Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Why I Love NYC
by Ken Houghton
Turns out that Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll"** is playing right across the street, and they have student tickets for available for the same $25.
Which was cool enough in itself.
But at intermission of the Stoppard last night, while standing in the lavatory queue, I hear a voice saying "You gonna be all right, hon?" And since it's a voice I've been listening to for around 33 years, since slightly after the Chilean "Experiment" began,*** it only takes a quick glance to see that, indeed, there is a dark-haired, medium-height man with a small goatee coming down the stairs.
This medium-height man with a small goatee (though with somewhat better clothing):
(image from here).
*Plus a "facility charge" that is uniform for all tickets of $1.50. This is the definitive regressive tax, but we decided not to spend an extra $50/ticket just to reduce the "rate" of the service charge.
**Which turns out—I had forgotten—to be among other things, a discussion of democracy, more Churchillian than Utopian.
***Coincidentally, the day this was released.
This last week before school starts again is the time to get in some play going. So Monday night I walk over to 45th Street and get tickets for August: Osage County, which a friend of Shira's says is the play to see if you're seeing only one. And there are $25 tickets available.*
Turns out that Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll"** is playing right across the street, and they have student tickets for available for the same $25.
Which was cool enough in itself.
But at intermission of the Stoppard last night, while standing in the lavatory queue, I hear a voice saying "You gonna be all right, hon?" And since it's a voice I've been listening to for around 33 years, since slightly after the Chilean "Experiment" began,*** it only takes a quick glance to see that, indeed, there is a dark-haired, medium-height man with a small goatee coming down the stairs.
This medium-height man with a small goatee (though with somewhat better clothing):
(image from here).*Plus a "facility charge" that is uniform for all tickets of $1.50. This is the definitive regressive tax, but we decided not to spend an extra $50/ticket just to reduce the "rate" of the service charge.
**Which turns out—I had forgotten—to be among other things, a discussion of democracy, more Churchillian than Utopian.
***Coincidentally, the day this was released.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Quote of the Day
by Ken Houghton
Mario @ 4:
Amidst some great competition, this one stands out as being (1) accurate and (2) topical in so many ways (and not just because the Pats won):
Mario @ 4:
Rudy wouldn't be elected dog catcher today in NYC if he was running vs Michael Vick.
Labels: NYC, Politics, Republicans, RudyG, sports
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
TNH Performs a Public Service
by Ken Houghton
Now, as a public service, Teresa Nielsen Hayden Explains It All to You. In one place, everything you need to know about "America's mayor."
Yesterday at Angry Bear, I apparently started and ended the comment thread for this post. The absurdity of the claim that Rudy G. had in any way done anything to defend NYC after the 1993 WTC bombing—that is, for his entire term as mayor—was beyond the pale.
Now, as a public service, Teresa Nielsen Hayden Explains It All to You. In one place, everything you need to know about "America's mayor."
Labels: NYC, Politics, Republicans, terrorism, theother11sep
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
76 Days Later
by Ken Houghton
For the first time since the evening of July 18th, 41st Street between Park and Lexington is open to traffic.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Half an Hour in the Life
by Ken Houghton
Ca. 5:55 pm: The sound of rocks hitting a window is distracting in the best of times. When the rocks are coming up and hitting a seventh floor window, distraction is the least of the possible worries.
Ca. 5:56 pm: The dust is coming higher as well. The sixty-some people who are on the floor are all headed for the fire exit. The one that goes onto the street. I suggest this is not the best of all ideas as I grab the laptop and follow the crowd.
Ca. 5:58 pm: We are outside, with hundreds of others dong the same. The building is presumably North and East of us. I move South and West.
Interlude: When I walked into work on 11 Sep 2001 (a Disaster Recovery project started the day before), my cohorts said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. A B-25 once hit the Empire State Building. Once is an accident.
Ca. 6:01 pm – I’m walked several blocks away; others doing the same. There is a large cloud of dust obscuring the Pan Am Building.* Otherwise, the rain has cleared the air fairly well. The dust is white.
My mobile finally gets a signal through. I tell Shira to turn on the television to find out what is happening. Four channels of news later (CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox), there is nothing being reported but the earlier flooding. This is reassuring. Fire trucks are moving up Park Avenue.
The woman next to me on the street is covered with dust and dirt.
Ca. 6:03 pm By coincidence, I meet two others from my building, from higher floors. None of us is inclined to go back; the smoke frames our building, and several people on the street have said that they assumed it was our building that had the problem.
Interlude: I presume our building is very safe. Not only was it recently built, but the owner of the property lives on the two floors above. I don’t know if his pool is directly above my head, but it could be.
Ca. 6:05pm: Another block or two. A man with a Blackberry has found out that it was a transformer and a gas explosion. We understand why the smoke is white.
Ca. 6:06 pm. Shira calls to tell me what I have just found out. I think she says something about having scared them, but there are a lot of people and noise and cameras and fire trucks, so I’m probably wrong.
6:15ish, walking across 32nd Street. Young woman on her mobile, talking to someone, clearly Very Worried. At her third panic, two of us interrupt her to reassure her that it was Con Edison- not al Queda, related.
6:22 Greeley Square. A man with a microphone is asking passers-by, “Are you ready to meet G-d?” Clearly, it is a canned schpiel. He wants to talk fire and brimstone; I’m thinking more about asbestos.
6:25: Almost at Penn Station. Stop to ask the Q32 bus driver if he is still taking the bus's regular route, up Madison Avenue from 32nd to the mid-50s. He clearly knows what has happened, and confirms that everything is normal as far as the MTA is concerned.
Context.
POSTSCRIPT:
I end up on the 6:43 train, by coincidence sitting next to John Schwartz, a Science writer for the NYT. By the time I get off the train (having left the car keys at the office, along with my coat), I have been interviewed, edited, and quoted.
From the comfort of home, it is much easier to read:
Tom's PPS: Big Media Ken is quoted here. As glad as I am to read that this was apparently an accident, I'm not sure how reassuring Michael Bloomberg is in saying (per the NYT), “There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure.”
*All right, it's now the MetLife, building (200 Park). But it's still best known as the home of Quetlzalcoatl.
**Vanderbilt, of course, starts on 42nd Street. But I suspect it means that the Pershing Square Restaurant so beloved by Little Blue PD will be closed for a while.
Hubris is still followed by ate, and the exception proves the rule:
Ca. 5:55 pm: The sound of rocks hitting a window is distracting in the best of times. When the rocks are coming up and hitting a seventh floor window, distraction is the least of the possible worries.
Ca. 5:56 pm: The dust is coming higher as well. The sixty-some people who are on the floor are all headed for the fire exit. The one that goes onto the street. I suggest this is not the best of all ideas as I grab the laptop and follow the crowd.
Ca. 5:58 pm: We are outside, with hundreds of others dong the same. The building is presumably North and East of us. I move South and West.
Interlude: When I walked into work on 11 Sep 2001 (a Disaster Recovery project started the day before), my cohorts said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. A B-25 once hit the Empire State Building. Once is an accident.
Ca. 6:01 pm – I’m walked several blocks away; others doing the same. There is a large cloud of dust obscuring the Pan Am Building.* Otherwise, the rain has cleared the air fairly well. The dust is white.
My mobile finally gets a signal through. I tell Shira to turn on the television to find out what is happening. Four channels of news later (CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox), there is nothing being reported but the earlier flooding. This is reassuring. Fire trucks are moving up Park Avenue.
The woman next to me on the street is covered with dust and dirt.
Ca. 6:03 pm By coincidence, I meet two others from my building, from higher floors. None of us is inclined to go back; the smoke frames our building, and several people on the street have said that they assumed it was our building that had the problem.
Interlude: I presume our building is very safe. Not only was it recently built, but the owner of the property lives on the two floors above. I don’t know if his pool is directly above my head, but it could be.
Ca. 6:05pm: Another block or two. A man with a Blackberry has found out that it was a transformer and a gas explosion. We understand why the smoke is white.
Ca. 6:06 pm. Shira calls to tell me what I have just found out. I think she says something about having scared them, but there are a lot of people and noise and cameras and fire trucks, so I’m probably wrong.
6:15ish, walking across 32nd Street. Young woman on her mobile, talking to someone, clearly Very Worried. At her third panic, two of us interrupt her to reassure her that it was Con Edison- not al Queda, related.
6:22 Greeley Square. A man with a microphone is asking passers-by, “Are you ready to meet G-d?” Clearly, it is a canned schpiel. He wants to talk fire and brimstone; I’m thinking more about asbestos.
6:25: Almost at Penn Station. Stop to ask the Q32 bus driver if he is still taking the bus's regular route, up Madison Avenue from 32nd to the mid-50s. He clearly knows what has happened, and confirms that everything is normal as far as the MTA is concerned.
Context.
POSTSCRIPT:
I end up on the 6:43 train, by coincidence sitting next to John Schwartz, a Science writer for the NYT. By the time I get off the train (having left the car keys at the office, along with my coat), I have been interviewed, edited, and quoted.
From the comfort of home, it is much easier to read:
The authorities have established a “frozen zone” between 40th and 43rd Streets, from Vanderbilt to Third Avenues.**and wonder whether it will be possible to enter the building tomorrow, face mask and all.
Tom's PPS: Big Media Ken is quoted here. As glad as I am to read that this was apparently an accident, I'm not sure how reassuring Michael Bloomberg is in saying (per the NYT), “There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure.”
*All right, it's now the MetLife, building (200 Park). But it's still best known as the home of Quetlzalcoatl.
**Vanderbilt, of course, starts on 42nd Street. But I suspect it means that the Pershing Square Restaurant so beloved by Little Blue PD will be closed for a while.
