Archive for August, 2007
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Clyde Haberman Has to Pick His Battles a Little More Selectively
NY Times columnist Clyde Haberman used his space yesterday to comment on rudeness in the subways, and in particular, “the lost art of folding the paper to fit available space” between riders. (That sort of sounds like something a guy named ‘Clyde Haberman’ might complain about, doesn’t it?)
Haberman uses the debut of the narrow Times […]
No Comments » - Posted in Clyde Haberman by TJ
Tuesday, August 14th, 2007
United Nations on the N
Funny scene on the downtown N train around 4 today. A rather fey British or Irish tourist–thin, cut-off shorts, flip-flops–asks a fellow rider, a black woman in her 20s, about where to catch the L train. She tells him she thinks it’s 14th, but she’s not sure.
“You should double-check that with someone who knows for […]
No Comments » - Posted in Subway by TJ
Monday, August 13th, 2007
Russian to Catch Metro-North
Some 150 pages in, I really like The Russian Debutante’s Handbook for a number of reasons, such as the immigrant Russian Vladimir’s gimlet-eyed take on America, his descriptions of Challah, his zaftig dominatrix girlfriend, and Gary Shteyngart’s author photo, a hobbit man-boy seated on a curb with a baby bear on a leash.
I also like […]
No Comments » - Posted in Gary Shteyngart, Scarsdale by TJ
Monday, August 13th, 2007
Straphanger Joe Wishes He Took the Magic Bus
Who Concert
Thursday morning, the day after the Brooklyn tornado, I walked to the Roosevelt station, working up a sweat in the 15 minutes it takes me to get there. Into the station, past the newspaper vendors and the vendors giving away the freebies that I always pass up, and down into the heat of the […]
No Comments » - Posted in Straphanger Joe by TJ
Friday, August 10th, 2007
What the Kids Are Googling
Some of the more unique searches that brought visitors to Trainjotting this week:
papa smurf jokes
Catwalks Cheerleaders
Ed Koch + Billy Joel [Editor’s Note: I knew it!]
funny zoo mishaps
Badass Ho
New Roc City Riot news
gangsta word of the week
Grand Central station tunnels flooding
lirr, ripped pants on seats
living on the edge of danger
tartan yoga
nice rack
david bowie 5:15
jet black drag […]
No Comments » - Posted in Word of the Week by TJ
Friday, August 10th, 2007
Duke’s and Duane Reade Owe Me a New Blackberry
I knew this day was gonna come. The Blackberry–the magic talisman through which I’m able to sit through a 45-minute (or 90-minute, should it rain a little) train ride, shat the bed last night.
It’d been a late night at work. Work paid for dinner. We got BBQ from Duke’s. The pulled pork was divine.
It was […]
No Comments » - Posted in Blackberry by TJ
Friday, August 10th, 2007
Dumb, Dumber, Dumberer, and Their Three Friends
The 8:22 to Mt. Kisco. It’s been a long day, feeling even longer after the flood debacle the previous day. People are tired.
Not so tired is a nattering six-pack of 14-year-old girls returning home after a day in the city, chatting about music, mom’s Larchmont train pass, and boys–particularly one young male who’d recently confessed […]
No Comments » - Posted in Harlem, White Plains by TJ
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
The Day After
The NY Times has ample coverage of yesterday’s crippling storm. One rich nugget came from “two sweating women…at dueling distance” in a Times Square subway station.
“Say that to my face! Say that to my face!” yelled one. “I’ll knock your fat teeth into your fat mouth!”
The other woman, red faced, hurled back a familiar malediction.
I’ve […]
No Comments » - Posted in Storm by TJ
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Seeing ‘Red’
Funny little tidbit that almost got lost in the flood yesterday. As I stepped onto the platform for the 8:16, little idea what commuting confusion awaited me, I spied Little Red Running Late.
Little Red Running Late (LRRL) is a nice red-haired lady at my station. She’s always running late with a giant rollie suitcase in […]
No Comments » - Posted in Little Red Running Late by TJ
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
The Great Rain Robbery
Far as we could tell, it wasn’t quite a Nor’easter. It wasn’t exactly a snowstorm, and you wouldn’t really call it a steam pipe exploding next to Grand Central.
So what the hell caused colossal malfunctions on Metro-North and the subways this morning?
The bike ride to the train was completely uneventful; a few puddles to avoid, […]