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Maybe he did, or maybe he didn’t, but whether it’s legend or fact, the story goes that young George Washington chopped down a cherry tree. But in Brooklyn, after journeying to America from Bari, Italy, my immigrant grandfather—aka Poppa—simply slept under his. His Eden was a small backyard wedged between two other homes on Seventeenth Street between 9th and 10th [...]
It was the Saturday night before Easter Sunday. I was restless. At around 10 PM, I left my storefront darkroom in Sunset Park and walked across 39th Street to Vinnie’s candy store for an egg cream. After my drink I wanted a slice of pizza, so I walked up Fifth Avenue to ZaZa’s. At the front of the pizzeria, ZaZa’s [...]
In the fall of 1984, three months after turning 21, I started working at the midtown coffee shop, Miss Brooks, that was located on the corner of 56th Street and 6th Avenue. As with most New York City restaurant jobs, many of my co-workers were there only temporarily as they prepared for other careers. While I wanted to be a [...]
This excerpt from John O'Connor's new book, A Short, Strange Trip: An Untold Story of Magic Mushrooms, Madness, and a Search for the Meaning of Life in the Amazon (pub date April 14, 2026), explores the peripatetic ways of both the author and his subject, the late American mystic and "psychonaut," Terence Mckenna (1946-2000). McKenna, a countercultural figure in the 1970s who [...]
