Category Archives: NEW YORK

TOUGH GUYS / BET ON CRAZY by Peter Nolan Smith

April 30, 2023 – 5:01 am

Brownsville has always been a tough section of Brooklyn. The one-mile square neighborhood was actually tougher than tough. Its unofficial motto “Brownsville! Never ran, never will!” guaranteed Kings County Hospital the title of the most gunshot victims admitted to a E.R in the USA. The US Army even set up a training program called the […]

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OI VEY CHEESECAKE by Peter Nolan Smith

April 4, 2023 – 1:07 pm

As a young boy growing up outside of Boston, my classmates and I were jealous of the liberal closed-day policy of Beaver Country Day School. The predominantly Jewish school had more snow days per annum than any other institution south of the St. Lawrence River and the shuffle of Holy Days shortened their school year […]

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Willis Reed – The Knicks Legend – RIP

April 4, 2023 – 9:47 am

Willis Reed, the New York Knicks’ greatest player, passed last week. With him at center the Knicks won two won championships. The team has been cursed under the ownership of the amateur guitarist, James Dolan, but Knicks fans old enough had to have shed a teat remembering Reed walking out of the dressing room before […]

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OLD BILL NEXT TO ME by Peter Nolan Smith

April 1, 2023 – 3:34 am

New York’s Plaza Hotel has been a world-famous destination for decades and its 2008 reinvention as a condo-palace and demi-hotel failed to tarnish the reputation of Grand Lady on 5th Avenue. While the newly opened Retail Plaza in the basement had been an abject failure, the Oak Bar continued to attract power brokers, celebrities, and […]

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Snow in Spring NYC 2010

March 20, 2023 – 10:58 am

JoJo, the security guard at the diamond exchange, was a betting man. He gambled the left-overs from his monthly NYPD pension on baseball, basketball, and football. His losses outweighed his wins. JoJo also wagered on odd parlays and at the beginning of March in 2010 I said that there would be another snowstorm. It was […]

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