Photo courtesy of the New York Times
Fans of Richard Pryor will know the next line to the joke in title: ” The monkey live here. You just visitin’ “.
Say what you want about all this business with President Obama, the New York Post and monkeys, but the original story that started this whole mess - the one about the lady’s face getting torn off by a chimp - has stirred up some of the funniest journalism I’ve seen in years.
To wit, Thursday’s New York Times article of people who live with monkeys, entitled “My Monkey, My Self” by Joyce Wadler. Although I think “Love Me, Love My Monkey” would have been a better title.
The story’s best line:
Bob, who’s owned wild animals all his life, admits Higgins has not always been a model pet. When Higgins was 3, he slept with the couple, often awakening Bob in the morning by climbing to the bedroom rafters and dropping onto Bob’s stomach. On one occasion, they got in a wrestling match, and Higgins put one of his “steel-like fingernails” through Bob’s scrotum.
Bob has considered moving him to a sanctuary, but “I’m just too attached to him,” he says.
READ THE FULL NYT STORY HERE
From the New York Daily News comes this news that Damon Dash, power mover, vodka broker and former Jay-Z business partner, probably should have squashed his beefs and stayed in business with Jay Z.
According to the paper, he’s fallen into “MC-Hammer-style” brokeness. A pretty amazing, though not completely surprising, turn of events.
Read the full article here.
There are only a few sites and blogs that are absolute weekly must-visits for me each week. Always in the top 10 is Last Night’s Party [lastnightsparty.com]. [Not Safe for Work]
The kind of stuff you kind of want to turn away from but can’t stop looking.
Sure, the club kids are way too self-conscious. And Bronques - who used to have the occasional nude or topless photo taken in an empty bathroom - knows which side of the bread his web traffic is buttered on and the bits of nudity seem forced now. Even still, it’s a window into nightlife that makes voyeurism a real art. It also makes you wonder who all these people are who are having more fun than you (or at least trying to make you think that).
The music world has obviously taken notice as well. Last week, the new music group, N*E*R*D* released the video for a new single, “Everyone Nose” which takes imagery from the LNP site and brings it to life.
Critiques have beem mixed about the song itself (I dig it) but the video does a great job of capturing the Last Night’s Party energy.
Click to See the Full Video for “Everyone Nose“
Almost buried beside the New York Times online coverage of the Sean Bell verdict is this very interesting graphic that shows the record of the New York Police department on major cases of fatal over the last 24 years since the famed Eleanor Bumpers case. Upon first glance, the first impression is that over 24 years, 8 major cases (that includes Bell) is not an awful record given such a large city with a fairly major crime problem over those many years.
But take out the Bumpers case and you find that the majority of these cases happened in a fairly concentrated space within the last ten years. Not surprising also that most occurred during the Mayoral administration of Rudy Guiliani. And while New York is a friendlier place in general since Rudy left (certainly at the Mayor’s Office level), the concentrated nature of these police crimes points to some real holes in the theory of “Zero Tolerance” policies in policing.
Certainly New York is safer, cleaner and more vibrant (if more sterile) because of its drop in crime as a result of Zero Tolerance. But at what cost to life and community relations?
Most people assume that Zero Tolerance only meant fining people for littering, spitting and getting rid of porn video shops. Basically the theory being that one broken window leads to another and eventually a neighborhood of broken windows means crime. I tend to agree with that. The question is what categories of activities by residents does the New York police force define as metaphorical “broken windows.” Is it cursing at a cop? Reaching for a wallet? Taking three seconds to put your hands up instead of two? Whatever that definition is, the people in the street clearly are not on the same page.
What Zero Tolerance has done, even if it has been effective on the surface, is to create a tension that makes the community more fearful of the police than of the criminals who used to inhabit the streets. That would be just dandy if the only people who were fearful were the actual criminals. But what is the net impact when law-abiding people who should be the first line of support, communication and cooperation for the police are distrustful?
When the people are not on the side of the cops, how safe is the city ultimately?
Rudy’s made million since his reign pushing his zero tolerance agenda. And technically, there’s nothing wrong with Zero Tolerance, but without the critical components of community relations, a return to walking beats and more active community policing, it’s a false sense of security at best.
In all this hubbub around the now resigned Eliot Spitzer and his heir apparent David Paterson, it’s important to know that Paterson did not just appear out of the woodwork. He comes from a background of considerable political influence. Paterson’s dad is the legendary Basil Paterson (centered above), former deputy mayor of New York City and a member of the equally legendary Gang of Four - the powerful group of political power brokers that includes Paterson (Basil), former mayor David Dinkins, Harlem Rep. Charlie Rangel and broadcasting magnate Percy Sutton. You know that song by 50 Cent that goes “I run New York”? That could be their theme song.
After the excitement dies down about Spitzer, expect it to slowly and gradually start back up for Paterson. He’s quiet, unassuming and has a high-pitched Brooklyn accent but that masks the decades of training he’s had literally at the foot of the masters. My prediction is that not only will he deftly engineer a repair of New York’s $8 billion budget shortfall, but he’ll be the first to unite Democrats and Republicans and move the kind of legislation that will respond to the needs of New York City as well as the upstate area.
One indication that Paterson’s star is on the rise - his Wikipedia entry has already been changed.
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