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An “Intellectual Property” Lesson From A Busker
On Saturday morning, as I sat at 7th Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, waiting for a Q train to take me back home, I noticed a banjo player playing across the tracks from me on the Manhattan-bound...
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Random Searches on the New York Subways: Getting Used to the Stop-n-Frisk
New York City residents are, by now, used to the subway version of the stop-and-frisk, to the sight of policemen manning the turnstiles to the city subway, subjecting passengers to ‘random’ searches of...
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Nietzsche, Power, and Bible-readers on the Subway
Last evening, after a full day of work teaching Philosophy of Biology, a seminar on Nietzsche, and conducting a teaching observation of a graduate fellow, I left campus for my evening weightlifting...
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‘Swiping in’ a Vet on Memorial Day
Every New York City subway rider, at some point or the other in his riding career, becomes the ‘target’ of a solicitation, a beg, or a panhandle. And all around us, signs–put up by the MTA–tell us:...
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Readin’ and Ridin’: The Subway Car as Reading Room
Like many New Yorkers, I do a lot of reading on the subway, standing or sitting. (It is a depressing fact, of course, that too many of us now seem fixated by smartphones, playing video games, or...
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The Subway: Let the Love-Hate Clichés Roll
When I first moved to New York City, I lived on 95th Street in Manhattan and rode down to 42nd Street for my graduate seminars. My first commute on the subways was blindingly quick: I took the 2 or 3...
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The Smells of the Homeless: Unpleasant Reminders of Our Good Fortune
I receive, on a daily basis, many reminders of my singular good fortune, of my having scored big in life’s sweepstakes: I have a good job–one that gives me a sabbatical every seven years, a lovely...
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Random Searches on the New York Subway: A User’s Story
Today’s post will simply make note of an interesting (and alarming) email I’ve received from a reader. Please do share this widely. Some time ago I was researching the random bag check policy for the...
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Readin’ and Ridin’: Transportation within Transportation
Forty degrees and rain, soggy train platforms, and an unhappy toddler–my daughter, not happy at being dropped off at daycare–can make for a miserable start to a day. It was only partially redeemed by...
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The Subway Car’s Daily Dose Of Culture
My train ride into Manhattan today reminded me that yesterday’s lament about the possible lack of adequate ‘cultural consumption’ in my life in this city was sorely missing one aspect of my urban...
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Subway Buskers And Life’s Soundtrack
This morning, as I alighted at a subway station, I was greeted by music and song and melody. A subway station busker–one of New York City’s most familiar residents and features–was holding forth with...
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