Photo By Gail
Gotta Catch All The Trains!
All Photos By Gail
On New Year’s Eve Day, I posted this photo with the heading, “Someone Lost a Shoe in The Subway,” and it got about 100 likes overnight — more than most of my photos and certainly way more than the majority of my blog posts that I share on that page. So, I thought that maybe, if re-purposed as a Pink Thing, the photo could work its viral magic on my blog traffic! A girl can dream. Here’s the back story on this photo:
I was out that day with my friend Naomi and I spotted this shoe laying on the sidewalk at around 99th Street and Lexington Avenue, so I snatched it up. Because: Pink Barbie Shoe. When I got into the subway I “staged” it on a remote stairway used only by the subway crew, et voila!
I moved to Manhattan in the fall of 1988, but having made perhaps a half dozen trips to NYC between 1979 and the year I became a resident, I sure do remember when the subway looked like this. Ah, sweet nostalgia. You can almost smell the urine.
This video, shot by Danish tourist “Railroad Pacific,” is ten minutes long, but you can fast forward and get the full effect. If the embedded link above goes wonky – as embedded links tend to do – you can find the video on YouTube at This Link. Thanks to The Awl for the tip!
On Wednesday night of this week, Ute Linhart, a music industry friend of mine for over ten years, was violently assaulted when an insane maniac pushed her into a speeding subway train as it barreled into the station at 28th street and Broadway here in Manhattan. While she thankfully was not thrown onto the tracks, Ute suffered multiple broken bones including three broken ribs, her left arm broken in two places, facial fractures and a punctured lung, among other injuries. The New York Post has the more details on the truly horrifying story online at This Link.
The good news is that Ute is going to be OK and, thanks to witnesses in the subway, the attacker was apprehended and arrested. While what happened to Ute could not have been predicted, and was certainly a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, let’s all of us here in NYC who travel on the subway remember that there are some crazy nut jobs out there. Be careful in the subway, stand back from the platform edge and be aware of who is around you at all times. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Ute!
Update: The man who pushed Ute has been Sentenced to 15 Years Prison.
Kafkaesque! (Image Source)
Happy Monday! The 4 and 5 trains were running about 20 minutes behind schedule this morning due to either a stalled number 7 train at 42nd Street/Grand Central or signal problems at Bleecker Street, depending on who you believe. But the delays weren’t anywhere near as bad as these L trains to Brooklyn. Gee wiz. If I had to wait fifteen hundred and thirty four minutes for a train, I’d probably just suck it up and take a cab.