You are currently browsing the stories about the Across the River neighborhood
Squirrel in the Birdfeeder
by Joseph Scalia 01/19/2008Neighborhood: Across the River, Long Island
There has always been something about the change in seasons, something that has stirred me to make changes in my life. I was married in winter and divorced in the spring, started a new job in fall and quit in the summer. That’s probably why it was in the beginning of winter when I decided [...]
Window Washer Thrill Comedy
by Peter F. Eder 01/06/2008Neighborhood: Across the River, Manhattan
One of the pleasures of living in a ranch style home is that I can clean all of the outside windows while standing firmly on the ground. Here is why that’s important to me. 219 Audubon Avenue Once each season in my growing up years in the 1940s and 50s, my mother would wash the [...]
The Bitches of Banner Elk
by Ryan Sloan 01/04/2008Neighborhood: Across the River, Queens
The trip from Greensboro, North Carolina to New York will be safe and superfast in our little plane. I climb in, pleased to find I have a seat alone. An elegant young couple sits across from me – they have a small, silent beagle in a carry-on case. The man’s probably thirty and has a [...]
Magic City: Not In Our Town
by Patrick J. Sauer 12/22/2007Neighborhood: Across the River, Bronx
One of the great, underrated things about living in New York is meeting all those people who come from everywhere else. Not that Gotham natives aren’t a barrel of monkeys, but it’s cool that someone always seems to have a different frame-of-reference, a different slice of life about where they came from, which is my [...]
From the Captain’s Point of View
by Bill Schell 11/18/2007Neighborhood: Across the River, Manhattan
The Captain sensed an uneasiness in the room. The two men in front of him were looking off to their right. They had strange expressions on their faces. Was it disgust? Was it fear? Was it an expression of embarrassment or shame? None of these emotions had been noticed by this Captain during several years [...]
Floor Pounding Polkas: A Croatian Wedding Story
by Joseph Scalia 10/28/2007Neighborhood: Across the River, Letter From Abroad
I should have known I was in trouble when I read the wedding invitation and saw that the reception was in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge someplace in New Jersey. The second clue was that the directions were in a foreign language! I was no stranger to ethnic couplings, having seen both the [...]
You’re in the Quiet Car
by Hal Sirowitz 10/09/2007Neighborhood: Across the River, Letter From Abroad
“Whether you know it or not, you’re in the Quiet Car,” the conductor announced. “That means you have made a commitment to silence. The first obligation is to shut off your cell phones. And just because the train stops at a station doesn’t give you the right to turn it back on to listen to [...]
The First Emperor at New Rochelle, Theater #16
by Peter F. Eder 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Across the River, Letter From Abroad
Tan Dun’s new opera, “The First Emperor,” which premiered in December at the Metropolitan Opera and included Placido Domingo in the title role, was a complete sell-out for its run. The Met’s new GM, Peter Gelb, created a unique opportunity to expand the audience, by telecasting the WQXR “Live from the Met” broadcast in cities [...]
More or Less How It Got To Be 4 O’Clock
by Bill Teitelbaum 12/31/2006Neighborhood: Across the River, Letter From Abroad
Six months out of college, with an undergraduate degree in English literature and still operating on the assumption that my real life had not yet begun, I was offered a job conducting interviews for a market research company. The firm occupied a converted warehouse in a Garden City industrial park, but most of my assignments [...]
A Blues Clues Companion Was I
by Kristine Simmons 04/20/2006Neighborhood: Across the River, Letter From Abroad
I, Granny, took the helm at approximately 1200 hours. Steering a true course, all was calm for the day. The squab finished his mess; skies remained calm, no squalls of crying. Grandson and I played toss with a small orange ball and spent hours crawling around. Tumble salts off my legs; giggles of delight. Peek-a-boo’s [...]
Dante’s Traveling Inferno
by Fran Giuffre 08/11/2005Neighborhood: Across the River, Multiple
Luck was on my side. The “Q” train pulled into the 34th Street station headed to Brooklyn. I was relieved, not just because I would be whisked home by the air conditioned subway train. It meant that I wouldn’t have to stand on one of the hottest subway platforms in the city, forced to breathe [...]
Flushwick
by Tony Antoniadis 05/16/2005Neighborhood: Across the River, Queens
There’s a small pocket in Brooklyn east of Williamsburg, west of Bushwick, known by its residents as Flushwick. In this small pocket, mattress fires attract drum circles. Catalpa trees burst from the shattered windshields of bulldozers. Pedigrees with silk bandanas growl behind fences crowned with razor wire. It’s hard to get a fix on this [...]
