Archive for January, 2009
Coming Through!
Posted by: | CommentsA friend visiting from London recently asked whether I preferred the Subway or the Tube. I did not have to think for very long to reply. Yes, Subway stations are dirty, draughty and, in summer, deeply unpleasant. But I would take the New York Subway over the Tube every day for the simple reason that its trains are ten times the size of the Tube’s, are air conditioned and, despite the occasional delay, generally adhere to a schedule.
I still have nightmares about morning rush hour in London when I would have to wait for three trains to come through Bermondsey station before I could squeeze into the fourth. Nowadays, whenever I visit London I find myself standing on a platform for ten or fifteen minutes waiting for a train (usually the District Line) which, halfway through its journey, inexplicably changes destination, requiring half the passengers to disembark and wait another ten or fifteen minutes for the next train. I am also exceedingly grateful that for $2 I can go anywhere I want in the city at any time of day and even transfer to a bus for free.
But that’s not to say that the Subway is without its faults or its eccentricities, as A Brit Out of Water recently discovered when a commuter trapped on the wrong side of a crowded platform found an unorthodox way of ensuring he would not miss his train.
First he put his arms in the air and clasped his hands together. An unusual move in rush hour, I think you’ll appreciate, and one that didn’t go unnoticed by fellow travellers. Then swiftly he brought down his still clasped arms/hands at 90 degrees to the rest of his body, taking a pose last seen on the starting blocks for the 50 metresmeters men’s freestyle final at the Olympic swimming pool in Beijing. Having got everybody’s attention, he simply jet propelled himself through the crowd to the door of the train, using his arms to part the Red Sea of people ahead of him.
So far, so rude. Or at least, it would have been had he not been shouting at the top of his voice as he did it, “Ladies and gentlemen, I am trying to get on this train, thank you very much.â€
Rudeness with a smile on its face (A Brit Out of Water)
Thank You Verdi Much
Posted by: | CommentsThe Metropolitan Opera is holding a weekly draw for prime seats in the Orchestra and Grand Tier for $25 throughout this season. Either I was extraordinarily lucky or, more likely, not too many people entered last Monday (Martin Luther King Jr. day) because I won. And on Saturday night Sofie and I took ourselves off to the Lincoln Center for a marvelous evening watching Rigoletto.
Our excursions to the Met are normally reserved for visiting parents, so it was lovely to be able to go along on a whim and to still have enough money left over to splurge on a pre-theater Greek meal at Kefi. All in all, a wonderful evening, made even more memorable by the sight of a young Asian guy going down on one knee at the top of the lobby staircase during the intermission and prompting a round of applause from people gathered on the balconies above and below. The only problem now is how to get this song out of my head.
Weekend Ticket Drawing (Met Opera)
Inaugurama
Posted by: | CommentsFor people who like very big photographs, David Bergman’s 59,783 X 24,658 pixel panorama of the inauguration is a treat. I particularly enjoyed zooming in on BHO and marveling at Dick Cheney in the background doing a very good impression of Gorbachev in a wheelchair. (Via John Dickerson.)
How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address (David Bergman)
Time Running Out for Ticking Bomb?
Posted by: | CommentsFor those who thought that the torture-now-suffer-the-consequences-later, Jack Bauer age of US counterterrorism was completely discredited, think again. In today’s New York Post, relatives of 9/11 victims and the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee criticized President Obama’s order to shut the Guantanamo Bay military prison within the year.
Representative Peter King called Gitmo a “necessary evil.” While both he and FDNY Fire Lt. Jim McAffrey, whose brother-in-law died on 9/11, said waterboarding was acceptable. “On September 10, would you have put Mohamed Atta’s head under water for 20 seconds to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks?” King asked the Post.
Indeed, who would not? The problem is that waterboarding is not putting someone’s head under water for twenty seconds (as Christopher Hitchens found out) and the ticking timebomb scenario is a fantasy. Meanwhile, Gitmo is a stain on America’s character.
Yes, there are serious questions to be asked about which detainees should be freed. (As the New York Times pointed out yesterday, one former inmate is now the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch.) There are also serious questions about whether the remaining prisoners can or ought to be tried in military or civilian courts. But it does seem absurd to read about people still debating the merits of torture and using terms like “necessary evil.”
During the presidential primary race, Republicans were falling all over each other to act tough in a ticking time bomb situation. Yet during the election proper I don’t think I heard Jack Bauer’s name once. Thank god the “24″ view of the world is finally a minority.
Policing The Protest
Posted by: | CommentsSome ugly images from a recent pro-Palestine rally in London. I suppose there will be those who will find a way of excusing such behavior but it just looks like hooliganism to me. I can’t imagine the NYPD allowing a single one of those bollards or sticks to have been thrown. What were the Met thinking? (Via Clive Davis)
