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The Silent Minority

by 07/12/2007
Neighborhood: Jamaica, Queens

In the divorce papers filed by my ex-wife, the second one I mean, she said I never paid attention to her. While we were still living in the same house she also said, “You never listen to me.” “What?” I generally responded from the other room. For the record, I am, in fact, a great [...]

Heteroflexibility

by 12/31/2006
Neighborhood: Chelsea, Multiple

I troll craigslist searching for traces of my ex. He dates trannies and the dregs of society. I had lunch with him the other day and I said, “Hey Luke, did you put this ad up?” “Oh my god! How the hell did you know!” I wanted to say, it’s really not that difficult when [...]

Fitzmas Past

by 12/22/2006
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

Last year, after the indictment of Dick Cheney’s chief-of-staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Maureen Dowd wrote a column praising the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald. “It was bracing to see the son of a New York doorman open the door on the mendacious Washington lair of the Lord of the Underground.” At first, I was gratified [...]

In the Year 2000: Jeff Greenfield and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

by 11/24/2006
Neighborhood: Upper West Side

On Election Night two weeks ago, I was laying on my couch whiling away the hours, aiming to stay awake until I could officially note that my homestate was instrumental in saving the State of the Union. (I made it to 3 a.m., but it wasn’t Rocky Mountain solid until the next afternoon anyway. Give [...]

Like the Tears of a Clown

by 06/22/2006
Neighborhood: Union Square

The other week I was waiting for the subway at Union Square. I was glancing around the station looking to see if the train was coming, when all of a sudden I caught the eye of a man in a clown outfit. He winked at me and started walking in my direction. I’m not usually [...]

People Tell You That You Are Losing Weight And You Don’t Care: Politics and the Mayoral Election in New Orleans

by 06/01/2006
Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad

This past Saturday’s election was as colorful as the primary–Just with fewer candidates. Scholars will probably dissect Mitch Landrieu’s loss for the next several months by analyzing black versus white voting patterns and the numbers from each precinct along with the fact that it was a beautiful day for a stroll to the polls and [...]

Biographer’s Lunch

by Thomas Beller 05/31/2006
Neighborhood: Midtown

Patricia Bosworth, the author of biographies of Montgomery Clift and Diane Arbus and who has been at work on a biography of her father, Bartley Crumb, for the last 10 years, recently had the idea that it might be nice if a group of biographers could gather now and then and commiserate, perhaps over lunch [...]

The Truth Hurts: Fiction, Memoir, and Publishing Today

by Thomas Beller 05/12/2006
Neighborhood: Financial District

At the height of the scandal over the inventions in James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” I was thinking about “Westchester Burning” by Amina Wefali. “A Million Little Pieces” is about a man and his addiction. “Westchester Burning” is about a woman and her marriage. Any resemblance between these two very different books is limited [...]

Whose Afraid of Johnny Depp?

by Thomas Beller 05/09/2006
Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad, West Village

Johnny Depp slips me a twenty when we shake hands. Do that again, I say. “It’s preparation, it’s all preparation,” he explains, and we shake hands again, more of a brush of fingers really, the sort of discrete low key maneuver any drug dealer in the park would be proud of. A twenty dollar bill [...]

Calling Mr. Spinoza

by 04/06/2006
Neighborhood: Midtown

I was walking to the office even though it was Saturday—this was years ago when I was gainfully employed and hadn’t the time I do now to dredge up incidents from the past and turn them this way and that—when I noticed a woman walking towards me, pushing a baby in a stroller and holding [...]

I know it sounds kind of cliché…

by 03/16/2006
Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad

So I fell in love with this girl named Kate. And all that remains is this sordid little correspondence that I have left from the beginning our affair. I wish it included all the walks we took on the snowy streets of Detroit or the hours we spent laying in bed daydreaming about tomorrow. But [...]

Tuesday with Maury

by 03/02/2006
Neighborhood: Midtown

The old lady thrust her flabby arms toward me and yelled, “She’s a man!” I fixated on the waddle of skin beneath her chin. With her arms flapping and her waddle shaking, she looked like a turkey. “You’re sure Raven is a man?” Maury Povich cheerfully asked. I awaited gender judgment, posing in my seven-inch, [...]