You are currently viewing the stories for November, 2005
Off Track Betting
by Bruna Mori 11/17/2005Neighborhood: Jamaica, Queens
Off Track Betting could be a Greyhound Bus Station at 4 am or a bar where I learned to play spoons. It could be a retiree’s living room. One, someone calls him Bobby, who possesses comfortable gems on his finger and windbreaker. I watch him scribble “faster” at the top of each race, not for […]
Don’t Wanna Go Uneasy
by Karen Miller 11/17/2005Neighborhood: Midtown
So we thought a movie, and he says “you pick one.” I look into it and suggest either that one about the Rwandan genocide or “Raging Bull” in a new print at the Ziegfeld. “Remember,” I ask him, “remember how at some point they started issuing tickets for actual seats at the Ziegfeld, with seat […]
Marv Albert and The Stoop to Nowhere
by Thomas Beller 11/17/2005Neighborhood: Midtown
Photo by Ricky Powell In the midst of the most un-ironic activity in the world–sports–Marv Albert is a burst of jazzy, sardonic, droll Brooklynese. Marv is all about cadence and inflection; his initial notoriety was based on the pronunciation of a single word–"Yes!"–drawn out and shaped like a piece of taffy. For 24 years he […]
The Jewel in the Crown
by Marvin V. Arnett 11/16/2005Neighborhood: Uncategorized
[The following was originally published in “Piece From Life’s Crazy Quilt,” a collection of personal essays about growing up in Detroit in the 1920’s, 30s, and 40s by Marvin V. Arnett. The collection first appeared in 2000, as part of the University of Nebraska Press’s “American Lives” series (Series Editor: Tobias Wolff), and the University […]
Seeing Socrates
by Zack Pelta-Heller 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Wanting to see the new exhibits at Socrates Sculpture Park, I walked down Broadway from my Astoria apartment. I passed beneath the elevated subway station as an N or W train thundered through. Down past grungy supermarkets and massive discount stores, with their outdoor displays of toilet paper, sandals, fake Persian rugs, and baskets of […]
Antihistamines
by June Coleman Magrab 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Williamsburg
They say she’s holed up like a squirrel, nuts to last the winter, glimpses of green bath- robe when she shuffles down the hill to her mailbox to collect more rejection. People start laying bets, perhaps she has a corpse hidden like, what’s her name, was it Emily? Maybe she’s taken a bad spell, some […]
Getting More Than My Teeth Cleaned
by Hal Sirowitz 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Outer Boroughs, Queens
I took my second grade special education class to my dentist as part of my career education unit. While they were learning about dentistry, I’d also get my teeth cleaned. It seemed too good to be true: taking care of my teeth on school time. I recruited two speech teachers to come along. They were […]
The Blind Photographing the Blind
by Amy Shearn 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Brooklyn, Dumbo
We had arrived a little late to the Soapbox Car Derby, and the races were already in progress. Hot Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, occasional wafts of East-River-in-July. First concern, identifying the car of our friend. (It was, without any bias, certainly the best-looking of the cars: a sleek wheeled coffin with a little cockpit for […]
The Midtown Report: Waiting For Todd and Buffy
by J. Paul Ghetto 11/10/2005Neighborhood: Uncategorized
I live and work in midtown Detroit in the area known as the “New Center.” This area is in the midst of a new housing boom. Lofts and condominiums are springing up as fast as the land can be acquired. The area is recapturing the grandeur of the 60’s and 70’s, when it was the […]
My Current Favorite School
by Emily Baierl 11/03/2005Neighborhood: Morningside Heights
I hate high school. I hate the food and the bathroom doors don’t shut. I hate the flickering fluorescent lights and it’s always cold. Most of all, though, I hate the people who claim high school is the best time of your life. Since freshman year, I’ve been looking at colleges. Instead of going to […]
Pink Eye
by Iris Smyles 11/03/2005Neighborhood: Greenwich Village
My love life is typical in most respects. My relationships all have a beginning middle and end. With me it just happens that this all takes place in the span of a week. I don’t like to waste time. Day 1: My last affair began on a dark and stormy night. It was a Wednesday […]
Monkey Bars For a Jail
by Hal Sirowitz 11/03/2005Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Whenever I took my second grade special education class to the playground, they’d make a mad dash for the swings. Though, the winners would seldom swing. They would spin in circles by twisting the chains. I’d warn them about becoming dizzy, but dizziness gave them an excuse after their turn was over to stumble into […]