The Tour

Halfway through, I crossed the street and went into the first bodega. The second one, there were some guys on the stoop in front and it was unclear if that was a business or a money laundering operation. A bodega on Staten Island, near the salt warehouse, is a lot like a grocery store in […]

Annotated Bibliography

“The party was ‘a failure… The problem was that nearly everyone got dead drunk immediately, and vomited, or cried, or slept most of the night.’ [Beauvoir] was surprised when, several days later, everyone said ‘how nice it was.’” — Simone de Beauvoir, Deidre Bair Simone de Beauvoir is my current object of admiration. There are […]

Block

Writer’s block is not real. When people say they have writer’s block, what I think they mean is that they are unwilling to write a lot of stupid crap. Or that they have suffered a stroke, and can no longer think or communicate in words. One of those two things. I was in New York […]

New York’s Most Beautiful People, August 2012 Edition

1. Man working snack bar in Staten Island Ferry waiting area, after handing me $16 in ones, says, “Sorry about that.” He looks me over. “Hey, now you can go to a topless bar! That’s what you’ve been waiting all your life for, right?” 2. Walking through Times Square, I am telling my companion that current […]