Incident on Broadway Last Friday—March,bright sun, cold wind—I was on Broadway, hobbling,headed for the next block. At 109th, at the light,two men just ahead, waiting:one speaking,one being spoken at. The speaker—young, loud,a dog on a loose leash,muscular, steady— kept returning to it: Why am I an anti-Semitejust because I’m against Israelkilling people? Again: Why am … Read more
The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune, by Alexander Stille This is a very readable book, and what follows isn’t so much a review as a reflection prompted by it. The sordid shocking story it tells – of the Sullivanian therapy cult that operated in Manhattan from the 1950s until … Read more
Biographical details about Barbara Shermund’s life are sparse, but Caitlin McGurk makes the most of what little is known. Her book Tell me A story Where the Bad Girl Wins: the Life and Art of Barbara Shermund includes a lavish selection of Shermund’s cartoons and artwork, reproduced in generous, glorious abundance. Shermund drew some cracking … Read more
I like to follow a trail. This one began with a doorway and took me to Paris décollage, Zohran Mamdani, cupcakes, dumplings, and taxis via 1920 fashion with a few odd detours along the way. It started with a photo of an empty storefront I’d taken for no particular reason: 2814 Broadway, August 2025 on … Read more
I’ve been reading Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund It’s a biography and art collection by Caitlin McGurk celebrating the pioneering cartoonist Barbara Shermund who drew for The New Yorker and Esquire. More on that anon. Here’s a seasonal cartoon from Barbara Shermund from 1958 … Read more
This magnificent red door is Engine Company No.47’s firehouse on West 113th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway in Manhattan. It’s often a sight on the daily neighborhood stroll. The following is from the Landmarks Preservation Commission Report June 17, 1997, “Building Description Engine Company No. 47 is a 25-foot wide, three-story brick and brownstone structure, … Read more
Pedantry, Politics, and the Park Ranger Activists persist in plastering all available neighborhood surfaces with their messages. Here’s a small selection: The Red-tailed Hawks and Raccoons of New York Big excitement with the report that red tailed hawks are nesting on Riverside Drive and a new message from the Park Rangers Bumper stickers tell a … Read more
If you are in New York City and looking for a outing here’s a suggestion: Wave Hill Garden in the Bronx. We were there on a bright morning this week and it was glorious. It really is one of the world’s great outdoor works of art with 28 acres of gardens, and woodlands. And with … Read more
On a daily neighborhood soodle a while back I saw this single golden sandal on a stoop on W112th Street. I wondered about the backstory. Was it lost or abandoned and was it missed? And I took a photograph. Sue did the same. Sometime later that child’s shoe was transformed. You can check out Sue’s … Read more
Summer in the City Hot town, summer in the city Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty Been down, isn’t it a pity? Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city All around, people looking half dead Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head … Read more
Stickybeak NOUN: an intrusive, meddlesome, busybody, nosy parker who sticks their nose (beak) into other people’s business. The act of stickybeaking. VERB: to snoop or pry into other’s people’s business. This was a delightful new word for me this week although it’s clearly common currency in Australia and New Zealand. I came across it first … Read more
As we know the tRump misadministration has – for reasons of its own – declared New York City to be a jurisdiction of anarchy, violence and property destruction. This is Part Two. Part One is here. The Justice Department declared New York City A place of Anarchy, violence and Property losses. Live from New York … Read more
The US Department of ‘Justice’ declared this week that New York City — along with Portland and Seattle — to be a “jurisdiction permitting violence and destruction property.” Allegedly our state and local government are permitting anarchy, violence, and destruction So of course I had to take a look. So far, this is what I … Read more
In 1975 the poet Allen Ginsberg was in hospital. At a later poetry reading he explained the causes in an introduction to a poem that he had written from his hospital bed.: I got real angry and wound up sick in a hospital, for various karmic reasons, and woke up looking out the window, and … Read more
