Ask a New Yorker: You just finished walking the highline. How was it? Stephanie: It was magical. It was fantastic. It’s such a beautiful day; the clouds are out so we didn’t have direct sun. There was a little slight breeze blowing. There were people walking the Highline together and it was wonderful. Being above… Read more »
Yesterday, a hawk soared over Central Park’s Sailboat Lake (aka the Conservatory) for twenty minutes without a landing. The British were at the Band Shell celebrating the Olympics, charity, rugby, and the Queen’s 60th year on the throne. They also brought along a beautiful classic car just because. Near the statue of the Union soldier… Read more »
Anyone who has ever given me a haphazard pat on the back knows the consequences of that simple gesture. Touching my back—out of necessity or concern or coincidence—means subjecting yourself to one of my full meltdowns. Literally I melt—my spine curves into a hump, my shoulder blades poke upward, and my chin falls to my… Read more »
Ask a New Yorker: It’s great seeing you. What’s going on? What did you just say? Darrel: I’d hate to leave New York on such a beautiful day and go to L.A because it feels like L.A is here when NY is sunny. Ask a New Yorker: Why are you going to L.A? Darrel: I’m… Read more »
This past weekend I went “home” to Boone, North Carolina to see the littlest Gentile, Nicholas, graduate from high-school. As you can see from the picture attached, he was REALLY thrilled about graduating. Because I am 11 years older than Nicholas, I still see him as a helpless baby, and watching him walk across the… Read more »
Q: It is so hard it is to identify the origins of clothing these days (re: sweatshops!). Plus, there’s the obfuscation of employee/worker issues (American Apparel sex scandals?!) and companies that are surreptitiously making multi-million dollar donations to hateful causes (Target supports anti-gay legislation??!!). It seems like those few companies doing things on the up-and-up… Read more »
Since publishing King of Angels, A Novel About the Genesis of Identity and Belief, I’ve been getting all the usual questions that writers get when a book comes out: 1) Where do you get your inspiration? For many writers, inspiration is not much of a problem—all you have to do is read the front part… Read more »
There is a reason why I live in an apartment in New York, a reason that goes far beyond the reaches of Sex and the City, a reason so old and so dear it is now imprinted in my DNA. *** My father’s siblings, four in all, are a special lot, wholly different than my… Read more »
In the fall of 1997, on Long Beach Island in Jersey, my friends John, Jerome, and Freddy cautiously agreed to let me help them build a porch on Second Street in Beach Heaven. John knew I was mechanically challenged and still years away from memorizing and applying “lefty loosey, righty tighty” when turning a screw. Early in the affair,… Read more »
I love Lower Manhattan this time of year. I have at least 50 (no exaggeration) different spots along the water where I can sit and watch boats, or the sun, or children playing. I never get tired of seeking out new vantage points on the Hudson and East rivers because, like my ancestors of long… Read more »
