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Robert Andrews: Safe Salesman
by David Shapiro (interviewer) 05/31/2006Neighborhood: Midtown
I call myself a security consultant because it sounds better than salesman but, essentially, I’m a salesman. I sell security products, primarily safes. My dad preceded me in this. He was with the Mosler Safe Company starting around 1948 and, quite frankly, as a kid, the work sounded very dull to me. I wanted to [...]
The Extortionists of Sixth Grade
by James Parry 05/31/2006Neighborhood: Upper West Side
It was 1978 and I was in sixth grade at public school I.S. 44 on the Upper West Side. A group of boys robbed me- daily. Tyrone, a mean little black kid in a blue down coat, which he wore regardless of whether it was summer or winter, grew up in the projects just a [...]
Scribbler Nabbed in Library Heist
by Tracy Charlton 05/31/2006Neighborhood: Upper West Side
My writing teacher Sue said getting published would change my life. But as I prepared to dart past the security guard at the library, a stolen copy of The New York Post hidden in my parka, I sensed this wasn’t what she had in mind. Only a month ago, everything had seemed so promising. An [...]
Bank Robber
by Thomas Beller 05/31/2006Neighborhood: Upper West Side
The Joan of Arc Junior High school had just let out across the street and a crowd gathered right away. The man in the headlock, the captured man, was impossibly skinny, and wore faded jeans that were a bit too short, and sneakers. He had a beard and shaggy brown hair. He could have been [...]
Two Stories About Teaching in Queens
by Hal Sirowitz 09/29/2005Neighborhood: Outer Boroughs, Queens
“The Case Of The Missing Pasta” I tried improving my second grade special education students’ skills at addition by having them count pasta. I had them line up the brown and white rigatoni into two groups. Then all they had to do was add them. It worked well – my students were learning while enjoying [...]
Justice at the Parking Meter
by Johanna Garfield 07/15/2005Neighborhood: Upper East Side
12:15: Heading downtown in car for two o’clock appointment with lawyer. Half-listening to Leonard Lopate on WNYC. Callers telling stories of bizarre summonses for unfair parking tickets. Mentally pat self on back for six months ticket-free. Cop calls in. Defensive. Won’t give name. Claims cops have no ticket “quotas” to meet, just “production goals.” Claims [...]
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 [...]
You Must Really Want It
by Marie Sabatino 04/28/2005Neighborhood: Lower East Side
I woke up feeling cold this morning and the clouds were fighting their way in between the bedroom blinds that were left open in the middle of the night. I found my body naked and bent and I thought about Nicole Du Fresne and her star quality blonde hair and blue eyes and perfect teeth [...]
I Got Gooned
by Daniel Maurer 03/01/2005Neighborhood: Lower East Side
Gooning / n. / the random beating of an unsuspecting victim, usually by a goon gang Usually when I cross the Williamsburg Bridge this late at night I’m thinking, “This would be the perfect place for a random act of violence.” But this particular time the thought didn’t occur because I was engrossed in a [...]
Love and Heartbreak in New York
by Coastal 02/13/2005Neighborhood: All Over, Multiple
THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL by Rachel Cline ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF NOT SEEING HER AGAIN by Alex Jablonski CHRISTINA by Snooder Greenberg WEDDING PROPOSAL AT CAFE LOUP by Meghan Daum and Thomas Beller MAKING IT by Kendra Hurley THE KEPT BOY by John Epperson SEGWAY SIGHTINGS by Maud Newton BUTCH & NANCY by Jenni [...]
The Passion of the Anti-Christ
by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh 03/09/2004Neighborhood: Uncategorized
Throughout my life I have paid good money to see innumerable films that have dehumanized Muslims in the most overt and ingenious ways possible. I have also seen a great many television programs, books, newspaper articles and high-minded literary journals do the same. I have witnessed my father—-who is Muslim and who, in my imagination, [...]
Mel Gibson’s Passion for Blood
by Thomas Beller 02/22/2004Neighborhood: Across the River
In early December, 2003, several people involved in the production of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion,” arrived in Rome. The mission was to get the Vatican to endorse the movie’s version of the last hours of Jesus Christ’s life. The film was shot in Rome, at the Cinecitta studios, and the Gibson delegation apparently had some [...]
