Gotta Love New Yorkers

Overheard in Lower Manhattan, lady on her phone: "I was there at that shower when she married that white boy ..."

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Overhead in the Temple of Dendur at the Met Museum: "Who's more evil? Herod or the Sacklers?"

New York Knicks NBA Championship Parade & Ceremony @ City Hall

When I was a kid I remember the now-legendary 1986 Mets World Series victory. There was something special, timeless and singular, about it, more than just another run-of-the-mill World Series, and it's fondly remember 40 years later.

I think it's fair to say that the 2026 Knicks NBA Championship will also go down in the history of NYC as a special, timeless and singular moment. This wasn't just a big victory by the city's basketball team: this was a moment where the city's spirit decided to sing -- and sing loudly.

The New York Knicks -- 2026 NBA Champions!

This is the first time that the NY Knicks have won the NBA championship title since 1973 -- 53 freakin' years ago. 

A singular moment for the city, and a memory for all New Yorkers to cherish.

Here's how the game evolved and ended ...

... and here's how the city is celebrating the Knick's first championship in over half-a-century:

Gotta Love New Yorkers

I've been listening to the public radio show This American Life for over 25 years. Recently they did an episode called "In the Shadow of the City" about people who live on the fringes of big cities (something I've also blogged about). 

Anyway, one of the segments in this episode is called "Brooklyn Archipelago" about how a bunch of Ukrainian teenagers from Brooklyn managed to get themselves shipwrecked and washed up on a deserted island -- right in the sight of the Empire State Building and Midtown skyscrapers. 

A short boat trip in Jamaica Bay turned into a day-long saga more akin to Robinsoe Crusoe or Gilligan's Island (Castaway or Lost). It's a hilarious story about the immigrant experience, being young and reckless, and how the geography of NYC never fails to surpise.

It's also a classic example of how you Gotta Love New Yorkers. 

This F@&%$#g Guy!

Yep, he's still in business after more than 20 years!

He even has his own Wikipedia page! 

My only questions is: can he still make a living doing this and does it help him score chicks?

Gotta Love New Yorkers

I was at the Mets game this past Saturday (great game btw, another Mets 12-run blowout), and the man in front of me in the ice cream line had the following request: "Yo, gimmee mad sprinkles, yo, maaaaaaaaad sprinkles!"

This was after he and his girlfriend offered my little daughter the blueberries that was in their blue-colored vodka drink. We graciously declined.

Gotta love New Yorkers, gotta love this town.

Talkin' "White Lotus" in NYC

 

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Saturday night I was passing through Penn Station when I saw two men running towards a staircase leading to an LIRR track.

At first I thought I was witnessing the start of a fight and got scared -- the running men were big, tough looking guys, and I was worried that mayhem was about to ensue.

But as I got closer and looked down the stairs, I saw that they were running to help a man -- who appeared to be in his 50s, looking like he was heading home -- who has just collapsed down the stairs. The men tried to revive him and, moment later, two cops bounded down the stairs, taking charge.

I stood and watched for a moment -- hoping, obviously, that the man would be ok, and wanting to be of assistance if possible -- but it soon became clear that my presence as either a helper or as an observer would be unhelpful. So I left, relieved that the situation was well in hand.

Most disturbing, in the short time I was at the scene, was that the man wasn't moving at all, moaning or groaning or making any noise at all, his eyes were closed and he was totally still. It may very well be that he had died. 

I hope not, and I haven't been able to find any information about this incident in the last two days. But seeing how this man's fellow New Yorkers, and the NYPD, leapt to his aid, trying to help and save him, gave me a momentary boost of pride in my fellow New Yorkers and this city and people in general.  

Gotta Love New Yorkers

A professional dogwalker leading multiple mutts down the street while speaking on her phone headset:

"Her dress had all booty, and it was pokin' out, it was really pokin' out."

Gotta Love New Yorkers

You can't love a city unless you love its people -- the people who created it, the people who maintain it, the people who give it its vitality, from the folks who pick up the city's trash, teach in its schools, drive its buses and cabs and trains, police its streets, build its economy, help it to grown, preserve and improve its architecture and greenery, to the people who give it cultural vitality -- the characters who help to define the city's character. 

To say that New York City has produced some interesting characters over the centuries would be an epic understatement. But reading about some NYC characters, a couple of whom recently passed, a couple who are still with us but in their winter years. I blogged in the past about some of the NYC greats, the characters who contributed to its cultural and intellectual life, and it's a tradition I like to uphold. So here are a few more great NYC characters, NYC greats, both past and present, that we should appreciate:

- There's the actor Charles Kimbrough who recently died at the age of 86. Most people will remember him for the decade he spent playing the pompous anchor Murphy Brown. But he was really a man of the stage and he originated roles on Broadway in two of Stephen Sondheim's best musicals -- Company in 1970 and Sunday in the Park with George in 1985. What an incredible acting legacy!

- There was the movie producer Ed Pressman who recently died at the age of 79. A native New Yorker he produced classics like Badlands, Wall Street, Bad Lieutenant, Reversal of Fortune, and American Psycho. He was one of the last big-shot, svengali producers that don't really exist anymore, and he made great movies about people instead of superheroes. A great cinematic legacy.

- Then there's Sonja Wagner. Who's she? She's a classic NYC story -- a bored housewife from Kansas who escaped to our fair city in the last 1970s and built a successful if under-the-radar career as an artist. She worked for adult mags while also creating her own art, and she found a loft that became an epicenter for struggling and successful artists to meet, party, network, and get into chicanery. Sonja is 85 now and terminally ill -- but she's kind of New Yorker who made this city her own and contributed to its culture in great ways.

- And there's always Fran Lebowitz. Look, what more can I say about this fount of NYC wisdom that hasn't already been said more often and better by others -- especially Fran herself? Fran is an NYC treasure, an institution unto herself. If I had to say what it is I love about Fran is that, even though she's a public intellectual, if that she's focuses on reality and not pretentiousness. She focuses on the real issues, not the nonsense. Perfect example, as she says in her latest interview, is that we should stop worrying or caring about the dopey-ness of people like the Kardashians and more about the threat that someone like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy poses. Smart lady, a great New Yorker. 

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Recently, during an Uber ride, my driver's phone rang and up popped the picture of a pretty young lady with the name "Mybaby."

Awww. He didn't take the call but I should have told him to do so. I'm sure "Mybaby" would have appreciated it. 

This city is too funny ...

Reflections of, by, and for New Yorkers

To live in NYC is to ruminate about NYC.

To be a New Yorker is a state of mind as much as a way of life. 

If you've ever lived in NYC for any period of time, the city stamps itself on your soul, it lives inside you, for better or worse, forever, wherever you go. 

And this is true for New Yorkers past and present, especially for those New Yorkers who carry memories of, and hold deep feelings for, the city's past while existing in its present. 

I count myself as one such New Yorker.

Some recent developments has made me think a lot about how New Yorkers reflect upon their city -- past, present, and future -- and how New Yorkers reflect upon themselves. 

First, the past: there's a new documentary about the old-fasioned automats, the vast cafaterias around the city where you could get fast, quick meals. You would walk in and go up to an array of small windows, drop a few coins into slot, and the windows would open giving you a sandwhich, coffee, slice of cake, mac'n'chesse, juice, comfort food like that. There were a staple of the city for decades and many New Yorkers -- Mel  Brooks, Colin Powell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, my mother -- were automat regulars. They gave New Yorkers a sense of community, a bond, even if the automat patrons didn't know or talk to each other. It became part of their souls and memories that they carried within themselves forever -- even when some of the automat regulars went on to fame and fortune. Obviously the advent of fast-food put the automats out of business (although the last one didn't close in NYC until 1991) but they remain a beloved part of the city's past.

Second, the present: in case you haven't read today's news (today being February 24, 2022, soon-to-be a date in the past), Russia is invading Ukraine. For most Americans, this is far-off event happening to a far-off people. But there is a huge Ukrainian community/diaspora in NYC, and this tragedy hits them personally, especially those with family back home. In fact, part of the East Village is called "Little Ukraine" and it includes one of my favorite hangout, Veselka, the great Ukrainian restaurant/dessert place. For these Ukrainian New Yorkers, this moment must make them reflect about their home country and their lives and families there vs. their lives in NYC. Because NYC has such a vibrant Ukrainian community, hopefully Ukrainians can get some comfort and strength from each other and fellow New Yorkers.

Third, the future: soon there will be a new Delta terminal at La Guarida airport. What will be special about it (besides it's flashy new 21st-century features) are the six permanent art installations by six NYC artists. The works will include lights, sculptures, tiles, and other artworks that reflect the diversity, vibrancy, and people of this city to the doubtless passengers who will pass through the terminal. It will be the city reflecting itself to the future citizens of, and visitors to, NYC, the past speaking to and educating the future about the people who live, work, and make this city such a special, unique place.

Gotta Love New Yorkers

In this case, gotta love New Yorkers who left the city and can't get over it.

Long story short: I read a big article today about people who moved out of the city during the pandemic for various reasons (mostly professional or familial) and are missing the city like crazy. 

Even though they moved to a place that often has more space, a lower cost-of-living, and sometimes family members that're closer by, these folks can't help but be deeply nostalgic and longing for the city they left behind. 

And not only do they miss and are haunted by NYC, but they try moving to places that replicate many of its greatest traits: mixed-use neighborhoods, walkable streets, good public transporation, culture, culture, culture, and so much more! 

Once NYC captures your mind and soul, your spirit and psyche, it's impossible to let it go, to leave it 100% behind, no mattter where you go. 

It's why New York City is not only the biggest city in the country but possesses an outsize imprint on the rest of the country and world's imagination. The excitement, the energy, the liveliness, the busyness, the beauty, the atmosphere, and, most of all, the people -- it's all so immense, so dynamic, so amazing and diverse, that it makes everywhere else, no matter how great, seem ... just a little small. 

That's the power of this city, the greatness of it, and that's what makes NYC the colossus of America. 

Dramatic Subway Rescue!

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Here's a rare good news story -- how Lin-Manuel Miranda and his friends saved the Drama Book Shop on West 40th street from its demise. It's a story of modern day noblesse oblige, the wealthy saving and sponsoring art and artists or, in this case, an artistic platform, from which the rest of the culture gains.

It's both great and depressing for obvious reasons -- book stores, particularly in NYC, have been vanishing thanks to technology, gentrification, etc. So when the wealthy and powerful intervene -- great! But when they don't ...

And that's the point -- we need an economic model where the wealthy don't always have to be saviors. That's why I hope, great as this news is and great as its current benefactors are, co-ops really should be the future for American business. 

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Ladies and Gentleman, from the streets of Brooklyn in New York City, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer! 

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Meet Stacey Plaskett. The duly elected Congressional Delegate from the Virgin Islands came into prominence during the second Trump Impeachment trial earlier this year. She was an effective, excellent prosecutor of the now former President's misdeed.

And she's originally from NYC. Grew up in Queens and Brooklyn. The best that this city has to offer -- and our loss is the Virgin Island's gain.

Read more about her and get even more impressed!

Gotta Love New Yorkers

Recently I blogged about how we should do more to celebrate the people who make our city and our world a better place and not "cancel" them.

So here's a great example: Velmanette Montgomery.

She was a State Senator for 36 years representing Brooklyn until she retired last year. When she was elected, she was one of the only black women in that entire legislative body which, at the time and for years and years afterwards, was a white Republican boys club. In her four decades of public service, Montgomery dealt with the challenges of being a minority in the minority party yet she was an effective representative of her district, city and state. She worked to reform the criminal justice and foster care systems in the state -- including making sure that incarcerated woman couldn't be shackled during childbirth. She pioneered needle exchange programs to help reduce HIV/AIDS. She also strengthened laws against "deed theft" to help people from being tricked out of home ownership. 

Velmanette Montgomery is the kind of public servant and New York who, quietly, makes our city a better place to live.