Memorable Moment: Politics, Sex and the 1 train

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the September sun poured through the window of the elevated train onto my New York Times Magazine. I felt an anxious guilt over putting my schoolwork on the back burner over the weekend. I squished the nagging voice – now that I am in J-school I imagine the ghost of Joseph Pulitzer hectoring me – and returned to the article about how income inequality harms the Republican Party.

Another voice, this one coming from my left instead of inside my head, said, “Do you think that’s true?”

The man sitting next to me wore a paint drizzled sweatshirt. He tapped my magazine and announced that the New York Times had gotten the story wrong.

The train dipped underground as he explained his disillusionment with politics. Poor people would not return to the Democrats because the liberals, in over 70 years, had not earned their loyalty by delivering what they promised. The Republicans, he said, at least had not courted voters in his poverty-stricken neighborhood, promising jobs and prosperity.

I was so engrossed I forgot my stop. His arms swung widely as he spoke, lurching his monologue from poverty to Barack Obama. A great orator, but a lousy speaker was his diagnosis.

The train pulled into the 59th Street station, and he hauled himself to his feet, giving me a quick goodbye. Before I could begin to digest his ideas, he poked his head between the closing doors to offer this last assessment.

“Obama looks like a boxer who just had sex with a woman [when he debates],” he said. “He looks all weak in the knees.”

Profile: Escape from Arizona

Some New York transplants don't come here looking for fame or glamour. Lauren Harrison left Phoenix, AZ, simply to escape a dead-end relationship and a monotonous routine.
“I kind of moved here to escapeall the negativity in Arizona,” Harrison said, resting a meticulously made up cheek on her hand. “I dumped my boyfriend I was living with and I bought a one way ticket to New York.”
Harrison, 24, had been working as a dance teacher since she was 16. She had started dancing as a kid to correct the scoliosis that twisted her spine. She was passionate about jazz and modern dance, cleaning classrooms at her studio just so she could attend extra classes. Her enthusiasm left her longing to find other ways of expressing herself artistically, an ambition Phoenix did not easily satisfy. New York, she hopes, will provide fertile soil for her germinating love of music.
Within three months of relocating, Harrison discovered a new talent for sales. She works at a furniture boutique in Soho and is now one of their top sales people, grossing around $120,000 per month for her store.
“I really don’t know why I’m here, Harrison said. “Everyday it seems like an adventure.”

Roundup: Profile and Memorable Moment

Profile:
http://campverdebugleonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=21085

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/scoliosis/DS00194

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/arts/dance/13giordano.html?scp=3&sq=jazz%20dance&st=cse

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/spotlight/dance.html

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/soho/?scp=2&sq=soho&st=cse

Memorable Moment:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/10/jschools

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0410.html?scp=1&sq=joseph%20pulitzer&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07Inequality-t.html?scp=4&sq=income%20inequality%20and%20gop&st=cse

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/other-stops-the-real-elephant-in-the-republican-party-greed/?scp=6&sq=republican&st=cse

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/07/20/poverty_is_key_theme_for_democrats_in_08/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/23/obama-debate-flashback-ob_n_128682.html

Roundup: Day in Pictures

The BBC's picks for the day: Blue-dyed sheep, a contortionist who fits inside a TV screen and the first cricket bat used by Australian cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman.

The New York Times takes a more serious tone with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, and Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission appearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Also: Police arresting Indian activists, Pakistani workers in front of the Marriott Hotel destroyed by suicide bombers three days ago in an attack that killed 60, and workers removing notes from the Western Wall — Judaism's holiest site — in preparation for Rosh Hashana next Monday.

In the Reuters photo blog David Gray travels to the Chinese-North Korean border-town of Dandong following reports that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was sick. Shannon Stapleton covers the seventh anniversary of 9-11 and Eric Thayer discusses the "art of the underexposure."

(Photo: BBC/PA)

Mini Profile - Lois Coy

Lois Coy, hunches over a cane looking at the concrete floor as she prepares to cross 5th Ave., in Jackson Heights. At some point she turns around and smiles at me. I ask her for directions to a nearby church. "Mass started," she says. "But do you want to join me for dinner instead?" The white LCD display flashes the “walk” sign and I follow her to her favorite diner. Employees greet her by name and sit us in her usual spot. At 91, Coy, a retired businesswoman talks about her life lucidly. Her family came from England to Plymouth, Massachusetts with the original settlers in 1620 and later settled in New York in the 1800’s. Her brother fought in WWII; she never married or had kids but always volunteered for the neighborhood’s Methodist Church. In the mornings she buys coffee at the neighborhood's Dunkin' Donuts just to listen to conversations in languages that she'll never learn but that sound nice to her ears. “I love to learn about their traditions and vice-versa,” she says. We order rice pudding and she asks me if have heard of Che Guevara. "Have you seen the bike diaries?" she asks. "I saw that. I even bought the book. The only thing I didn't like was the language. I never heard that growing up..." The bill arrives and she snaps it away from the table. "You're my guest today and I wont hear about it,” she says taking out dollar bills from her purse.

Memorable Moment - Last Day at Yankee Stadium

On Sunday, the House that Babe Ruth built opened its door one last time for thousands of fans.

As I went up the 161st St-Yankee Stadium metro station I realized I must have been the only Red Sox fan in the Bronx. But I kept my sports allegiance to myself and a day at The Evil Empire turned into a fascinating assignment.

At some point I caught up with Spike Lee who was shooting video of the players with a handycam and asked him about the significance of the day:

Behind a metal fence, wearing a Yankees cap, Elba Delgado, 77, waited for more than three hours for a glimpse of Derek Jeter. Delgado became a Yankees fan when the team traveled in the early 50's to her native Puerto Rico to play against Ponce.

Her memories of Yankee Stadium went back to the 50's with DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. "This is like a wake," Delgado said of the last day of Yankee Stadium. "It's the end of an era and it won't come back."


Follow the rest of the story at:
http://luisandreshenao.blogspot.com/

Profile: Refugee on Arrival -Lessons from the Afterlife

Mohammad Al-Karkhi spent nearly all his savings during his time in Syria. A local producer for NBC in Baghdad, Al-Karkhi had already sent his wife and three children to live in Damascus. He escaped from his hometown himself last year after a neighbor, who'd been kidnapped and released by the Sadr Brigade, ,warned that they were after Al-Karkhi too.

He finally made it to New York City with his family this June. He lives now in a sparse Bronx apartment in a squalid graffitied building with steep stairs and peeling paint. So far, the IRC is paying for his apartment, food stamps, a phone and electricity, and sending a monthly check for $520. He has four weeks left to find a job and become self-sufficient before that support stops.

That's part of the "self-help" philosophy among American refugee organizations. Al-Karkhi would eventually like to return to school and then practice journalism. Today, he's meeting with his caseworker at the IRC. She scrolls through Craigslist looking for jobs. "Ah, I think I found something!" She scans the computer screen quickly.

"No," her voice flattens. "It's the Army. I don't think you wanna talk to the Army."