in its own sense of “the power of cool.” Indeed.} “The community has attracted innovation and people who are invested in the neighborhood,” says Ms. Womack, who has lived in ...
Celebrity Sighting?
glassnightingale:
Met the landlord from Ace Ventura tonight at a bar. I told him I liked his scene. He said, “you liked it when you were 6.” Yes! Totally a jerk! Just like the movie!
That pesky culture.
From a Chinatown spa’s website:
“We are conveniently located in the heart of the culture-infested Chinatown of New York City!”
I think Duane Reade might have a spray for that or something.
They go to the right place every day until they...
{This, and the poem posted here, are apparently by Anne Pierson Wiese. I’m not sure if the word “home” in the last stanza is a typo, and it should be “hone,” but if so, it’s a nice Freudian slip of a typo. I think I’m adopting this as the official poem of City Stories; Tumblr followers - if you haven’t taken a look at the actual page, you could do...
Minus 10
Co-worker: You want to see the dumb thing I saw this morning?
Me: Sure.
Co-worker: An oil-truck running a red light. I tried to flag down a cop, but I couldn’t find one. I saw someone else run a red light by the Brooklyn bridge and I *did* flag down a cop, but he didn’t do anything. Minus 10 for cops today.
The Look of Love
Sadly, I’m not sure who penned this; a friend forwarded a PDF from a book, forwarded from another friend, the only identifying words, “Image: Art, Faith, Mystery.” But I like to think I (or any city-story teller) garner our stories by looking out on our crowded, hectic, home with the look of love, and maybe just a bit of faith.
The Look of Love
When I board the...
Royalton Hotel, 44 W 44th St
Killer heels, prim pencil skirt & fabulous hair; live swing jazz & a handful of swinging dancers; dim lights, bar stool up front, ‘Red Pepper Daisy’ cocktail-makes me think of a fiery F. Scott Fitzgerald. Just turned down an offer to dance-TURNED DOWN. (I’m here to be alone, for the moment; I just want to listen. And these heels are a little too killer for lindy.) Do I ever feel glamorous.
A minute by minute AM account of NYC's *"first"...
*@Newyorkology says it snowed the day after the marathon & Thanksgiving afternoon. True? Your call. City Stories just compiles your accounts.
^As some people say - whatever fell from the sky doesn’t count as proper snow. Again, your call.
{Yesterday’s tweets; apologies for the delay.}
***
@DavidDuRocher: Snow? Snow…Snow! 8:10 @NewYorkology: snow flurries 8:15 ...
“Living in New York is like being at some terrible late-night party. You’re...”
– Simon Hoggart (via kissmeimlazy) (via thingsthatscarelaurenleto) (via teresatothemax)
One white kid to another, Brooklyn Heights:
White kid 1: Hey, did you hear what I was rapping about?
White kid 2: What?
White kid 1: I was freestyling. (In British accent). Just saying the first thing that came to the top of my mind. (Pauses. Returns to American voice). I was rapping. About my flow. And my big lim-MO.
