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From Manhattan to Brooklyn: Finding a New Way on the Subway

September 1st was my first day of riding the subway to work. Up until now, the Long Island Railroad was the most efficient way to get to my office, time wise. It only took seventeen minutes or so on the Long Island Railroad and I was a short walk away from the office. In just a few short days that will be changing as my office is relocating to Brooklyn — the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, specifically. There is no direct Long Island Railroad (LIRR) route there, and taking the LIRR and transferring to a subway would save about ten minutes and cost one hundred dollars more. This is, of course, unacceptable with baby Davidescu on the way. With that in mind, I could not help but notice many differences between the two train lines.

Continue reading → From Manhattan to Brooklyn: Finding a New Way on the Subway

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Sleepless from Seattle: Being Your Own Captive Audience

Several people had already told me as much, but it was only about a few hours into the flight that the real insanity of this trip really dawned on me. As far as I know, I am going to be spending more time on the way to the airport, back from the airport, and on the airplane than I will be spending at the actual place I am visiting. This seems like madness.

Continue reading → Sleepless from Seattle: Being Your Own Captive Audience

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Urban Chariot

Is this ridiculous thing — reeking of foppish desperation and geek fantasia — the new Urban Chariot?  Is our future so doomed by the economy that we’ll be coerced into actually traveling the streets of Manhattan and rolling along the suburban wilds in a P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) from Segway and General Motors?  We know the future is round, but must it also be ugly as well as silly?

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Wearing Vomit Pants

In a previous discussion here about Coughing in the Crook we discussed the use of special “Vomit Pants” that are worn when one takes public transportation.
Some train and bus seats are created completely of plastic so it is a simpler task to avoid a puddle of urine or that bit of dried vomitus waiting to stain your slacks.

The newer busses and trains, however, cleverly use an industrial strength fabric that conceals most disgusting human remnants and provides no visual forewarning before you sit and, therefore, Vomit Pants become the required uniform of the day to avoid messing your good clothes in the muddle of others.

Do you have a special pair of Vomit Pants you wear on the train, bus or airplane to preserve your real outfit for the day? Or do you just risk sitting in someone else’s spew and piddle and let your pants be damned?

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PATH Train Hero

The other day I was riding the PATH train from Journal Square to Newark. 30 seconds before the train pulled into the Harrison stop the train’s horn repeatedly sounded and the brakes were applied so hard that several people who were standing in the car lost their balance for more than a moment.

Continue reading → PATH Train Hero