It is very common in parts of India to respect the cow. But not only in a way that you don’t kill them and eat them, but if they stumble upon the middle of the road; all traffic must halt until the cow decides to leave or someone urges it on to move. But, there will never be any kind of hassle or complaining, people will usually comply with the animal.

I feel the NYC pigeon is a similar breed of animal. Not necessarily the Queens, Bronx or Long Island pigeon, but specifically the Manhattan pigeon. Sometimes you find you have to let it do all the decision making and manage yourself according to its rules. The video below is a perfect example. I took it a few weeks ago at the Staten Island Ferry terminal, which by the way is so much nicer than it used to be.

When I first moved into my apartment in Park Slope, we lived above an empty storefront that had previously been a travel agency and before that, according to my roommate, some kind of brothel. A few months ago construction started and recently an entirely-legal pizza place has opened up. Like Brooklyn needs any more of those.

The opening of the pizza place was awaited with a mix of excitement and trepidation: my one roommate worried that it would bring rats and flies (and, already having some serious mice and roach issues, we aren’t exactly bereft of vermin), that our apartment would smell like pizza, and then WE would smell like pizza, and wherever we went people would smell us and suddenly want pizza. But my other roommate and I were excited at the convenience. Who doesn’t like pizza to be so close?

The rats/flies/smell factors haven’t materialized… yet (“Wait until summer,” my roommate warns, “it’s gonna be gross.”). But the pizza place isn’t exactly a godsend, either.
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The revelers include crazies, families, friends, and tourists. The largest annual gathering of people for a celebratory purpose is the crowd in New York on New Year’s Eve. There will be much madness, much barfing, and much illegal activities. Well, not too much illegal activity; thanks to the NYPD.

But New Year’s Eve to me means watching the old Twilight Zone marathon and falling asleep before midnight. It’s just another day to me. I choose not to crowd into the madness because what’s the point? I see no real thrill in the ball dropping, I haven’t made a New Year’s resolution since it was an assignment in 5th grade. And in the end, the 2nd is just a day we all go back to work or whatever it is the routine calls for. What’s the point? There is no point, it’s just an excuse to have another big party and make filthy top ten, fifty, and other lists.

Some may think it strange that The Elijah Wood would happen to sit down next to me on my Delta flight from Los Angeles to New York last night. And it was. Not because I have written satirical (though entirely accurate) accounts of his LES travails for this site, but because

What’s wrong with JFK Airport. My experience yesterday evening makes JFK more shoddier than many airports I have flown from.

Was departing from the Delta Terminal. That whole terminal is screwed up. You have to be dropped off on the ramp leading to the terminal because the traffic is backed up. You have to wait outside because the security line is so long that it seems ages before you will ever get inside. Once inside the line crawls. Finally our flight members are called out because we are running late. I check in my bags and head to the security screener, only to be led by an agent out of the terminal and across the road to another security post and then enter again.

Aaaaah. what a nightmare. And then on top of that its raining.

And all this on a supposedly slow day for airlines…Christmas Day.

Damn, somethings gotta change, or I see a people’s revolution in the future of airlines.

Shopping during Christmas is a task the whole nation partakes. Its a custom catered towards the well being of Walmart, Target, Apple, and their ilk.

Everyone in the office talks about how they have or havent got the time to shop for presents for Christmas.

Walking around Union Square today, I could see hundreds of harried shoppers running from store to store to get what they wanted before it is too late.

Observing their expressions and body language while myself, standing in a line at Filene’s Basement, I stumbled upon my “Eureka” moment.

There are two kinds of shoppers in the world. The one who shop way in advance, because they really enjoy shopping and then the ones who shop on the second last day before Christmas, because they hate shopping.

No in betweens. Sorry !

I know the strike is over and we’re sick of hearing about it, but I thought I’d share my co-worker- Lorraine’s – transit strike horror story with you.

Just to give you some background. One of the prestigious hospitals on the UES (we’ll call it Hospital #1) kindly allowed our hospital to take advantage or their bus services during the strike to get our staff to work and home. Last night, a few of our co-workers used that service and this is what happened.
Note: This letter has been submitted to Hospital #1, the hospital I work for and one of the local radio stations.

No one will ever be able to make up a story like what I’m about to write.

After work, a few of us made our way over to the Bus Service which was waiting at Hospital #1’s Main Entrance when we arrived at approximately 4pm on Thursday December 22, 2005. The bus left Hopital #1 around 4:05pm.

We proceeded uptown on 1st Avenue to the posted stops Hospital #1’s bus service normally stops at. We stopped at 86th Street and 2nd Avenue, but not one of the 55 passengers needed to get off the bus. With that, the driver proceeded to get off the bus, lock the door with the bus running, and went into the Sprint Store. At first, we all thought he needed to make a pit stop, due to nature calling, but were we WRONG! 5-10 minutes had passed, but still no bus driver. I had gotten up out of my seat to try and see into the store from the bus and there he was… waiting on a line in the back of the Sprint store.

At that point all of the people on the bus started to get pretty angry. Hospital #1’s representative who was in the bus with us, started to hold the horn down until we received some type of reaction from the bus driver. The bus driver came to the front of the store, and told the Hospital #1 rep. to

I just got home a little while ago from my last unnecessary long walk home. 41 blocks, 8 avenues, 40 minutes… whew!

I’m actually not complaining, it was a voluntary walk. A friend and I decided to take advantage of the strike and treat ourselves to a decadent night out.

We started off at Geisha, which from what I hear is normally crowded and a pain in the ass to get into. Not the case tonight – and I know that if we went back, we wouldn’t enjoy it as much. We dined on oysters, tuna tartare, scallops, a special Geisha eel roll and a triple chocolate dessert. Glorious!

Next stop. Blue Bar at the Algonquin, where we met up with some friends in town from L.A. It’s an old time bar – not a party crowd, but the bartenders are super attentive and their Chocolate Sundae Martini is so amazingly good, you only need one.

At 11:15, I started out on my final “2005 Transit Strike” walk home. I would’ve taken a cab, but my friend and I got ripped off by one earlier in the evening. $10 per person (2 people) to go 15 blocks and 2 avenues. Total bullshit. We argued with the driver for a bit, but he kept flashing us this memo with the “fair” pricing based on zone. Whatever.

Time for bed… I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal.

Yes, it appears that we

To the relief of millions of commuters, the Transport Workers Union Local 100 executive board voted to end the strike that brought trains and subways to a halt for three days.[ link ]