Posts tagged new york
Taxi Excuses. Getting a cab to take you out of Manhattan is hard. But the videos that have come out of the cabbies’ resistance to it have been AWESOME, and Jen Doll wrote up the best excuses used by hacks to avoid crossing a bridge of any kind. Some of my favorites:
- 7. Feigning sleep or illness
- 3. Physically attempting to pull you out of the car by your legs (with video!)
- 11. Yelling “NO NO NO!”
What are some of your favorite cabbie excuses?
-KH
“ Guess I learned the hard way that crabs do not discriminate but cross over all socioeconomic strata. He must have had quite the active life. What a way to put the kibosh on a relationship.”
So that’s actress Florence Henderson writing in her new memoir about the parting gift she received from a one-night stand with former NYC mayor John Lindsay. Turns out Lindsay was a friend of the Brady mom (he’s described incorrectly in one story as an “unattractive” friend, which is totally false!) and they both fell into temptation. After he found out what he gave her, he sent her flowers to apologize.
-KH
[Reuters, the20newyork, h/t @SteveKornacki]
“ Lured out to the vacant Woodside rental, Guldensuppe opened a closet door — and was shot in the head by a waiting Martin Thorn. They’d sawed off Guldensuppe’s head, bundled the legs, the midsection and chest, and then mixed up a basin full of quick-drying plaster and dropped the head in. Thorn and Mrs. Nack took the next ferry, carrying heavy-wrapped parcels. From the back of the boat, they tossed the plaster-encased head, which sank instantly. Then they threw the torso over too. But that didn’t sink. Horrified, the two scattered the other two pieces elsewhere, hoping nobody would find them. They then split up, planning to reunite in Germany, and Thorn pawned the dead man’s clothes to hide out in a $3-a-week room on 25th Street. When detectives swooped in on the room, they found Thorn’s valise filled with newspaper clippings about the case. He’d followed the sensational coverage, just like everyone else.”
The New York Post wrote about the historical murder that “plunged New York into scandal,” bringing a new style of journalism—sensationalism—into newspapers across the country. It was 1897; there was a love triangle, a murder, a headless body in the river. Basically, all stuff that would sell papers in 2011. There’s a book out now detailing the murder, as well as the “tabloid wars” that started as the daily papers—including William Randolph Hearst’s The New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World—fought to break the story.
-KH
[NYPost, NYT, h/t @maghabepolitico, the20newyork]
![“I could handle the media in NY.” That’s BYU star Jimmer Fredette expressing his enthusiasm at the idea of being drafted by the Knicks. And given that the supposedly tough New York media would probably bend over backwards for a squeaky clean player who would be happy to serve as a complimentary piece to Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, why yes, yes I do believe Jimmer could handle such mild scrutiny.
-DM
[the20newyork: @BruceBeck4NY,sportsnetny]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln7evqUYMv1qfgi90o1_500.png)
“I could handle the media in NY.” That’s BYU star Jimmer Fredette expressing his enthusiasm at the idea of being drafted by the Knicks. And given that the supposedly tough New York media would probably bend over backwards for a squeaky clean player who would be happy to serve as a complimentary piece to Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire, why yes, yes I do believe Jimmer could handle such mild scrutiny.
-DM
[the20newyork: @BruceBeck4NY,sportsnetny]
(via nbcnewyork)
Don’t Know Much About…
A national assessment quiz has found just 13 percent of high school seniors have a “solid grasp” on American history. Wow. Thirteen percent is very, very close to zero percent. The students were quizzed on many topics from American history, from the Revolutionary War to current civics topics. One example of student failure: only 44 percent of students could provide an important result of the U.S building canals in the 1800s (the answer, of course, is it increased trade between the states, but you already knew that.) Of all the quizzes given by the National Assessment Governing Board, students fared the worst in history. Experts say an increased focus on basic skills (reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic) has decreased the importance of history in the curriculum. I’ll argue that a lack of proficiency in the topic isn’t new. Have you ever seen the contestants on Millionaire?
-KH
[the20newyork, AP, h/t @TuCapCon]
“ Suddenly there’s a sense of—what the hell is that?—optimism in the air, along with the pollen of a million blooming plants and trees, people walking around in various stages of undress, their pasty legs and arms exposed to the sun and heat, churning up all the smells ever generated in a three-block radius, good and bad and impossibly disgusting, in one deep breath. Life!”
-DM
[Jen Doll]
“ We started to look at traditional caterers and the costs were just crazy,” said Ms. Yee, who got married last month in the Green Building in Carroll Gardens. For a third of the price she hired three food trucks instead.”
-DM
[Jen Doll, WSJ]
“ Residents of the state of New York use Twitter some thirty percent more than the national average, and New York City, for per capita use, is considered the Twitter capital of the world.”
That’s from an op-ed in the New York Times dissecting Congressman Anthony Weiner’s prolific—and damaging—use of Twitter. Weiner is one of the most popular politicians on Twitter, based off of his following; he seemed to understand the casual nature of the site and mixed jokes with serious news subjects. He played well to his audience, but he still did not seem to grasp the notion that the public page was very public. And not even a hashtag could save him from his social media nightmare.
-KH
[NYT, the20newyork]
“ If he wants to run, great. He’s got time to run, but he’s got to move into the city…He’s not a city resident.”
That’s Mike Bloomberg talking about Alec Baldwin’s possible mayoral run in New York City. NBC New York wrote earlier this week about Baldwin’s Suffolk County voter registration, which he would have to change if he wants to, you know, be mayor of the city. Baldwin has an apartment on Central Park West, but lists his Amagansett mansion as his primary residence. And does this sound like an endorsement from Bloomberg?
-KH
