You are currently viewing the stories for January, 2006
Mr. O’Brien’s Legacy
by Kitty Derbin 01/26/2006Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
I learned a lot from my grandpa, John Francis O’Brien, a native of Cork city (Ireland) and an immigrant to America. He used to always say that he was closest to God when he was connected to nature. Grandpa was quite an unusual character in our working class neighborhood on Detroit’s West Side, just a […]
Adriani For Mayor
by Johnny Adriani 01/26/2006Neighborhood: All Over, Letter From Abroad
Today I had perhaps the most unique experience that I have ever had in my lifetime. I began walking the streets of New Orleans and speaking to people on a one on one basis. This may seem odd to you, and perhaps it is, but I canvassed New Orleans today not as a citizen but […]
The Unsung Hero: A Ford Motor Company Story
by Eric C. Novack 01/26/2006Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
The headline on the Detroit Free Press was bold. But it was just another clever way of stating the obvious. Ford Motor Company was going to announce “The Way Forward,” actually a way to cut back. Ron Novack sat at his kitchen table and skimmed the story about the plant closures and layoffs that would […]
Craigslist Love
by erika 01/19/2006Neighborhood: Chelsea
After my boyfriend and I broke up, I was lonely so I put an ad on Craigslist. What is it about a man that makes him think sending a picture of his private parts is going to turn a woman on? A little mystery and anticipation is a great thing. I put the ad under […]
The World of Darkness
by Jill Dearman 01/19/2006Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Heath Avenue. I recognized the building right away. Public housing always stands out from all other domiciles. It looms, and, like a tall man, commands your attention. But when you look up, expecting to see his face, you see a blank outline, no distinguishing features. No nose. No mouth. No eyes. We parked on the […]
Escape Chronicles: Moscow, Ladispoli, New York
by Katia Mossin 01/19/2006Neighborhood: Lower East Side
“If you want to tell a story – start telling it. It might come out OK. It might not. At least you tried – better than leaving it in the fridge of memory. Sooner or later, like all man-made things, fridge will stop working and all goods will rot.” –Some guy on the steps near […]
Schooling at 204 Center
by Mickey Z. 01/12/2006Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Basketball has always been my favorite sport to play. I guess that came from living in an urban environment and not always having money. If you had anywhere from 2 to 10 guys, all you needed was one ball and at least one basket. It was a little more complicated in the winter. Fortunately, a […]
Dispatch from under the Overpass
by Steven Tweddell 01/12/2006Neighborhood: Harlem
It’s weird, how often you’ll find in out-of-the-way urban areas—below an overpass, next to a river or stream, next to railroad tracks—a pair of jeans, a pair of shoes, unmatching dirty socks, filthy underwear, cast off as if these places were just other rooms, were the private dressing quarters of the damned. I’ve always wondered […]
It Followed Me Home
by Thomas R. Ziegler 01/12/2006Neighborhood: Bronx, Outer Boroughs
Oh man, he’s going to die! I live 100 feet from Interstate 95 and from my living room window have an unobstructed view of this sea of vehicles. Having lived here many years the sounds of impending trouble are familiar. So when the horns started blaring it was a cue to look out the window […]
The Lady With The Cupcake
by Thomas Beller 01/08/2006Neighborhood: West Village
I looked out the window and saw a woman come walking up the street eating a cupcake. She was blonde, in sneakers, alone. The cupcake’s icing was white. The woman’s timing was perfect— I had begun reading on the computer at dusk; by the time it ran out of power, and the screen went suddenly […]
Christmas Day in a Parallel Queens
by Emily Weinstein 01/05/2006Neighborhood: All Over, Letter From Abroad
On this warm, wet Christmas, I ambled without purpose somewhere in America. I prefer the inevitable disappointment of a sodden Christmas–the remains of an earlier December snowfall dribbling down storm drains, the exiled smokers unshivering, unbothering with jackets, exhalations elongated in the humidity, the theatrical coziness of houses all the more fake against temperatures well […]
Christmas in New Orleans
by Johnny Adriani 01/05/2006Neighborhood: Letter From Abroad
Sprouting out of the ground, just south and east of New Orleans, is Christmas. It is a bizarre sort of nativity scene which bears the fruited colors of the season: green and red. Absent are the Magi bringing frankincense, myrrh or oil. Rather, what is present, green on the outside and red upon being split […]