All Hail Dr. Ruth!

The legendary Dr. Ruth -- the funny short lady who has helped countless couples improve their bedroom activities -- has a new documentary about her life coming ... out.

A Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ruth came to America with nothing and made herself into a pop culture icon. Heck, she even played herself in a great episode of Quantum Leap where she gives Al love advice in the "waiting room"!

And Dr. Ruth credits NYC with her success: "New Yorkers accepted immigrants with accents like mine."

No one has ever put it better, or more succinctly, about what makes American and this city great.

UPDATE: When I was in college, Dr. Ruth visited and talk about how she counsels couples in their love life. She said that couples should do whatever feels good to them and gives them joy. She said that, for one couple she counselled, "zee vo-man told me zhe liked to lob onion ringz onto her huzband's erect peniz." Hilarious. Brilliant.  

The L Train Slowdown - Just the Facts

Mr NYC in D.C.

I've been to our nation's capital many times -- even lived and worked there for a summer -- so doing one post about it seems almost pointless. Yes, I've seen and gone to all the sites, many times, and recapping them would be boring -- but if there's a museum, a monument, or a big building in DC, I've probably seen it or gone into it (including the West Wing of the White House).

That said, it's been a while since I was in DC and it was fun to take the kids for their first visit. They loved the National Air and Space Museum, running around the National Mall, and we ended our visit at the best place possible -- the National Zoo, where we saw the gorgeous giant pandas from China.

My favorite/least favorite moment was when my family and I sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and listened to this huge uniformed brass band with spinning majorettes, the whole deal, playing various songs -- including, of all bizarre things, "Spaceman" by The Killers, a song we had just listened to on our drive down to DC the day before!

It was delightful, uniquely American, and the kids loved it -- until, just as we were about to leave, a family walked up the steps of the memorial wearing the grotesque red MAGA shirts and caps. Needless to say, it was a real downer, a beautiful moment ruined by hate -- and, by the way, how dare these or any people wearing those racist symbols while visiting the Lincoln Memorial, especially on the same day where their president called a traitor, Robert E. Lee, a "great general." Disgraceful -- but it also makes you realize that some people have no sense of irony or decency or history.

In that moment, at that special place, we saw the best and worst of America.

We also visited the American history museum which is full of all sorts of Americana including a First Ladies exhibit and lots of military stuff. I did see there one NYC related piece of history -- an original ticket booth from 1923 that was once used at Yankee Stadium in the days of Babe Ruth. 

So it's always fun to go to DC -- even in these bizarre, troubled times for our country.   

What We've Lost

We lost JFK Jr. almost 20 years ago.

We lost the old Penn Station more than 50 years ago.

Granted, they couldn't have been more different. One was a living breathing person and other was a train station. One died tragically in an accident while the other was deliberately and carefully destroyed. But this city lost them both, and we feel the lack of their presence to this day.

And what's crazy, in a way, is that their very existences were built on previous losses, previous tragedies. 

In the case of JFK Jr, he was the living legacy of a president who also died tragically. In the case of the old Penn Station, it existed on land that had once housed mostly black people and who were displaced so this Guilded Age monument could be built.

In their days -- in the case of JFK Jr, the 1980s and 1990s, in the case of the old Penn Station, the first half of the 20th century -- they helped to define this city's culture. They were beautiful, glamorous, awe-inducing, inspiring -- or, as we like to say these days, aspirational.

JFK Jr. created a magazine that fused politics and pop culture together at a time when this was a novel idea and not the horror show it is today. Penn Station was a tribute to American "ingenuity and know-how", an example of what this country could achieve, building something that rivaled the great palaces of Europe -- but that was "for the people" instead of the nobility.

Both scaled the heights -- and invited us to join them.

Then they were gone, and now all we have are pictures and memories. We lost something when they went away -- a piece of our collective hope was chipped away, our faith in humanity was dented, our joy in the world besmirched. Not destroyed -- but diminished. 

Certainly, this city lived to see another day -- even in the aftermath of something like 9/11 or Trump, we've survived -- but how much better could we have dealt with those horrors with JFK Jr and the old Penn Station still around?

That's what loss is all is all about -- wondering what might have been. But we go on ...

Return of the Queen

Suzanne Ferrell was one of the greatest ballerinas in the history of the New York City Ballet. She was the muse of the great George Balanchine, who choreographed many ballets for her, and she was the company star for many years in the 1970s and '80s.

She continued at the company after the great man died in the early 1980s and then, after she retired, she became a ballet master, teaching and coaching other dancers. But then, in 1993, she was fired and banished from the company by the NYCB director Peter Martins with whom she had a bad relationship.

Well, now, Martins is gone, and Suzanne Ferrell is back, coaching dancers for NYCB once again.

It's impossible to imagine that she was gone from the company from more than a quarter of a century since she did so much to define it. And it's great that she agreed to come back after so much time.

It's also a reminder that talent should never be discarded and she always be cherished and engaged, no matter how much time has passed. 

Less Cars + More Money = Better NYC

Coming to NYC in 2020 & 2021: Congestion pricing, a plastic bags fee, and mansion tax. This means less cars in NYC, more money in state and city coffers, and, one hopes, a better quality of life.

Shock Jocks in Winter

To follow up on my previous post about Rising and Falling, I recently saw that someone viewed a post I wrote about Opie and Anthony in 2009. 

O and A were radio shock jocks who bounced around the NYC airwaves and satellite for more than 15 years. They were a sometimes hilarious, sometimes idiotic, and always foul duo who were, after Howard Stern, easily the most popular shock jocks in NYC ever. Unlike Howard, however, who's been dominating NYC radio (both on regular radio and satellite) for nearly 40 years, O and A rose and fell relatively quickly. They actually rose and fell thrice -- once, in 2002, when they sent a couple of dopey fans in St. Patrick's Cathedral to have intercourse, then again 2009 when they were fired due to a station format change, and then they continued on satellite radio until 2014 when Anthony got fired for racist Tweets (and their relationship subsequently fell apart).

When I blogged about their firing in 2009, I wondered if they'd ever hit the NYC airwaves again. A decade later, the answer is clear -- no.

What's most interesting to me, however, is not what happened to Opie and Anthony but that the whole genre of radio they worked in -- shock radio -- is apparently on life support if not dead altogether. After Anthony got fired in 2014, I heard someone else on the radio say "The shock jock thing is dead."  

Once upon a time, radio DJs said outrageous things on the public airwaves, pushing up against the line of decency and often legality, doing crazy stunts with listeners (like the St. Patrick's thing), and getting big ratings and money in the process. Howard, O and A, and others like Tom Leikus were even syndicated, bringing their shtick to cities around the country. 

Oh, and there was lots of public hand wringing by public moralizers and media commentators. Was this the lowering of the bar for decency and cilivilty in society? What did this say about us as a country that so many people loved this naughty radio? Wasn't the fact that it was so profitable just disgusting? And on and on and on and on ...

These days, podcasts and the Internet have content that's WAY more outrageous (and obviously uncensored) than anything a shock jock might say or do. And the current POTUS is almost like a shock jock himself -- how could any guy on the radio compete?

The reign of shock jocks was relatively brief and their fall was due not to any public morality or pressure but technology. Oh sure, Howard's still around but his act is much calmer today than back in the day.

That's why you should listen to this episode from 2002 where Howard talks -- and frankly gloats -- about the firing of O and A after the St. Pat's stunt. He complains about how all of these other shock jocks are ripping off his act, how the whole radio sounds like him today. While his rant is obviously completely dated, it's always a fascinating artifact of history from a moment in time that no longer exists. 

Today, not only does the radio not sound like Howard Stern but Howard Stern doesn't even sound like Howard Stern today!

NYC radio ain't what it used to be.

UPDATE: This post appears to have been prescient -- here's a long analysis about how shock radio has moved from the airwaves to the halls of government. Something that began as entertainment is now shaping public policy. It's scary to realize this but, hey, that's America.

To Rise & Fall in NYC

It's easy to look at the insanity that is Trump's America and to fear that it will always be like this.

It's easy to think that today will also be tomorrow somehow -- and the day after that, ad infinitum.

One of the flaws of the human mind, in my experience and observation, is that many people think that present circumstances will continue forever, that today's situations (whether good or bad) will last indefinitely. We know this isn't true but we feel it so often to be true.

Examples abound of why our feelings are wrong. 

Remember the Cold War? It lasted for almost 50 years, it defined America and the world. If you grew up during that time (I remember the end of it) it seemed permanent and unwinnable -- until, very suddenly, it wasn't. 

Remember the original Law & Order? It was on TV for decades -- until it was cancelled.

Bill Cosby was a respected comedian, actor, author, activist, and cultural icon for 50 years -- and now he's a disgraced prisoner.

Queen Elizabeth II is 92 years old and has ruled the UK for 67 years -- but, one day, she won't be, and in the 1000+ years of the British monarchy, her reign will be but a minuscule part of it.

I remember as a kid when George H.W. Bush was Vice-President and President, it seemed liked he would be in power forever -- until a young Arkansas Governor changed that quite suddenly.

Heck, Game of Thrones has been on for almost a decade and but very soon will be over. And talk about something that show us the precariousness of power and dominance!

That's why it's so important not only to study history but to have a sense of history -- to see how there were once mighty rulers and empires and "influencers" who commanded huge swaths of the world and public who are now only footnotes; how people and things we took for granted as always existing and presumably existing -- like Notre Dame or the old World Trade Centers -- vanished in an instant.

You get the point -- what's here today, who's powerful today, who and what rules and commands our world, who rose yesterday will one day fall tomorrow. It's always been like this. It always will be.

Nothing lasts forever. 

Two totally different but fascinating examples from downtown NYC.

The first is the story of Mary Boone, once the hottest and most important art dealer in town. She knew everyone, sold the work of many famous artists, and hobnobbed with the powerful for 40 years.  She helped build and defined the downtown art scene. Now she's headed to jail for tax evasion, her business gone.

The second is a great story about the Old St. Patrick's Cathedral and its catacombs. This used to be the seat of Catholic power in NYC and one of the most powerful churches in the country. Many once-famous, once-powerful people are buried there. Now it's a tourist attraction but it's days of power and influence are long, long gone.

In NYC and the world, people and things rise and fall all the time. We shouldn't be surprised by it. Everything changes -- and understanding that makes us wiser.

One World Trade Center Tribute to Notre Dame

Please Boycott the New York Post

I've removed the link for it from this blog.

This is not censorship, this is not an attack on free-speech -- this is MORE speech, this is citizen action. The government is not going to put the Post out of business, this is simply Americans flexing their economic power in service of their values. THIS is what makes America great!

By the way, the Post is not a newspaper or a business -- it's a racist propaganda machine that's been subsidized by Rupert Murdoch for 40 years, it's never turned a cent of profit.

Don't worry, Republicans, the Post won't go out of business but it will feel real pain. We know how much love Republicans inflicting pain so it's only just they feel a little bit of it themselves.