Archive for November, 2008
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
THE TRAINJOTTING READER: Netherland
Today’s installment of The Trainjotting Reader looks at Netherland, a novel by the New York-based Irishman Joseph O’Neill. It’s about a Dutch guy named Hans who finds that revisiting his former pastime of cricket helps him deal with anxieties stemming from 9/11 and the dissolution of his marriage. In this bit he hops an Amtrak heading […]
No Comments » - Posted in Hudson Line, Trainjotting Reader by TJ
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
‘Bad Girls’ to Hand Out MetroCards
No one’s too happy about either the shitty economy or the MTA preparing to raise fares and slash service. But a gaggle of do-gooding young ladies are here to help.
Yes, the stars of Bad Girls Club on Oxygen–a reality show about seven attractive girls, several of them named Amber, who do bad things to each […]
No Comments » - Posted in Metrocard by TJ
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Straphanger Joe Gets Nostalgic For ‘Julio and ‘Marisol’
An Inconvenient Ad
It’s Friday afternoon and I’m heading home late from work. The train is quiet at 5:35, only half filled. I’m standing even though there are two center seats available. Sometimes I just don’t feel like being sandwich filling.
I spot a poster across from me, where the maps sometimes are. There’s a picture […]
No Comments » - Posted in Straphanger Joe by TJ
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Thanks to Service Cuts, Lionel’s Subway Replica Slashed From Four Cars to Three
In its first shot at creating minature NYC subway trains, Lionel has pulled off a dead-on reproduction, reports the New York Times.
[Lionel events manager Thomas C.] Nuzzo said the four cars look like the R-27 cars that went into service in 1960, down to the checkered floors inside. Outside, they match the original color — […]
No Comments » - Posted in Lionel by TJ
Monday, November 24th, 2008
An Open Letter To:
The “Man” Sprinting From the 6 to the 4 At Grand Central This Morning.
The 4 express had been at the platform for a moment, its doors open.
The 6 pulled up at 9:33 this morning. You–very white male, 40, wearing suit, glasses and cream-colored scarf–burst out of the door like shaken champagne. You’d lowered yourself into a […]
No Comments » - Posted in Grand Central, Open Letter by TJ
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Happy Thanks-For-Nothing!
I’m walking home from work, and I’m freezing cold.
Near the produce stand at the intersection of Broadway and Houston stands a gaunt urchin in a Bad Religion T-shirt and an army jacket. “Spare some money so I can get something to eat?” he asks in a tar-coated sneer.
I pass.
On Crosby Street, barely a block later, […]
No Comments » - Posted in Foot It by TJ
Friday, November 21st, 2008
Proposed Transit Cuts ‘Harsh’, ‘Severe’ and Totally Sucky
Sorry to end the work week on a bummer note, but we want to offer some different perspectives on the proposed MTA service cuts affecting subways, buses and commuter trains, which by all accounts look fairly hardcore. Mind you, we think much of the early proposals are simply political posturing to get riders worked up […]
No Comments » - Posted in Elliot Sander, LIRR, Metro North by TJ
Friday, November 21st, 2008
An Open Letter To:
The Black Mustang Parked Across From My Bike at the Train Station This Morning.
It’s impossible not to notice the giant decal on your rear window, a blue cursive admonishing all within your range to “Fear This.”
You’re an ‘86 Ford Mustang. I remember your type from high school–the wealthy kids from the Jewish part of Greenlawn […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Hummerville, Open Letter by TJ
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
I Thought You Said It Was a Virgin Train?
Apparently so inspired by the fateful El-train love scene in Risky Business, a couple was arrested on the aptly-named Virgin train from Liverpool to London last week for copulating.
The train was crowded as the woman allegedly did some sort of sex-y thing with the man.
Reports the Daily Mail:
Other passengers en route from Liverpool to London appear […]
No Comments » - Posted in Train Sex by TJ
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Get Your Whore Off My Thawn
One thing the Missus noticed after we’d left the city for the leafy expanse of the ‘burbs two years ago was that everyone around us had actual New York accents–something she’d rarely encountered after a decade in Manhattan, where the guy in the apartment next to you was as likely to be from Copenhagen as […]