Gay Pride note

While watching media reports about New York City's Gay Pride March yesterday, I was intrigued by the similarity of comments by observers. The local news media interviewed lots of people who watched the march from the sidelines, and a common theme ran through the remarks.

Over and over, I heard people say that they were straight but attended the march every year because "it's so positive" and "I love the diversity". More than one mentioned that it was a joy to "see people so comfortable in their own skin". "It's uplifting," others said as the smiles on their faces told the story.

Haters often think of "gay" as meaning white gay men. For those people, the biggest jolt on seeing a gay pride march is that we come in all colors, sexes and shapes. Gay is not white, it's human. And for this reason, gay pride marches are a sea of diversity.

A positive experience for all -- that's what defines a gay pride march. As an oldster, I don't attend any more. But I went to the march regularly when I was in my 20s and 30s. Wouldn't miss it for the world. It's a wonderful event and I'm gratified that pride marches have gone global.

Our time is now.

Ultra-Orthodox pigs

Did you think oppression belonged solely to the Roman Catholic church and Muslims? Not so. Orthodox Jews in NY have their own oppressors. In fact, they are their own oppressors. Read all about it and be disgusted. Ugh.

These are the people who gave a young girl to the pedophile Nechemya Wasserman, who was sentenced to 103 years in prison for what he did to the child. Orthodox "modesty patrols" handed her over to this pedophile for her own "good". And then he raped her for years. Disgusting!

Someone needs to go through Brooklyn and rip down the suffocating rules these pigs post on trees. And the police need to prosecute them for threatening store owners who show "revealing" mannequins. This is the Jewish mafia and it should be treated as such. Every one of these oppressors belongs in jail.

Death porn

A lot was made recently about a NYC newspaper that printed a photo of a man who was about to be killed by a subway train. Yes, it was disgusting. But they do this all the time.

Yesterday, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a dump truck as he tried to cross the street. Local TV stations played endless loops of video of the boy buying a soda and something to eat at a deli -- seconds before he walked into the street and was killed. The video also showed him fixing his jacket and schoolbag on the sidewalk outside the store after his purchase, and stepping toward his death.

This is not okay. It's death porn and it's disgusting that the news people show this sort of thing. Yes, report on the boy's death. But don't try to titillate the viewers -- not when you're talking about a death, and especially when it's a child. I'm not even sure the parents should see that video, never mind random viewers.

I called the media vampires the other day. But it's worse than that. They're ghouls, eating the dead before our eyes. It's utterly disgusting. And if this happens in our country on a regular basis -- which it does -- then we are disgusting. Welcome to the United States of 2012.

Subway question for New Yorkers

Another person was killed yesterday on NYC's subway tracks. He was pushed and then was run over by a train. It was a tragic event, and one seen all too often on the subways.

But every time this happens, I wonder about something. We (NY'ers) have all stood on subway platforms, waiting endlessly for trains. In those off-moments, when you look across the tracks to the platform on the other side, you see a space under the platform. Looks fairly roomy, too.

So why can't someone who is on the tracks and sees a train coming, scoot into the relative shelter of the space under the platform? It seems to me that would keep a person safe. No? It's been a while since I was on a subway platform. What do you think? Is this possible?

The phrase "cry poor mouth"

I never heard this phrase before this morning. I encountered it on a CNN Money page. Here's how it was used:

Family courts are rife with tales where men with off-the-books jobs cry poor mouth to the judge, only to drive away in a Mercedes. 

I looked it up and found this page, where among the responses, someone from NYC said they heard this all the time, and yet another city resident said they'd never heard it. Well, I'm a phrase freak and I've lived my whole life in NY, mostly in NYC -- and I've never heard this phrase before.

To cry poor mouth is defined in various web dictionaries as meaning "to complain, especially habitually, about a lack of money". Some sites add the notion that one cries poor mouth while secretly having not only money, but quite a bit of it.

Are you familiar with this phrase?

Happy Halloween!

It's the national gay holiday of Halloween! Hooray! Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy put the kibosh on one of the finest American Halloween traditions -- the West Village Halloween Parade. Yesterday, the word was that it was canceled. However, a ray of hope appeared today. Here's Mikey Bloomberg at NY1:

"Unfortunately, we just cannot spare the manpower from the NYPD and other city agencies to host the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, so we are postponing it to a later date sometime next week," the mayor said. "We'll work tomorrow and figure out what date makes sense given the resources the city has."

I'm reassured. Some people spend the entire year making their costumes. That's why there are such brilliant costumes, year after year. So the idea of canceling the parade is unthinkable.

When the parade is rescheduled, it will give New Yorkers something to cheer about. Dare I say it will bring a sense of normalcy back to the city? Yes, I dare. Anyway, it's great to hear that it will be rescheduled. And hey, the NYC Marathon is still scheduled for Sunday. We're comin' back, people. Nothing can stop New Yorkers.

A good knish

Knishes and more. Much more.

I remember when there were knish wagons everywhere on the streets of NYC. This was back in the days when reality was in black and white. Perhaps there still are knish wagons on every corner. I don't know since I live in the woods these days.

I always wanted a knish. From the first day I saw one, I wanted it. You'd think this would work out for me, but it didn't. I'd buy one and hate it. Couldn't even eat it; threw it away. But this encounter didn't diminish my urge to eat knishes. So I bought them again and again -- but it always ended the same way. It seems I don't like knishes.

Even at Ratner's, the Jewish restaurant on 2nd Avenue, I didn't like the knishes. (Frankly, everything at Ratner's was a little too clean and pure for me. I like grease with my breakfast, thank you.) But still, my knish situation didn't change. I wanted one.

I would kill for a good knish this morning.

Bloomberg's sudden change of heart

Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of Money

The Mayor of Money, Michael Bloomberg, actually did something constructive this week. This article may explain why. I've said it here before: Bloomberg has been a monster toward young people of color.

Here's an excerpt from another article that explains the problem:

Just over 50,000 people were arrested on marijuana possession charges last year, a vast majority of them members of minorities and male. Critics say that as part of the Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy, officers routinely tell suspects to empty their pockets and then, if marijuana is displayed, arrest them for having the drugs in public view, thereby pushing thousands of people toward criminality and into criminal justice system.

Bloomberg duped young people of color so he could arrest them. That's the simple, verifiable truth. He sees New York City as a place for rich people and only rich people. And you know what color rich people are. So he gets his police to yank the people of color off the streets and thinks this makes the city more welcoming for rich, white people. It's that stark.

The "good news" is that he's finally directed the police commissioner to have officers, you know, follow the law. They can no longer trick young people of color into showing the (decriminalized small amount of) marijuana, and then arrest them for following an order. This has been going on for years. I hope a class action brings tons of money to the young people whose lives were derailed by this white man's "justice".

Memories of days gone by: old subway cars

An ancient NYC subway car.

This photo from the New York Transit Museum shows a subway car from the early 1950s. I remember the yellow rattan seats in these cars.

When the weave broke apart, which it did constantly, the seat became a weapon. You can see the blemishes on the seats in this photo -- but you can't feel them. Each contained sharp bits of extremely hard rattan that stuck up and cut right through your clothes. Seriously, you'd ruin your clothes every time you sat down. It was a ton of fun.

And it was unbearably hot in the cars during the summer months. There was no such thing as A/C in the old days, at least not on subways. To cap it all off, the old cars moved very slowly, making each ride seem like an eternity.

Another fabulous memory from the past. Anyone else remember these seats or perhaps another indignity we were forced to put up with in the "good old days"?

The iPhone sketcher's subway series

Molinsky sketch.

If you haven't visited the iPhone Sketchbook Drawings blog, give it a click. The blogger is Eric Molinsky and the site showcases his drawings of people he encounters in the NYC subway system.

He does the drawings with one finger on his iPhone, using Sketchbook Express, the same program my cousin Carmine used to draw the popey guy.

Molinsky's drawings are simple yet each one seems to capture a living person. The image on the left is one of his subway portraits. Doesn't she seem like a real person? You almost feel you know things about her, and this happens with all his sketches. What a talented guy.