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The Sigmund Freud of Barnes Avenue

by 11/11/2023
Neighborhood: Bronx, Featured, Washington Heights

I first met Ari Horwitz in front of a pizzeria near the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal in 1978. I wasn’t in the habit of talking to people I didn’t know, but Ari was about my age, mid-20s, and we seemed to have an immediate psychic connection. Ari, it turned out, lived with a roommate […]

Deal or No Deal

by 09/14/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

This is Part 3 of a three part story by Nina Camp. Read Part 1 and Part 2. The locksmith was a lean, twenty-something guy. He arrived on time and stood quietly outside our apartment door after I buzzed him into the building. Soft-spoken, with kind eyes, he brought a moment of problem-solving stability into […]

What a Hug from Phil Rosenthal Can and Cannot Do

by 09/11/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

This is Part 2 of a three part story by Nina Camp. Part 3 will appear on Thursday. Click here to read Part 1. I went into the theater, threw my coat across two seats to save them, went back out to the lobby and called Alex again. He was about to walk into his […]

The Happiest Guy on Netflix

by 09/09/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

This is is Part I of a three part story by Nina Camp. Part II will run on Tuesday and Part III will appear on Thursday. The aim was to repair our wounded relationship. Nothing overcomplicated, our plan had just three elements. The first involved a man we’d come to think of as The Happiest […]

Going Up

by 08/18/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

I’m headed to the elevator, working at my volunteer job in Lenox Hill Hospital, carrying patients’ EKG printouts, which I am supposed to distribute to various wards. Getting on at the basement level, I press the button for the 8th floor—the psych ward, which had been my temporary place of residence until I was discharged […]

Connie

by 07/22/2023
Neighborhood: East Harlem

Bored on a pre-pandemic Sunday, I scan through Facebook’s dating app to see who liked my profile, and finally, someone interesting! Connie is heavily tattooed and only has three pictures (just one includes his face). Aside from a giant Yankees logo and “CONNIE” emblazoned on his abdomen, I can’t see many tattoo details and his […]

Hanging out in Tribeca in the 1970s

by 07/15/2023
Neighborhood: Brighton Beach, Tribeca

If you want to call me a cool kid, please do. You see, back in 1975 when I was seven years old ,  I visited Tribeca for the first time…with my mom and dad. We didn’t go to the Mudd Club or Artists Space or anything like that; instead we went to a factory just south […]

The Candy Box

by 06/24/2023
Neighborhood: Bowery, West Village

The bathroom was small, at first glance appearing to be a large closet that opened off the kitchen. A beautiful nautilus shell, almost a foot long with a pale-pink pearlescent chamber, had been placed in the bathtub. The tub itself was deep and old-fashioned, made of heavy porcelain; the wall behind it was protected with […]

Ralph Lauren’s Cheap Black Book

by 06/09/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

It felt glorious to look at Edward standing on the corner of Madison, knowing this would be the last time I’d have to look at him for a week. As he hugged me, the steam rising from the gutters around us seemed neither tawdry nor romantic, but ordinary.  “I have a gift for you honey,” […]

Tenements and Tribulations

by 05/14/2023
Neighborhood: Greenwich Village

We moved to Greenwich Village in the mid-1980s, and at every landing of our fifth-floor tenement walk up there was a nose-full of tantalizing smells. This was in the very Italian section of the West Village, full of tenements that we called “V.I.V’s” or “Vertical Italian Villages.” The older folks, who sat out in front, chatting […]

Do You Have My Socks?

by 04/15/2023
Neighborhood: Upper East Side

I almost exclusively wear black no-show socks — mostly because I wear booties all winter or sneakers, neither of which warrant the obtrusive show of a sock. As such, I have ten pairs of basic black ones from Walmart, another four pairs of slightly different black ones from Duane Reade and one pair – my […]

Do You Have My Pants?

by 04/08/2023
Neighborhood: Upper West Side

Every now and then, someone in my apartment building posts a sign on the bulletin board next to the lobby elevators—often about something that was lost, or possibly taken by mistake, from either the laundry room or the lobby. Usually these notes are simple, straight-forward requests. A typical sign might read: “Lost in laundry room—pair […]