You are currently viewing the stories for September, 2003

Russian President Putin Stops for a Donut in Chelsea

by Thomas Beller 09/28/2003
Neighborhood: Chelsea

Vladimir Putin stopped by a gas station in Chelsea on Friday afternoon on his way to a visit with President Bush. On hand to greet him was Senator Charles Schumer. The gas station had received a make-over–new paint, new sign. It had once been a Getty, but like all the Gettys in the city it […]

My Sister’s Diary

by 09/12/2003
Neighborhood: Chelsea

I was sitting on the floor of my older sister’s East Village apartment helping her pack up her things, when I found her diary.  She was in the kitchen wrapping plates and bowls in newspaper, so I thought I’d take a break out of eyesight and read a few pages.  I went up the steel […]

Things Inside My Head

by 09/12/2003
Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Coney Island

I. It is a popular misconception that autistics can count hundreds of matches in the blink of an eye and draw fantastic pictures. In reality, few are like this and less than one percent fall into the idiot savant category. Most are mildly to severely retarded and autistic. Some are autistic and emotionally disturbed. Some […]

The Vampire Upstairs

by 09/09/2003
Neighborhood: Chelsea

Apartment-house neighbors don’t go bad suddenly, like winter avocados. You get an alarming sense of them as soon as they appear. A week after my upstairs neighbor Thad moved in, we were already engaged in a mortal vendetta. I’ve shared walls with annoying people, but this character was off the charts. His schedule was bizarre, […]

The Office in the Afternoon

by 09/08/2003
Neighborhood: Midtown

The girl arrived late on a Friday afternoon and interrupted what I was doing. She refused to take a number and said she only had to collect her airline ticket and that she didn’t have time to wait. She had to get to the airport, she said. I was busy helping somebody, I explained with […]

The Fight Over 99 Orchard Street

by 09/02/2003
Neighborhood: Lower East Side

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is located at 97 Orchard Street. From the outside, it appears to be no different than any of the other buildings on the street, save for a plaque proclaiming it to be a National Historic Landmark. On the inside, it is a different story. Through painstaking research of the […]