Gotta Love New Yorkers

Picture this: a man with a beautiful black cat sitting on his head standing outside the Winter Garden Theater, home to Mama Mia!, with no one paying it any attention.

Where else are you going to see something like this?

Sarah Comes to Town

The esteemed Governor of Alaska and Republican nominee for Vice-President is in town today. She's going to the U.N. to meet foreign leaders and then get tutorials in foreign policy with the likes of Henry Kissinger (shudder). This is a woman who didn't have a passport until last year and said she didn't pay any attention to the Iraq war for the last five years -- and a year from now she may be a heartbeat away from formulating American's foreign policy. You can't make this stuff up.

Palin in the City

Meanwhile, the usually gaseous conservative pundit has written a brilliant column about John McCain's nutty response to the financial crises. Will puts it perfectly: "Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."

Happy 40th Anniversary New York Magazine

New York magazine changed the publishing industry when it was founded by the late Clay Felker forty years ago. It was brash, funny, strange, and original. Home to the New Journalism of the 1960s, New York published a huge variety of authors including Tom Wolfe, Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, and so many other great writers who are still around today.

More than any other publication before or since, New York was the city speaking to itself, encapsulating our urban neurosis, spotting every trend before it hit and predicting its demise before its fall, and keeping everyone up to date on what was going on in this town. New York was and is the "go-to" magazine for everyone who is anyone (or no one, like yours truly) in NYC and New Yorkers ignore it at their peril.

Check out New York's 40th Anniversary section and read some old stories that still read as fresh as if they were published today.

Last Game At Yankee Stadium - Final Inning

1923-2008

Goodbye, House that Ruth Built. You made this city proud more times than we can remember. Thank you.

Yankee Stadium closes after 85 years

I Found My Blog in The New York Times

Hurray!

Today marks an historic moment in the life of this blog. Mr NYC has now been added to the City Room Blogroll on The New York Times website.

That's right, this little corner of cyberspace has been deemed worthy by the paper of record of appearing on its website along with the likes of Gawker, Gothamist, and so many other great New York City blogs. Tom Friedman, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Gail Collins et al. are now my electronic colleagues (okay, that's an outrageous stretch but a boy can dream can't he?).

Just go to City Room and scroll down to the Blogroll. Mr NYC appears in the "People & Neighborhoods" section right after mcbrooklyn and right before My Private Coney.

Many thanks to The New York Times for this honor.

Candy's Music Club - Staten Island Public Access

Long before websites and blogs, New York City public access TV was probably the best place to find what we now call "user generated content." So often the weird and funny shows on public access were vastly more entertaining than those on regular TV.

Thus, in keeping up with the Staten Island theme for today, here's a clip from a cute show on Staten Island Public Access called Candy's Music Club. Enjoy!

Michael McMahon for Congress

With all of the heat the presidential election is generating, it's easy to forget that there are other important elections this year, including one for Congress in NYC. In the 13th Congressional District, the one currently held by the retiring Congressman Vito Fossella, the Democrats have a great opportunity to win the last remaining district held by a Republican.

City Councilman Michael McMahon is running a strong campaign and was just endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg. Better yet, McMahon was also endorsed by the Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro who is a Republican!

Mr NYC endorses Councilman McMahon for this Congressional seat and hopes he wins. He's been endorsed by just about everyone who is anyone in New York City and State and so, in my attempt to be a big shot, I thought I'd join the bandwagon. Good luck!

Michael McMahon for Congress

New York By the Numbers

It's hard to take the pulse of a city as big and complex as NYC. Back in the day, Ed Koch used to just ask "How'm I doin'?" But in the 21st century, we've gotten a little more sophisticated.

There's really only one way to do it: metrics. Measure various things about the city -- big things like the crime rate, little things like the number of critters -- and see if what should be up is up and what should be down is down. According to an article in today Times, things are more or less going in the right direction. In the sea of bad news, we can be thankful for this.

Mayor’s Report Shows What Works and Doesn’t in New York, by the Numbers

What Will the Financial Crises do to Dating in NYC?

Scoring chicks in this town has always been a cutthroat game -- and the switchblade most guys wield is money. New York City women like guys with money. Why shouldn't they? What woman dreams about shacking up with a poor guy? And the more money a guy has, the more hot women he can get. No romance without finance. It's as simple as that.

The reason guys work like dogs is so that they can makes lots of money in order to get chicks. Big surprise. But now, with the our city and nation's financial system in meltdown, with stocks and 401(K)s and IRAs and all sorts of financial portfolios hemorrhaging like crazy, lots of guys are losing lots of money ... and let's not be surprised if they start losing lots of hot chicks.

This isn't just some snarky though on my part. The Daily News has a wonderful article about this very phenomenon today.

Hard economic times hits the High End Girlfriend Index

Think about it: florists, jewelers, limo drivers, liquor stores -- the businesses that depend on guys like this, are going to take enormous hits. And that's who I feel really sorry for.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Reality!

There's No Arguing With Conservatives ... No, Seriously, Scientific Studies Prove It