Reflections from the Number Two Train

The other day I went and got a service. An item I own had malfunctioned, at least according to a light on its dashboard. I won’t say anymore about the item, or the company, but suffice it to say, that I called, they checked it out the next day, the warning turned out to . . . → Read More: Freedom From Speech

I know how Amare feels. The Heat, for all their talent, are a bunch of jerks. Lebron is a whiner and a flopper and a showoff and Bosh is inconsistent and not really as good as being part of the big three makes him. For all their swagger, the Heat are beatable . . . → Read More: Ball Hog

One of our doormen died suddenly last year around Christmas. A few years older than me, a heavy smoker, Raoul had been a DJ in his earlier life, and then had become, in his second incarnation, the soul of our building.

It wasn’t his work ethic. It was his proficiency at the human . . . → Read More: Well-Remembered

The great thing about the Jeremy Lin story is that it’s not manufactured. It’s real.  And as a result no one quite knows what to make of it.

Cooler heads keep trying to prevail. Telling us it won’t last and that we should dampen our enthusiasm. That Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, his high . . . → Read More: No Pun Intended

In the window of Citarella on the Upper West Side, a flag had been created out of shrimp and other fish. Above it, was the legend, “September 11 We Will Never Forget.”

It was 9/11/11 and people kept stopping to take pictures as if they were hungry for something — anything — to . . . → Read More: What?

As the president battled with a recalcitrant Congress, and the Republicans, claiming to represent a conservative constituency, had us hurtling further toward financial oblivion, the highways seemed to be full of people who couldn’t care less about conservative behavior.

On a two-lane roadway in upper New Hampshire, a man who was clearly . . . → Read More: Slow Down

I don’t often get up to Harlem. Recently I was sent up for an assignment to write about some graduate students who are volunteering to help children in schools in Harlem with math. They are part of a program that pairs students with struggling schools in the surrounding area: the children they . . . → Read More: Teach

Sometimes New York surprises. Just when you think it’s going to behave according to form — turn out to be exactly the way outsiders see it — it lets you in.

Last Friday I had just this kind of experience.

I was supposed to meet two friends at the Tribeca Film Festival. We . . . → Read More: Killing Time

I’m a regular at a coffee establishment in my neighborhood; I consider the table facing the doorway my office away from my office.  The manager of this coffee establishment, a soft-spoken ringer for Ringo Starr, is my friend and we chat once or twice each time he’s there.  This manager is also a . . . → Read More: Wake Up!

Why Rag and Bone was praising Café Colonial:  they were preparing to take over their old space. It’s not their fault. But this is the way we do things now. Lip service is all that’s necessary. Charity can take the place of fairness, opportunity. We want as a nation to do good, but . . . → Read More: Think Different

It’s hot. People are dealing with this with various levels of success. Some spend their day running from air conditioning to air conditioning. Developing a tell tale sneeze.

Others are not so lucky.  On Crosby Street, a man empties construction debris into a dumpster. He is not wearing a shirt and his chest is . . . → Read More: It’s Hot

Lebron is coming. Someone showed him an apartment in the Time Warner Center. Someone else showed him a townhouse in the Village. Our sportswriters are sure he will, sure he won’t — filled with New Yorkers’ characteristic mixture of self-aggrandizement and self-doubt. In unsolicited tough-love letters, they have whispered what is wrong with coming . . . → Read More: Lebronx is Up?