'The Good You Do Will Come Back to You'
Say hello to new blogger Chrissy Fessler. Chrissy and I go back to junior high school days. Though I think we didn't like each other in junior high, but hit it off in high school. I always thought she was the bad influence on me, but as I learned when I attended her college graduation last summer - I might have been the wilder up-to-no-good one.

Chrissy got pregnant shortly after high school and later got married to her man. The happy bride and groom were actually fighting, I mean really fighting, by the time they cut the wedding cake. After the reception, they left their honeymoon suite to come to the bar (the Alley Cat, of course) where the remnants of the wedding guests had convened. They got in another fight there. The marriage didn't last long, but they did produce a fabulous daughter, Morgan, who is now in high school and sees a lot of both her parents. (Morgan, by the way, is a good kid, absurdly smart and she recently said I'm a "pimp," which she said is the top spot of the pecking order in high school lingo these days.)

What will you find on Chrissy's blog? Learn how we played "Hey Mister" in high school and exactly which establishments would sell booze to minors 20 years ago. (Did I just say 20 years ago??) Read about the haunted mental institution near her Oregon home -- used for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- that will shortly be turned into new urban village. And then there's her own gentle telling of her life since high school: "Got knocked up December 1987. ... Dead end jobs until 1996 include: Olive Garden, Shaver Pizza N' Ribs and an East Bakersfield convenience store. ... February 2004: University final bill comes due: $47,000. Pay up NOW they say. ... I haven't had health insurance since 1991. And it wasn't because I didn't want it. ... I've worked with pneumonia, a bowel obstruction, and a broken ankle. I didn't have a choice." Chrissy, by the way, was just hired full time, will full benefits in the field of her choosing. Many congratulations!
- posted by Amy @ 3/13/2004 09:35:00 AM

 

NYT: Extra Subway Security
The New York Times has a story about increased security on NYC subways, but nothing to shed light on whether cameras are now banned.

Hours after deadly terrorist bombings at Madrid's train stations, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that police and transportation officials had taken steps to increase security in New York's subways.

- posted by Amy @ 3/12/2004 11:23:00 AM

 

Bless My Lucky Charms
About a decade ago I was working for a little newspaper in the Garlic Capital of the World when another paper (I think the San Jose Mercury News) ran a story about how bad it is to stereotype Irishmen as heavy drinkers. If I remember correctly, it was a particularly unlikable Irishman who wrote the story. Of course we talked about it a lot in our newsroom and in very short order, realized the hardest drinkers in our office all had Irish surnames. (I used to be a Collins.)

So I wonder what that reporter in question would make of the "St. Patrick's Day Picks" Fresh Direct has just sent around in an e-mail. Among the suggestions for ye Irish Lovers are Guinness, Harp's, Lucky Charms cereal, oatmeal, and corn beef and cabbage. Oh, lest I forget Irish Spring soap and Edge shave gel?
- posted by Amy @ 3/11/2004 03:34:00 PM

 

NY Times Blog-vertising
You know, I blogged about this two months ago, but no one seemed to care, but I still find it interesting. And I just saw the ad again today, so I'm taking another shot. The New York Times is buying Google ads targeting bloggers.

I was checking a page on Buzznet and one of the Google text ads that showed up in the right column said this: "Blog News. January 2004: the latest news on tech from the New York Times. www.NYTimes.com." And the ad links to a January story in NYT Magazine about blogs.
- posted by Amy @ 3/11/2004 03:25:00 PM

 

Camera Ban for NYC Subways?
I spent a good chunk of my morning with a film crew who is doing a documentary on the blackout for Court TV/New York Times TV. We met at the 34th Street station, which is where I boarded the Q the day I got stuck on the subway during the blackout. While we were there, an MTA guy was hanging around, making sure the cameraman didn't step too close to the edge of the platform. So they interview me on the subway, having me tell my blackout story as the train rolls along. More than two hours later -- even longer than my actual subway blackout experience -- we're finishing up near the Atlantic Avenue station when two NYPD cops approach. They order the cameraman to stop shooting, but the producer explains they have permission from the MTA. So the cops ask for the permit, but the producer explains the MTA no longer gives written permission, but she offers up the phone number of the MTA contact person who approved the filming. The cop doesn't want the number. He says that if they don't have a permit, they have to stop filming.

Apparently this is a new rule, "because of what happened yesterday," the cop says.

"What happened yesterday," I ask.

"Madrid," the cop answers.

So they filmed the last bits outside the Atlantic Avenue subway exit - which conveniently was the exit I eventually used after I was evacuated out the subway tunnel in the blackout.

However, I now have my Treo 600 in my purse now, so of course I took pictures of the film crew on the subway and had sent them to this Web site via Buzznet when the train was aboveground. And I even took a picture of the cop throwing us off the train. I thought he said no cameras of any kind are allowed on the subways now, but all three of the film crew folks said they thought he said a regular camera is OK. So I don't know what the deal is. Besides, the MTA guy who was with us in the morning obviously had no problem with the camera shooting video footage -- he just didn't want anyone standing in the yellow zone.

And while I understand the inclination to ban cameras in certain places for security purposes, there needs to be some logic to it. For example, there are signs as you enter the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that say you can't take pictures. But you don't really need to, since you can just look at the picture on the Port Authority's Web site. Or check out their Web cams of all the city's bridges and tunnels.
- posted by Amy @ 3/11/2004 02:33:00 PM

 

Brooklyn 'Emerging'
The Spring issue of BKLYN magazine is out -- it's only the third issue of the magazine launched six months ago -- and it has a feature on the three hot real estate neigborhoods in the borough: Red Hook, Ditmas Park and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Can your typical New Yorker find even one of those on a map?

If you read between the lines, you'll learn they're hot real estate buys because people don't want to live there. On Ditmas Park, for example:

People leave daily, however, for not having enough to do. "What you've got is the most beautiful houses in Brooklyn," says Gerry Campbell ... "and no place for people to sit and drink a cup of coffee."

- posted by Amy @ 3/10/2004 11:14:00 AM

 

Happier Happy Hours
I was at The Strand earlier this week and picked up a copy of "The Cheap Bastard's Guide to New York City." It has a copyright of 2002, so I'm not sure how up to date the info is -- but it lists 30 happy hours with free food in Manhattan. Some provide you with a complete dinner. However, some of the places are strip clubs and several are limited to free chicken wings. (I mention this because I got a good deal of feedback last week after posting about the free food at the SouthwestNY happy hour.)

This book, by the way, also has extensive listings on how to get cheap (or free) entrance to Broadway and off-Broadway shows, the free days at the city's museums and how to improve your chances of getting tickets for tapings to shows such as Letterman and SNL.
- posted by Amy @ 3/10/2004 10:59:00 AM

 

Urban Planner Hell
If you've ever had to sit through hours and hours of planning commission meetings, you'll love this story from The Onion. Actually, you'll like it if you've ever been stuck in traffic.

"Urban Planner Stuck in Traffic of Own Design"
- posted by Amy @ 3/10/2004 10:32:00 AM

 

Last 'Letter from America'
Alistair Cooke has recorded his last "Letter from America," for the BBC. He's been doing them since 1946 but I only started listening to him on a regular basis in the past few years. He picks up on little things that mean a lot and presents his case in a thoughtful manner that's easy to follow in the wee hours of the morning, which is when I usually hear it on BBC America. Especially since Sept. 11, his weekly report has been something of a love letter to New York, as he describes the view from his Fifth Avenue apartment near Central park and the changes to the city. The New York Times story on his retirement has a few nice passages (link via Ken Layne):

"I would pick my topic on Monday and spend the day researching it. On Tuesday I'd type two or two and a half pages, all my arthritis would allow me. I'd type the rest, another three pages on Wednesday, 1,700 words total ? 13 minutes 30 seconds air time.

"Then I'd beat the hell out of it, getting rid of all the adverbs, all the adjectives, all the hackneyed words. Do you know what Mark Twain said about the perfect word? The difference between a perfect word and a near-perfect word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

"On Thursday we'd record the show right here, and on Friday it would be on the air from London. We record here because I haven't left the apartment in two years on doctor's orders."

and later ...

While proud of his reputation as a pundit, a prose stylist and an impressive speaker, Mr. Cooke is prouder still, he says, of his ability to single out the small gesture, the terse quote or the insignificant event that speaks to larger issues. "I think I've lasted," he told William H. Honan of The New York Times in 1988, "because I found out that what people really wanted to know was anything that you notice in life, and especially things that touch everybody, touch a bishop and a farmer."

- posted by Amy @ 3/10/2004 10:28:00 AM

 

NY Newspaper Bits
I'm in the small, weird media minority who finds these newspaper things interesting:

Tribune Co.-owned Newsday is giving away free newspapers in my Brooklyn neighborhood. A stack of about 40 were left in our apartment building's lobby this morning. It was the New York City edition.

As the evening commute starts, the New York Times now has dedicated news sellers hawking the paper for 50 cents at subway exits.
- posted by Amy @ 3/09/2004 07:04:00 PM