Content tagged with “nyc”

“ A small building prevented Macy’s from building on an entire block, so they built around it and leased billboards on it for a century. ”

“ There’s a house just north of New York City that has become a magnet for film and TV shoots, including almost all pre-recorded videos for Saturday Night Live. ”

“ Gold from a lot of different countries is stored in a vault under New York City. Exchanging funds many countries therefore just involves moving gold from one shelf to another. ”

“This a classic art coffee table book. It’s huge – 11 x 14, I think, and it weighs maybe 10 pounds? It’s the kind of book you set on your coffee table just to look at. (True story: when I first picked it up at a used bookstore in Minneapolis, I aggravated a back injury, forcing me to withdraw from…”

“ A teenager was denied alcohol at one of NYC’s most prestigious establishments, so he embarked on a dumbfounding sidewalk campaign to claim antisemitism and Holocaust denial. And somehow a hip-hop star is involved. ”

“Apparently, no one knew who actually owned The Empire State Building for a period of years, back in the 90s. A Japanese billionaire had bought it at a cheap price, because it was saddled with a really crappy 114-year lease. But he had actually directed his daughter to buy it (he had never even been…”

“ A deep dive into common formats of apartments in NYC, including the historical reasons why living spaces evolved that way. ”

“Absolutely stunning novel. I had heard of the book for years. My mother was born in Ethiopia in the 1940s (my grandparents were missionaries from New Zealand), and several people had told me that the story in the novel resembled my mother’s experience there as a child. The book was purchased for me…”

“A lovely collection of blog posts about all the hidden stuff in your city. Why lampposts are shaped the way they are. Why manhole covers are round. What the markings on sidewalks mean. It’s a great reader – every ‘chapter’ is really just a blog post or podcast episode, so you can read 4-5 of them…”

“ An unexplained breeze in her bathroom caused an NYC woman to remove the mirror, which revealed an entire hidden apartment. ”

“ When Grand Central Station was cleaned up in the 90s, a small patch of grime was left so people would be reminded of how dirty it used to be. ”

“ A profile of a premier homebuilder in Manhattan and some of the projects he works on. ”

“ The NYC libraries used to have live-in caretakers. Their abandoned apartments are still in many of the the buildings. ”

“ In 1978, a young architecture student found a design flaw in a one-year-old NYC skyscraper which meant the building could collapse in a specific wind. Thankfully, the architect who designed the building listened. ”

“ The Jewish community in NYC found a way to consider a large portion of the city their ‘home,’ which allows them to perform work on the Sabbath. ”

“A stunning memoir of a dysfunctional childhood. Jeannette’s parents weren’t actively abusive, but they were passively abusive in the sense that they had no personal responsibility, and they never gave any regard to holding down jobs and providing basic care to their children. In retrospect (and in…”

“ There is a house in NYC that’s less than nine feet wide. The house has a storied history with several notable occupants. ”

“ There was an ethnic neighborhood underneath where Central Park now sits. It was destroyed to create the park, and NYC has finally started to acknowledge this. ”

“ When you have to renovate one of the most iconic jewelry stores in the world, moving all your inventory is a risky undertaking. ”

“ An homage to the vanishing days when the big, black cars floated through the streets of NYC. ”

“ Wonderful documentary about the history and heyday of Studio 54, a disco in late 70s NYC that took the genre to new heights, before it all came crashing down. Told by Ian Schaeger, one of the two men behind the club. ”

“ There is a race where you run around a single block in Queens…5,649 times. The record is 40 days. ”

“ While the law said that a drink can only be served with a meal, it didn’t say the meal had to be edible. The Raines Sandwich is a fascinating study in law interpretation and evasion. ”

“ A profile of The Explorer’s Club, which is exactly what the title implies: a century old group of adventurers that have a headquarters in NYC. ”

“ Incredible oral history of Saturday Night Live. There’s no actual narrative to this book – the entire thing is just a series of anecdotes told by cast members, writers, occasional hosts, and others. I loved the format, disagreements and all. 750 pages, and would have gladly read 750 more. ”

“ Didn’t love it. Was confused for most of it. Lots of characters and some of the summation at the end didn’t make sense. Additionally, a lot of political moralizing. ”

“This is an extremely short book (like, 100 small pages with lots and lots of pictures). Start to finish, it might take you 30 minutes. It’s more of a handbook of the different physical markers you can find of the internet in NYC. It has a directory of manhole covers, for instance, and descriptions…”

“I read this book for the pure titillation level, because I’m fascinated by high society in general and New York culture in particular. And the book delivered on that level – there are some horrifying anecdotes where of a woman trying to fit into Upper East Side mommies. Women who use Birkin bags as…”

“Michael Lewis could write about anything and it would be interesting. In this book, he tackles High Frequency Trading, and reveals just how absurd and unethical it is. Essentially, trading houses are using technical and ultra-fast communications to bet against their own customers. The entire thing…”

“I bailed out on this book at exactly the halfway point (50% on the nose, according to my Kindle). I had such high hopes, but the book was essentially just a recitation of the lives of the people who lived at 740 Park Ave. Chapter after chapter was a dissection of these people’s lives, to the point…”