public transportation
Could You Make It Out to Jack?
“[Random public figure] replied to my Tweet!” gushed an otherwise austere friend. Socioeconomic levels be damned—there’s a bit of starf*cker in us all. These days, the methods of choice seem to be: • the aforementioned realm of social media, and • if we actually encounter a celebrity in person, a photo—due to the fact that […]
September Remembered
I don’t get into work real early. I used to, in the early ’90s I guess, but it wasn’t really in my true nature. Anyway, that’s why I wasn’t yet in Manhattan when the towers were struck on September 11, 2001. I was all ready to go in. Showered, shaved. In the mornings I listen […]
After-Hours Book Club
Quarter to two Wednesday night Wait half done for the next train home. Eyes that have seen enough today scan a ragged paperback open on my lap. Is that a good book? asks the girl next to me on the aluminum bench underground. It is, I say, closing it shut. I turn toward her: This […]
The Lonely Get Lonelier
It’s Valentine’s Day, so obviously my thoughts turn to the physical-fitness industry and the encroachment of technology on human interactions. Oh yeah, and also about solitude. There was a recent New York Times article about fitness—no, not the one about how lonely rats’ brains don’t work as well after exercise as real sociable rats’ brains […]
His Name Is Earl
This wasn’t my preferred train car, but it gave me extra time to work on my material. For there at the end of the platform was the fluorescent-vest-wearing, long-blond-hair-under-a-hat Fist Bump Guy. Most days when I get off the train at Christopher Street, he’s standing there. He is employed by the transit authority though I […]
Emails Found on my Old Computer, Episode #2
11/30/01 2:33 a.m. SUBJECT: holy fucking shit you can pick up women at [local bar] the Far Side? i can pick up women at the PATH station! i went to “Max Fish” on Ludlow to celebrate the birthday of [freelancer] Jill, who botched a story for me and she’s so hot that i don’t care. […]
Saturday Night Burger Buddy
“Excuse me, now, I don’t mean this to be something weird….” Oh boy, here it comes, something weird. He wants money. He must want money. 3:30 a.m. on the PATH train. It had been a long Saturday night, what with the college-radio friend’s art opening and the record-store friend’s friend’s band’s gig and the art […]
Exclusively for Baseball Fans of a Certain Age
Every day I ride the PATH train. Recently, we’ve been encouraged to begin using the new SmartLink card, which you simply tap at the turnstile to go through. Hey, I’m an early adopter, so I got the card. And now they’re encouraging us to register our cards online. This allows you to automatically refill your […]
Curse You, Patrick Moberg
I was intrigued by the tale of Patrick Moberg. He was the wonderboy who created a website a few months back to find the “girl of his dreams” who he’d spotted on the New York subway. And, by gum, he found her! The Internet was all a-buzz—as it is wont to do—and the happy couple […]
Jack Silbert, curator