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28 Ways To Run For The Train

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It’s dangerous to run for the train. You could slip and hurt yourself really badly. But everyone that runs for the train and makes it in just before the doors close always grins like a madman afterwards. So, maybe it’s worth the risk.(Bowling Green Station, Manhattan)

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Deep Below Times Square

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I was 8 or 9 the first time I ever rode this escalator, which was the longest I’d ever seen. I was with my Grandma who could barely speak English — much less read it — but somehow she knew where we were going. We were probably heading to Chinatown, where she worked for several years in a garment factory with two dozen other old Chinese ladies. While she worked, I’d run around the sweatshop, nap, read Chinese comics, and — best of all — eat lunch with her from the cool metal containers she brought from home.It was the late 1970s and I can only imagine now how filthy and seedy Times Square and the subway must have been, to say nothing of a Chinatown sweatshop. But all I can remember is how fun it was to spend a day with my Grandma in New York. (Times Sq Station, Manhattan)

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Three Questions for Jackson

Three Questions for Jackson

What are you looking forward to?

All summer, I was looking forward to the day this little restaurant near my office, “Tony’s,” opened back up. I’d discovered it earlier in the year, probably in the spring, and they had this huge, and I mean, HUGE Italian Sub for six bucks-even! Cappicola, salami, proscuitto, peppers, mozz…the works. There were at least five different meats in there. It was awesome.And then, for reasons unbeknownst to me, the store closed up, and a sign advertising the opening of a new restaurant appeared. I thought that maybe they were just changing their name, or the rent got too high and they moved…I couldn’t really get a straight answer from the construction workers.About a week ago, I took my weekly visit over there (I had been checking back on Tony pretty frequently) and the new restaurant had opened. I sauntered in with a buddy of mine and politely asked the dude in charge, “What happened to Tony?” The dude replies, “He died.” I was in shock. “He DIED!!??” To which he responded, “No, no. He RETIRED. He just got too old.”Too old to make sandwiches!? What the hell. And thus, my favorite lunching spot vanished into thin air. So I guess, to answer your question, I’m really looking forward to the day Tony comes out of retirement. Or, at least, the day another place near my office offers a gimongous sandwich at an affordable price.

What song have you been listening to most lately?

Hmmm. This is a tough one. I’m not one to listen to a song over and over again, really. Records? Definitely. And by “records,” I mean, complete albums on my iPod. I’ve been listening to The Black Keys a bunch, particularly Rubber Factory and Thickfreakness. But it’s sort of unfair to the other albums I tend to play repeatedly because I often listen to a band a bunch before I go and see them. And I happen to be going to a Black Keys show tonight. Neat, huh.

What do you believe with all your heart to be true, but can’t prove?

God doesn’t exist. I don’t really wanna get into it more than that, but there you go.

(Apple Store SoHo, Manhattan)