New York
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 […]
The Collector
I see Larry most every day, if the weather’s OK, and I walk my normal route. For years I only knew him as the short squat man in faded t-shirt and suspenders walking a small brown dog down Bedford. Once, I was summoned: Excuse me! in a gravelly New York whine. Could you pick that […]
At Home He Feels Like a Tourist
We pass each other with open books. Me, because I know these streets all too well. She, because she doesn’t, not at all.
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 […]
I Needed to Exchange a Belt
If in a court of law I’m asked why I was in that neighborhood at that time on that day, I’ll stick with the belt-exchanging story. There’s truth to it, so it won’t set off the polygraph. But really, I was hoping against hope to get a glimpse of Anna. Now, I know, I know: […]
A Bedford St. Anecdote
I’d say that the holiday season has brought more tourists to Bedford Street, but the truth is, there are always tourists on Bedford. They come from near and far to photograph the building which was apparently used as the apartment exterior on TV’s Friends. (I have zero sentimental attachment to the locale, as I almost […]
Out of Time
My watch stopped Saturday at 9:30 a.m. I know this because, well, that’s when my watch stopped. I panicked a bit. This wasn’t a repair I could do by myself. I own a Swiss Military-brand watch, and not even a Swiss Army knife could pry open the back. And I haven’t had a lot of […]
Jack Silbert, curator