In The News

The first thing I do in the morning is turn on NPR so that Soterios Johnson on WNYC‘s Morning Edition can inform me about what’s happening in NYC and around the world while I sip my coffee and get ready for work. Each day for the past couple of years, hearing the number of people that were killed yesterday in the Middle East due to an explosion or car bomb attack, has been part of my morning routine. It shakes me to hear this every day, but as long as it is going on, it should make me uncomfortable and I want to be reminded of it and not grow complacent.

On the subway train, I read the New Yorker, not necessarily to catch up on current events, as much as to catch up on hot topics of discussion and debate — like this article on the renovation of the Greek and Roman galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Occasionally, on my lunch hour (or more accurately, my lunch-5-minutes), I scan the NY Times online, to get filled in on any of the stories I heard on the radio in the morning, or to learn what’s happened in the past couple of hours — like this article detailing climate change or this review on The Year of Magical Thinking, which I just saw on Broadway the other night.

And then at home in the evening, I check out Gothamist.com — to read about all the small-scale local news that never makes it on to NPR or the NY Times, like this piece about guerilla art on the subway, or this one about Jesus Christ walking across the Brooklyn Bridge this weekend.

All in all, I feel pretty informed, but never as informed as I wish I could be. How about you? What’s your relationship to the news? You can read what others say about this topic here.

Flames

The other night I was woken up by the wailing of sirens very close by. I looked out my bedroom window, which faces the back of the building, and couldn’t see anything unusual (last year, I was woken by flames coming out of the back of a building next door and we had to evacuate into the chilly night air for several hours and have firefighters charge through my bedroom to try to get into the backyard). So, I figured I was safe, and went back to sleep. What I found out the next morning, was that a building on the other corner of our block had went up in flames, which you can see here.

I feel like all I’ve been hearing about lately are fires, like this one in the Bronx and this one in my neighborhood a few months ago. I never really thought about fires before and have been careless enough to go without renter’s insurance for the last 7 years, but maybe I’ll have to start rethinking my carelessness and realize that I’m just as susceptible to disaster as anyone else.

Overheard Again

Not a Good One, Though

Brooklyn guy: Cute kid you got there. How old is he?
Short-haired mom: She is 20 months.
Brooklyn guy: Oh, ‘she.’ Sorry, I didn’t realize…
Short-haired mom: That’s because gender is performance.
Brooklyn guy: [Sips coffee.]

–Vox Pop, Cortelyou Rd

Just Send Me a Text

Brooklyn guy #1: Let me tell you something…
Brooklyn guy #2: No, don’t even bother.

B100 bus, Marine Park

Yeah, I Love Trenton in the Springtime

Chick #1: I can’t wait to hang out next semester!
Chick #2: Oh, I won’t be here.
Chick #1: Where are you going?
Chick #2: Dude, I’ll be in Paris for spring semester.
Chick #1: What? Who from Jersey goes to Paris?
Chick #2: Hello, Liz from Jersey.
Chick #1: Dude, you’re gonna miss Jersey so much!
Chick #2: I know.
Chick #1: Yeah, Paris is so lame. You so shouldn’t go.

–Columbia University

via Overheard in New York

 

In the Kitchen

As some of you may know, my lovely roommate is moving out and we’ve been searching for someone to take her place. Do you know what this means (aside from general upheaval)? Lots and lots of searches and the posting of photos of our apartment on the internet — which, according to Flickr, have been viewed approximately 232 times. Hmm, that’s both great and weird. Included in these photos, is the picture of our little kitchen. Actually, by New York City standards, it’s pretty normal — no counter space or cupboard space and room enough for no more than two occupants at a time. Our oven hasn’t really worked for the last 2+ years, but we’ve never bothered the landlord about it because we don’t cook more than a handful of times per year. But, if the new roommate cooks, then the oven’s time may have come — we’ll have to talk to the landlords, and they’ll have to send a guy named Eddie over to fix it. Ah, Brooklyn. Not exactly your grandmother’s kitchen now, is it?

Celebrate the first birthday of Sunday Scribblings here.