Life Under New York
I'm nearly done reading "The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City" and I'm not sure I completely believe it. Feels very urban legend-ish. It was written by Jennifer Toth based on some stories she did for the L.A. Times while she was interning there out of Columbia J-school in the early 1990s. The first cops she approached at Grand Central flatly denied the "mole people" existed though one later escorts her to some of the camps. Supposedly there are (or were) about 5,000 people living in the tunnels under the city -- mostly in abandoned subway tunnels or stations and in one case a natural cavern near Grand Central called "the Condos." Many of the people are addicted to booze or drugs, some are crazy and/or violent. "Track rabbits" (rats) are commonly used as food and many children live there with their families. It's an interesting read but hard to comprehend that there is a huge underground society there. (There's also a movie.) Here's a passage from the book:

We descend through Grand Central Station, which is spread over forty-eight acres, making it the largest train station in the world. It also goes down six levels beneath the subway tracks. There is no complete blueprint of the tunnels and tracks under the station. Many tunnels were begun but abandoned. Some were built but were forgotten. Some were sealed off, but underground homeless people have broken through , either directly by hacking a hole through the wall or by circuitous routes, to inhabit them now.

One of the largest disused tunnels starts out in a northwest direction, taking it under Central Park, before turning southwest toward penn Station across town. This tunnel can be entereed from either station, as well as at various places int he park itself. "There are hundreds maybe even a thousand people living in that tunnel," I was told by Zack, a member of J.C.'s community. "The utilities are still working there and everything."

- posted by Amy @ 12/11/2003 12:26:00 PM

 

Financial Media Watchdog/Lapdog

James Cramer printed a few thoughts on the mutual fund scandal in New York mag last week. A month ago on this blog I wondered what he would have to say about the scandal since he not only ran a hedge fund, but owned TheStreet.com, has had his own slot on CNBC and sold his financial journalism "skills" to numerous other outfits. So I was wondering if he would admit to knowing hedge funds were getting mutual fund managers to do some shady after-hours love nesting at the expense of the average investor.

So in his column, he admits not that he knew it was going on, only that he knew how to do it, but decided not to.

I knew that if you could somehow take advantage of the stupid pricing of mutual funds, done at 4 p.m., even when the markets were open 24 hours, it would be like stealing candy from a baby. But that would require three things: a hedge-fund manager nefarious enough to be willing to steal money from passive mutual-fund investors; a mutual fund that cared so little about its core constituents that it would gladly journal, or transfer electronically, the profits from the mom-and-pops to the hedge funds if they placed $10 million to $20 million in “slow money” with another boring mutual-fund offering; and an SEC that wouldn’t care if it found out about it or wouldn’t understand it if it did uncover it.

He also asserts that eventhough he ran a $450 million hedge fund, he's just an average investor like you and me: "We, the unwashed massess ... ." Yet later he gets back to business: "When I was a hedge-fund manager, I was always fearful of the SEC. The commission was consistently toughest on hedge-fund managers, even though we labored only for rich people. Funny thing, it protected the rich in hedge funds but didn’t give a hoot about the poor slobs in mutual funds."

So Cramer, what I still want to know is this: Did you know this stuff was going on while it was happening and if so, why didn't you ever report it?
- posted by Amy @ 12/11/2003 11:41:00 AM

 

Tony vs. Drudge and Kwanza
Tony Pierce is on a roll. He takes on Kwanza -- "black folk, the racists want us to have kwanza. it makes us look ridiculous and lost." -- and Matt Drudge -- "heres the problem with drudge. he's not interested in news unless it will be beneficial to his political point of veiw, his boss's political point of view, his sexual preferences, and his views on race."
- posted by Amy @ 12/10/2003 06:04:00 PM

 

Foreign Journalists: Avoid the LA Airport
Matt Welch has a column in Canada's National Post about the Homeland Security guards at LAX who have developed a proclivity for frisking, cuffing and detaining foreign journalists from Australia, Britain and France and then sending them back on a plane 20 or 40 hours later for failing to obtain some obscure visa that normally isn't required.

According to the newly enforced rules, if there were an earthquake in L.A. tomorrow, British reporters would need to pay US$100 to the local U.S. embassy or consulate, show up for a face-to-face interview carrying a "comprehensive letter from the journalist's employer on the employer's letterhead identifying the journalist and describing in detail the nature and function of the journalist's position," and then wait any number of days and weeks before getting the go-ahead. British terrorists, meanwhile, could just buy a ticket and hop on a plane.

and ...

What makes this dumb situation truly retarded is officials from both the State Department and Homeland Security will tell you privately that it's precisely as ridiculous and counter-productive as it looks. But since the two bureaucracies despise each other, and since one makes the policy (State) while the other enforces it (Homeland Security), letting a few LAX border guards go postal on some hapless journalists actually serves both agencies in the broader arm-wrestling match.

- posted by Amy @ 12/10/2003 05:44:00 PM

 

Selling Snowballs in a Blizzard
There's a fun column in the Daily News about a guy who was selling snowballs in Times Square yesterday for a buck each. It'll remind you why you love New York so much.
- posted by Amy @ 12/10/2003 05:31:00 PM

 

Treo 600 for $249 at Amazon
I'm a little late to this, but Gizmodo reported that Amazon.com is now selling the Treo 600 for a mere $249 if you activate new Sprint service.
- posted by Amy @ 12/09/2003 10:21:00 AM

 

Village Images
BlueJake has posted a series of gorgeous pictures of the West Village, my old neighborhood. (Link via Gothamist.)
- posted by Amy @ 12/09/2003 10:17:00 AM

 

Here Death Lie
The New York Times has had a little problem lately about printing obits about people they heard were dead, but aren't really dead. Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed got his hands on the New York Times memo that reminds staff it's a bad idea to run the obits before the person actually dies.
- posted by Amy @ 12/09/2003 09:52:00 AM

 

The Office Hell
The Office. You know about this show? This is what you need to know:

1. This show is excrutiatingly painful to watch. It's like fingernails screeching down a chalkboard. It's like re-living every single day, every painful minute, of the worst job you ever had. Worst boss. Saying the worst crap. Doing the most inappropriate things.
2. You have to watch this show.

We've rented the DVD of Season One and can only watch about 15 minutes at a time before we have to stop it and rant about how excruciating it is. It has six episodes on the disc, but we can't watch more than one a day - even that's too much. We're on episode four, and as it started this time, with the sad theme music and the camera panning over the pathetic box-office in bumbleberg London over a round-about in the gloomy-rainyish weather. I felt it. Monday Morning: I can't believe I'm gong back to this place for another fucking hour of my life. Why do I go back here? I have to find something else.
Oddly, it's a comedy but you feel their pain so effectively because you have lived it. Are living it. Will live it again.
- posted by Amy @ 12/08/2003 09:30:00 PM

 

Faster, Faster, Spend, Spend
Hopefully you're all out spending your money the way I told you. In case you have more to spend, here's a couple things to add to your list:

1. The code to get $5 off a gift subscription at Vindigo is: Holiday.
2. The Central Park Conservancy has finally opened its online store.
3. Check out Archie McPhee in case you are in need of a Pope Innocent III action figure, an alien wiener dog nightlight, a pig catapult, the Amish punching puppet or stereotypes of the world dolls.
- posted by Amy @ 12/08/2003 06:02:00 PM

 

Add Cheese
Well good Monday morning, people. It's sunny outside and we survived the season's first little blizzard. How did we survive? Well, I got up early Saturday morning and bought a lot of healthy food and turned it into unhealthy food. Dick Cheney Dip with fresh, crusty bread. It was so good in a very bad way.
- posted by Amy @ 12/08/2003 08:41:00 AM

 

'Bad British Food'
New York Times restaurant critic William H. Grimes makes a confession to Newsweek: "I kinda like bad British food." (Link via Lockhart Steele.)
- posted by Amy @ 12/08/2003 08:31:00 AM