The Lexicographer's Rules

I fear the stupidity of my fellow New Yorkers more than I fear a dirty bomb, another plane rammed into a building, or anything like that.

More than half of the survey’s respondents (53 percent) said that if they had to flee New York after a disaster, they would drive or take taxis. The report noted, however, that streets would likely be choked with traffic. Fifteen percent said they would ignore any orders to evacuate.

Not in the report:

—When their food and water supplies run low, 38% will order more from Fresh Direct. 18% will call the corner Chinese joint for more General Tsao’s chicken.

—If electricity fails, 32% will run an extension cord from a neighbor’s house. 62% will check the NYC government web site for government announcements about power restoration.

—If they run out of money, 43% will keep trying ATMs until they find one that works. 7% will steal extra cash from the drug dealers down the street. 19% are stockpiling cartons of cigarettes to use as currency.

I have enough canned goods, dry food, and water to last me a week. If the Warriors can make it from the Bronx to Coney Island overnight while pursued by gangs of angry New Yorkers, I figure a week is plenty of time for me get out of New York City and deep into Pennsylvania.

Here’s a picture of the huge Greenpoint, Brooklyn, fire I took through a subway car window at Queens Plaza, looking south. More and better photos are at Flickr.

I love this thread at Gothamist about small-time scams and grifts. I’m always interested more in the mind of the perpetrator than I am in that of the victim. There’s the high level of persistence. There’s the taking chances of running into the same marks again. There’s the low payout. There’s the massive amount of time spent executing the scam repeatedly. There’s the low overhead associated with the scams. And I always wonder why that scammer chose that scam.  (Source Link)

Nicolai Ouroussoff may think Renzo Piano’s addition to the Morgan Library and Museum is “dazzling,” but from the outside it looks to me like the shop class entrance of a prefab suburban high school. Like temporary shelter thrown down by the only bidder to make it through onerous bureaucratic paperwork. What kind of ego takes one of the last brownstones left on Madison Avenue and glue-guns up two storeys of barn siding right next to it? Mere feet away?

Can you tell I hate it?

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You know, if you choose to misunderstand this cutline from the New York Times, you can let yourself believe they’re tearing down the Brooklyn Bridge:

The Purchase Building, a little Art Moderne structure under the Brooklyn Bridge whose razing was recently approved.

(Source Link)