Louis C.K.

The episode I saw followed Louie as he was picked up in a comedy club by a much younger, very attractive woman. She was increasingly aroused as he recounted the different criteria by which he could be judged old.

I knew the name: Louis C.K.

Comedian. I knew that too.

I didn’t know much more. I Didn’t want to. Probably the name.

God, I am shallow.

He was on a talkshow recently. I saw a clip from his show then watched a full episode. I am now a fan.

Louie, Louis C.K.’s vaguely autobiographical show on FX is set in Manhattan. A co-worker who’d seen his past work said, “Dark.” Yes. And the show has many, as viewer guidance would say, “adult situations.”

He is a not particularly attractive middle aged man. Balding. He smokes. He is single with two kids. His character is a comedian.

Like Seinfeld, Louis is a comedian when he’s at work and a more complex and less calculatingly funny guy at home.

The episode I saw followed Louie as he was picked up in a comedy club by a much younger, very attractive woman. She was increasingly aroused as he recounted the different criteria by which he could be judged old.

Louie: “I voted for Michael Dukakis.
She: “Who?”
Louie: “I remember when you could smoke on airplanes.”

Louis C. K. stars in, wrote, directed and edited the show! Renaissance man!

The show was adult, smart and funny. I’ll be back for more.

Times Square Bomber Or Bungler?

He’s going to be a loser… a low life… a sad man who feels persecuted. He won’t be the conventional terrorist we’ve come to fear.

I have been following the attempted Times Square bombing with great interest. Little-by-little details have dribbled out. I’m not a terrorism expert or detective, but I’d like to take a few guesses about the perp.

This entry will stay online. Let’s see how good a guesser I am.

I suspect the guy pictured in the surveillance video… Mr Balding with a change of shirts… is our guy. If the person shown wasn’t involved he’d be at the police station by now proclaiming his innocence. It’s better to do it that way than be confronted by heavily armed federal agents.

The guy was probably alone. Anyone with backing or a mentor or organized in any sense of the word wouldn’t have attempted to do what this guy did. He used “nonexplosive fertilizer” according to NYPD. He brought a car full of gasoline, propane and fireworks and only managed to start a seatcover fire!

I’m not complaining.

Unfortunately there was some planning. This was not spur of the moment. He had to get the license plate. He had to get the car. This probably means he had a motive or a score to settle. I suspect “grudge” will be an applicable word.

He changed his shirt on the street just off Times Square where there are more TV cameras than a TV camera factory! The VIN plate from the vehicle was gone, but there are other less obvious places where VIN numbers are also found. His thought process never went beyond one or two steps. He was not a deep thinker.

He’s going to be a loser… a low life… a sad man who feels persecuted. We will be underwhelmed when we see who he is. He won’t be the conventional terrorist we’ve come to fear.

I suspect the police will find him quickly. The images from the surveillance video, though not CSI quality, will bring tips. The original t-shirt vendor who spotted the smoking car later told reporters, “See something, say something.” He’s quickly become the poster child New Yorkers want to be.

In the end the Times Square Bomber will be seen as the Times Square Bungler. The police, though diligent, were very lucky Saturday night.

We live in a free society. Stuff like this just comes with the territory. New York City is loaded with targets, but it’s not alone. A few miles from here are a series of reservoirs. They’re virtually unprotected. We’re a nation of unprotected targets in a world that’s changed.

Coverage You Can’t Count On

A t-shirt vendor saw it and called a mounted cop. That’s the part of the story that pleasantly surprises me. A vigilant New Yorker did the right thing!

It’s a quarter after two on Sunday morning. This is my favorite time of the day. This is when my mind is its sharpest. The door to the deck is open. Cool air and the rhythmic call of an owl are floating in. The TV is on. The computer is on too. There are dozens of early Sunday morning’s like this every year.

For the past few hours I’ve been watching ‘thumb sucker’ coverage of the discovery in Times Square of a parked car loaded with an improvised explosive device. It’s a dark green Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates. It’s flashers were on as smoke suspiciously built up inside.

A t-shirt vendor saw it and called a mounted cop. That’s the part of the story that pleasantly surprises me. A vigilant New Yorker did the right thing! The cops followed up.

For hours MSNBC was the only network covering this story. Fox News joined in after a while. CNN was notably… embarrassingly… missing as they continued to re-run Larry King Live. Even the New York City stations were in regular programming for much of the evening.

Google News (bless their hearts) tracked the ramping up of online coverage over time.

It’s impossible for me to know why this story wasn’t covered through conventional outlets. My guess is many staffers were in D.C. for the nerd prom (White House Correspondents Dinner). TV staffing is down too. ABC News just finished laying off 25% of its staff! The local stations have reduced headcounts as well and those who do remain are often less experienced.

Weakly watched Saturday night is an easy target when you’re deciding where to save money.

MSNBC had an interesting quandary. They had nothing to report, but a story too compelling to leave! If I were running the network I don’t know what I would have or could have done differently.

Their coverage, though totally unsatisfying, gets a free pass from me. Filling time until there was something to report was the right decision.

Mayor Bloomberg has just spoken. He instills confidence. He’s a straight shooter.

I’m going to begin by telling you what we know and what we don’t know.

In spite of his later request it’s tough to think everyone will go about their business in Midtown Manhattan tomorrow. I certainly couldn’t.

Here’s my takeaway:

  • There are enough cameras in the Times Square area to make a Bourne movie jealous.
  • The bomb was assembled in an amateurish fashion.
  • All the evidence is preserved.

Someone will be caught quickly–please.

Why I Love My Wife

The isn’t preseason baseball. It’s pre-preseason baseball! No one’s playing with a jersey number lower than 85.

I got an instant message earlier this evening. It was Helaine. The message was just a link, nothing more. I clicked and saw:

3/3/2010 Baseball at Philadelphia Phillies 7:00 PM Listen

It was the Florida State Seminoles site. They played the Phils tonight. Helaine was looking to listen.
The isn’t preseason baseball. It’s pre-preseason baseball! No one’s playing with a jersey number lower than 85.

And you wonder why I love her so?

I used this as an excuse to buy the yearly Major League Baseball video package. We get it every year and it is well used!

major league baseball blackout map.jpgIt’s a great idea, but talk about a purchase limited by small print! If anyone’s game is nationally telecast the Phillies game is blacked out. If the Phils are playing in New York or Boston the game is blacked out (though we do get those games on cable).

There has been some kvetching recently from folks who are blacked out though they’re hundreds of miles from the nearest team and on-air or cable telecasts aren’t available. That’s just wrong.

I scrolled down the MLB.TV page looking for dirty tricks. Sure enough well below ‘the fold’ there was a pre-checked space expressing my desire to automatically renew next March 1. I unchecked it, as I had last year. Persistent bastards, aren’t they?

I love baseball. It means spring is right around the corner.

Have We Become Snow Wimps–And Why That’s OK

Are we really that scared of running out of milk, bread and eggs? Is this 1952? We have plows. We have salt/sand and ice busting chemistry. Many people have 4-wheel drive vehicles.

just-an-inch.jpgGrowing up in New York City in the 50s and 60s I seldom got to experience school cancellations or delays. If it snowed we went to school. The official pronouncement from the Board of Education was, “tough nuggies.”

I hear similar stories all the time. People muse over the fact that this is New England and it does snow. “When I was a kid…,” they’ll begin. No need to finish the sentence. We all know where it’s going.

Is today’s reaction to a tiny snowfall prima facie evidence that we’ve gone wimpy? No! No emphatically.

Schools weren’t canceled as quickly 30-40 years ago (and more recently as well) because we just didn’t know what was coming! Yes, there were weather forecasts, but they were awful compared to today’s (and today’s have room for improvement).

We just don’t have “Blizzard of ’78” scenarios anymore.

We still get blizzards, but we’re not surprised by them. 1978’s storm was by-and-large unexpected. Sure the exact snow forecast timing might still be off or we’ll blow the amount of snow, but it’s been a long time since snow snuck in totally unannounced or a forecast of flurries became a dumping.

School superintendents wake up with “actionable intelligence,” to steal a military expression. That leaves them with a quandary. What’s the potential downside for having school versus canceling–especially with the huge percentage of kids who bus in?

There is no upside having school on a snowy day and plenty of potential downside. That’s why they’ve developed hair triggers and why schools are shut at the drop of a hat. It’s also why “snow days” are already built into the calendar.

Pity the superintendent who keeps schools open and has a bus slide off the road, even without injuries!

Weather forecasts have more utility and they’re being used. That’s a good thing. On the other hand old habits die hard. That’s bad.

Because we have better forecasts (and much, much better mechanized technology) your chances of being stranded somewhere for more than a handful of hours because of snow have become very low. Still the mere mention of snow causes a panicked run on supermarkets!

Are we really that scared of running out of milk, bread and eggs? Is this 1952? We have plows. We have salt/sand and ice busting chemistry. Many people have 4-wheel drive vehicles.

The real wimps aren’t running schools. The wimps are at the grocery store!

They’ve Ruined Times Square

New York City has closed off Times Square and turned it into a pedestrian mall. The excitement is gone.

times-square-daytime-empty.jpgNew York City has ruined Times Square! Is that blunt enough? They have changed the entire complexion of the “Crossroads of America” by removing vehicular traffic–and it sucks!

I’m a Times Square guy. I’ve been going there since I was a little kid. I remember when it was a scuzzy strip of sleaze. No regrets from me those days are over. The family friendly, advertising overgrown, garishly bright Times Square that replaced the sleaze was magical.

No more.

The secret of Times Square was you were walking through a city in perpetual motion. The traffic on Broadway and 7th Avenue just reinforced that ‘heart of the city’ feel. The lights from the cars and trucks and the sound of their horns performed as an underscore does in a movie.

times-square-empty-at-night.jpgGone! It’s gone. New York City has closed off Times Square and turned it into a pedestrian mall. The excitement is gone.

When we were in New York last week I originally thought we’d picked a dead night. Nope.

With broad spaces of the square open the feeling of the crowd is gone! Every night feels like a dead night. There is too much space in a city which prides itself on the optimum use of too little.

I’m sure there are good reasons for this move, but they’re lost on me. Times Square has now been fully “Disneyized!’ It’s disappointing.

ruby-red-staircase-times-square.jpgThis blog entry could easily end right here, but there is one thing that was done right–the rebuilding of the TKTS facility in the northern end of Times Square. A ruby red staircase has been placed over TKTS stretching toward the statue of Father Duffy.

This wide open access staircase was constantly full of tourists with cameras during my trips through the area. It’s a great vantage point from which to view the surroundings.

It would be better with traffic flowing around it.

looking-south-into-times-square-from-stairs.jpg

New York City Photo Animation

Sometimes the easiest and fastest way to show stills is to make them into an Animoto movie. Enjoy!

On Our Way To New York City

We’re traveling light. No laptop. I can’t remember the last time I spent the night pc-less.

It was my tooth that woke me this morning. If you’ve ever had a toothache you know that pain that demands respect. Ice and Advil are my daytime friends. Dental pain regroups at night! Hopefully I can stay ahead of it the next few days.

We’re on the train now. Metro North is our transport into the city. This time of day we hit all the stops to Stamford, then on to Grand Central non-stop save 125 Street.

The Letterman people called–Jack’s Gold List. I was on someone’s Gold List the day I sat in the very last row in the balcony! We’re still looking forward to it.

We’re traveling light. No laptop. I can’t remember the last time I spent the night pc-less.

This blog entry is being typed on the iPhone. Cumbersome!

Clicky only gets one extra lens today. That’s unusual too.

We see “Rock of Ages” tonight and “God of Carnage” tomorrow.

More later from New York City.

Dentistry On Vacation

“I can’t believe you’re on vacation again.” That was my boss speaking to me Friday. I’m with him

“I can’t believe you’re on vacation again.” That was my boss speaking to me Friday. I’m with him.

After a week and a half off and three days on I’m off again this week!

The real culprit is longevity. With 25 years in I get four weeks of vacation, two more for working holidays, and a few scattered here and there for times I’m asked to fill-in on weekends or odd hours.

dentist office tools-w250-h185.jpgStill, God has ways of evening things out. He hit me in my weakest spot–my teeth!

I went to bed a little sensitive but woke up at the George Clooney level of sensitivity. By 9:00 AM I was on-the-phone to the dentist and in the chair around 3:00 PM.

You can’t call out sick while on vacation. Life goes on. I am typing with one hand while holding an ice pack with the other.

The problem isn’t a recent root canal but the bite that was left. One point was too high. Every time I bit down there was minor trauma. I felt nothing but the tooth was keeping score.

Alas, it’s all cumulative. Last night the tooth said “enough.”

The work took a few minutes. Bill, my dentist, says I should be fine in a few days. Hopefully he’s right as always.

Helaine and I are heading to New York City tomorrow for a quick visit. Even in NYC walking around with an ice pack stands out.

Chutzpah And AT&T

Oh Mr. de la Vega, don’t you understand how business is supposed to work?

apple-iphone-3g.jpgI’m an AT&T subscriber and an iPhone user. Like many iPhone users I’ve experienced weird call drops (mainly while in Las Vegas or New York City–seldom in Connecticut). The prevailing wisdom seems to be there’s not enough capacity to support the voracious appetite of iPhone users.

Hey, AT&T–what exactly did you expect? You’re the ones bragging about the inexhaustible supply of iPhone apps. You’ve empowered us and now your surprised we’re taking advantage? Spare me.

Recently AT&T Mobility’s CEO addressed some of these data/phone concerns and then tossed in a curveball. Here’s part of the Wall Street Journal‘s read on it.

“With about 3% of smart-phone customers driving 40% of data traffic, AT&T is considering incentives to keep those subscribers from hampering the experience for everyone else, he said. “You can rest assured that we’re very sure we can address it in a way that’s consistent with net-neutrality and FCC regulations.”

Many customers don’t know how much bandwidth they’re consuming, Mr. de la Vega added. When AT&T conducted a broadband test, customers often reduced their data use. Longer-term, he said, a pricing scheme based on usage is likely, though it will be determined by industry competition and regulatory guidelines.”

AT&T admits its services “are performing at levels below our standards.” Unfortunately, this is one of those no-fault admissions, because AT&T’s not crediting my account to compensate for this poor service.

Instead they’re saying these issues, while using the service as sold, are largely the fault of their customers! Where I come from we categorize this as “chutzpah.”

Chutzpah? Look it up. There’s an app for that.

Oh Mr. de la Vega, don’t you understand how business is supposed to work?

I plan on using the crap out of my iPhone–using every bit and byte I’m entitled to use. I want to be one of your heaviest customers (the one’s you seem to dislike) until I’m passed by someone who finds even more ways to use it.

Don’t worry, even then I’ll find a way to catch up!

Get used to it Mr. dlV. Like you, we’re interested in seeing the other party in this deal completely fulfill its obligation. We’re going to want more, not less. One day we’ll look back at the data streaming to our phones today the way we look at a 300 baud modem!

It often seems servicing customers is an impediment business doesn’t want. Too bad.

Addendum: If you’ve gotten this far you also need to read FakeSteveJobs take on this. It is masterful. The language is “R” rated, but it’s well worth it.

Vegas Roundup

OK–this is a little nuts. I’m not that good a player. No one is. I’ve had nine winning sessions in a row including last night’s tournament win. I am seeing Benjamin Franklin in my sleep.

palazzo-slot-machines.jpgWe leave in the morning for Palm Springs, California. Vegas will be done for us. Stef left this afternoon. She slept her way cross country with an entire row to herself!

I played a little poker this afternoon and again tonight. Both times it was $1-2 no limit hold’em and both times I came home a winner!

OK–this is a little nuts. I’m not that good a player. No one is. I’ve had nine winning sessions in a row including last night’s tournament win. I am seeing Benjamin Franklin’s etched face in my sleep.

My friend Rick said I came with a positive attitude and that made me a more confident player. Others might have sniffed that confidence and moved away when I threw my chips around. Who knows?

frozen-hot-chocolate.jpgHelaine and I did take a little walk this afternoon and had dinner at Serendipity. This restaurant is an offshoot of the New York City original. After we both had our meals we shared the specialty of the house–Frozen Hot Chocolate. Good choice.

Before we leave a few words about this hotel: The Palazzo. It is spectacular. There are probably nicer hotels somewhere. I’ve never stayed in one.

This room–all the rooms– are suites. There is a sitting room a few steps down from the bedroom. There’s no wall, but the spaces are separate.

The bathroom is large enough for a bus terminal.

There are three flat screen TVs hung on various walls in the suite including one in the aforementioned bathroom.

Most spectacular is the huge area covered by windows. We’re looking west toward the mountains with a little peek up and down the Strip.

south-side-las-vegas-blvd.jpgThere are hotels and there is gambling elsewhere. There is no other Las Vegas. It is built on hospitality. It never fails in that regard.

Vegas is down on its luck right now. Hopefully it and all of us will recover before long.

The plan for Wednesday takes us from McCarren to Ontario Airport in California. Wheels up time probably under 30 minutes. Then it’s a 70 mile east through the desert to Palm Springs. We should be there around sunset.

My Nephew Matt Heads To New York City

I find NYC very appealing. As I’ve grown older my desire to live there has grown greater. Of course I would need to re-wife and re-job.

matt-opad.jpgWe are a small family. I have but one nephew–Matt. He flew into New York for a quick weekend visit and today I drove in to join him for breakfast.

I find NYC very appealing. As I’ve grown older my desire to live there has grown greater. Of course I would need to re-wife and re-job.

Guess no NYC.

queensboro_bridge.jpgI picked up Matt on 48th Street on the West Side, then headed crosstown finding a parking space adjacent to the building where Judge Judy lives.

Which is more surprising, that I know where Judge Judy lives or I got a free, legal, on-street parking space in Manhattan?

I suppose there are good ways to find a place to eat, but we just tried pot luck and ended up in a diner on First Avenue. Not bad. Very crowded. I had the bagels and lox special. Matt had waffles.

nyc-vertical-skyline.jpgAlong with taking Matt to breakfast I volunteered to take him to the airport. First, he asked if I’d take him to Ground Zero?

Simply put, that’s a request which cannot be turned down regardless of time constraints or circumstances.

We cut across on 34th Street past the Empire State Building, Macy’s and Madison Square Garden. As we approached the West Side I turned south, finally ending up at Vesey and West Broadway, a dead end at the edge of the pit.

ground-zero.jpgThere’s really not a lot to see. The work reconstructing the area has been very slow and plagued with disagreements and power plays.

There is a lot to feel. You just can’t go to that spot without remembering what happened.

By the time Matt got back to the car I’d made a U-turn putting me in the perfect position to almost go the wrong way on Broadway. I discovered my error just before driving into the police car pointed directly at me!

We took the Brooklyn Bridge to the BQE, passed over Newtown Creek, and then north through Queens to LaGuardia.

Hopefully Matt’s back in Milwaukee by now. It was great seeing him and worth every mile.

Soupy Sales Was A Big Part Of My Childhood

That was the attraction. He really was putting on a show. And he was doing it live and virtually unscripted under the most rudimentary of conditions in a media just reaching puberty.

The Soupy Sales Show.jpgSoupy Sales died tonight. He was a comic genius–a term I do not throw around lightly. Though it’s unexpected for someone on the news to say this, he was a guiding force in what I do on-the-air.

I watched Soupy every afternoon on Channel 5. This caused constant conflict with my sister who had other viewing ideas in our one TV family¹.

Soupy’s show was done live from the Channel 5 studios at 205 East 67th Street.

I didn’t look that address up. Anyone around my age who grew up in New York City knows it. It was always said as “Two oh five” and it was the entry address for dozens… maybe hundreds of contests on Channel 5.

Soupy was on in the late afternoon and he was live. It was silly, sophomoric comedy performed with one off screen voice and a studio full of technicians whose laughter was part of the show. Soupy didn’t need a laughtrack. If something was funny all inhibitions were off.

Twenty some odd years ago I hosted the Easter Seal Telethon with Diane Smth. Pre-show we went to “Telethon School” in Las Vegas. As I was being brought around someone introduced me to the director.

“Geoff, this is Arthur Forrest,” he said.

I smiled.

“Artie Forrest?” I asked and smiled some more.

Artie Forrest was Soupy’s director and Soupy was always talking to him or about him on-the-air. Same thing with the make-up man, Carmen Gebbia and someone named Eddie Bezzares (sp?).

It’s forty five years ago, right? I remember the names. Indelible.

The show was live–an hour of shtick daily. But, of course, the rub was you couldn’t write an hour of shtick every day. Even if you could there was no budget on this show.

As awful as the material was it was treated like gold. The set-up for a one liner could take five or six minutes as Soupy went into comedic tangents and stage managers and cameramen giggled.

The show was for kids, but performed for and in front of adults. Much of what went on went on at two levels. Even as a kid I knew that. My job was to try and understand the stuff for adults. Who knows how successful I was (or wasn’t)?

There were a handful of characters Soupy dealt with all played by Frank Nastasi. He never appeared on camera. He was Pookie (a puppet), White Fang and Black Tooth (only a single clawed paw and furry arm was seen for either) and a zillion voices on the radio and telephone.

Often there would be a knock at the door. Soupy would walk over, open it and begin a conversation with whomever was on the other side. But, of course, we saw no one. The voice was Nastasi’s. The set-up to punchline had begun.

When he was in California Soupy threw pies with major celebs. In New York on this local kid’s show there were few guests and all the pies hit Soupy.

The scope of his job is more than I can fathom. He was on live every weekday and then, again, on Saturday with a more scripted and produced show. On Saturdays he even appeared in a pre-produced continuing detective serial as “Philo Kvetch.”

Soupy became hot nationally with a release of “The Mouse.”

Hey, do the mouse, yeah,

Hey, you can do it in your house yeah,

On the rug, or on the wall

If your folks get bugged do it in the hall

Do the Mouse yeah let’s do the mouse

Come-on do the mouse with me

It was not Soupy’s finest moment though he probably made a mint. He performed “The Mouse” on the Ed Sullivan Show! He hosted a live rock show at the New York Paramount.

Soupy never stopped working when he was delivering comedy. As he weaved along he’d spot openings to divert. That was the attraction. He really was putting on a show. And he was doing it live and virtually unscripted under the most rudimentary of conditions in a media just reaching puberty.

If you watch me on TV (thanks if you do) and you hear me talk to the director or one of the guys on he floor–that’s Soupy. If you hear me stop in the middle of a sentence and go off on a tangent, only to come back and finish my point–that’s Soupy too.

We never met. I wish we had. We spent a lot of time together.

¹ – How old school is that? One TV!

We Went To See Julie And Julia

Movies are among the last of our experiences with exacting attention to detail. Movies are meant to be examined through a magnifying glass. The good ones hold up.

julie-and-julia.gifHelaine and I went to the movies yesterday to see Julie and Julia. This is the movie about Julia Child and separately Julie Powell who decides to spend a year preparing and blogging about every recipe in Child’s seminal “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”

365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.

How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait…..

The Julie/Julia Project. Coming soon to a computer terminal near you. – from the opening entry in Jule/Julia Project blog

On a sunny afternoon on the Labor Day weekend you might expect the movie theater to be empty and you’d be right. The sparse crowd was decidedly older. “All the handicapped spots are filled,” I noted as we walked in.

The presentation began with the most inappropriately chosen trailers ever matched to a movie! First up Tyler Perry’s upcoming “I Can Do Bad All by Myself.” It went downhill from there. There were scary movies and guy movies, but as far as I remember no other chick flicks were promoted to this lily white assemblage of mainly senior citizens.

I loved the movie. Truly.

Meryl Streep is effortless as Julia Child, ex-pat wife of a Paris based diplomat (Stanley Tucci–who is the 3-in-1 Oil in Julia’s life ). She is drawn to a cooking school out of boredom with her life. Streep is probably our finest living actress and there’s nothing in this performance to show otherwise.

JJ_wallpaper_07_800x600.jpgAmy Adams was sweet as the Child obsessed chef/blogger. I’ll call her effortless too, though for most of the movie her character kept her emotions out in full view.

An admission. When Helaine kicks me out (sooner or later she will) I intend on moving in with Amy Adams. Amy doesn’t know that yet. Don’t tell. I don’t want to spook her prematurely. She fills the role formerly held by Marianne of Gilligan’s Island.

Set primarily in 1950s Paris and modern day New York City the movie is a character study… or studies. Julia and Julie’s lives are interconnected though they never meet&#185.

As the film was playing I thought about what makes movies so special (and so expensive). Movies are among the last of our experiences with exacting attention to detail. Look at the sets and costumes. Movies are meant to be examined through a magnifying glass. The good ones hold up. This was a good one.

Call me a heretic, but we left the movie and had dinner at IHOP. Julia Child is rolling over in her grave.

&#185 – Nora Ephron is also responsible for “Sleepless in Seattle” in which the primary characters didn’t meet until the very end.

Throgs Neck Bridge Photography–The Answer

The truth is until there’s someone monitoring every car photos will be taken. A person intent on harm isn’t going to be stopped by this.

The MTA has answer concerning photography on the Throgs Neck Bridge. As everyone suspected the decision was 9/11 related.

Dear Mr. Fox:

Thank you for contacting us on this issue. Following 9/11 we instituted a strict no access policy for filming and photography. Since 2002 we have had limited access. Requests for photography and filiming must be reviewed on an individual basis by our Internal Security Department. No security sensitive areas may be filmed or photographed. The news media is accommodated consistent with security concerns.

We do not allow unauthorized photography or filming of our facilities by the general public because of safety concerns for our customers, the safety of our facilities and to avoid interference with operations. I hope this answers your question..

Sincerely,

Judie Glave

MTA Bridges and Tunnels

As with so many other well meaning security measures it was taken quickly because it posed no real cost for MTA. It’s a meaningless gesture which only inconveniences those least likely to use photos for nefarious purposes.

The truth is until there’s someone monitoring every car, photos will be taken. A person intent on harm isn’t going to be stopped by this rule.

More importantly, our way-of-living is based on inherent freedoms. There was never a law allowing photography on the bridge. Being able to freely take pictures here is a given as opposed to policies in the old Soviet Union or North Korea

As I said in my earlier post I was on my way to photograph the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, a much more likely place of interest for someone(s) wanting to make an evil statement. And the Throgs Neck Bridge is only one of thousands of potential terrorist targets in New York City.

The sixties liberal in me talking now. Isn’t it a little ironic that some people will take away your freedom in the name of preserving your freedom. You can’t have it both ways.