Could we please stop all the male bashing and whining about “manspread” on the subway? It is not a comfort thing or even unintentional. And it is certainly not, as the NY Times somewhat lewdly opined, an “assertion of power.” It’s simply a cultural thing! More than half a century ago at St. Sebastian’s grammar school in Woodside Sister Alma DeLourdes conducted a class experiment where she would unexpectedly drop a rubber eraser onto the lap of a random student. In every case a boy would instinctively close his legs to catch the eraser and the girl would open hers to catch the same eraser. The good Sister explained the phenomena as a learned cultural reflex action stemming from the fact that boys routinely sit spread legged as they wear pants and girls close legged as they wear skirts or dresses. Henceforth I will consider any and all complaints about “manspread” to be misandrist, discriminatory and politically incorrect. If it still offends you, perhaps you should consider moving to Scotland!
Our City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, lavished praise on a recently deceased Puerto Rican nationalist who spent 11 years in prison for her role as an accomplice in the 1954 terrorist shooting in Congress by Puerto Rican Nationalists that left five US legislators wounded. The Speaker described Isabel Rosado Morales as “our icon and national patriot” in a tweet from her personal Twitter account. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Keep in mind that back when she was only a council member she routinely refused to say the pledge of allegiance at the start of meetings. When asked about her refusal to say the pledge she told another council member it was because she “wanted Puerto Rico to be independent.” Interestingly enough, when she decided to run for the Speaker’s position she put political expediency ahead of her principles and suddenly started to stand up, place her hand over her heart and recite the pledge verbatim! I guess we are all left to wonder whether Speaker Mark-Viverito is a hypocrite or simply stupid?
Mayor de Blasio needed $100 million in pledges from private donors in order to bring the Democratic National Convention to NYC and as of last month he had raised $15 million but, as of last week, that figure had only increased slightly up to $16 million. Word on the street has it that all the turmoil between our Mayor and the NYPD has all but spoiled his chance at landing the 2016 Democratic National Convention. If true, that leaves Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as top contenders to host the party.
More people are leaving New York than are moving in according to Michael Stoll, a professor of public policy at University of California, Los Angeles, and a consultant to United Van Lines who studies American migration, the moves reflect the increasing numbers of retiring baby boomers who are leaving our colder, and more expensive state in favor of lower-cost locations with retirement infrastructures like Florida and Arizona.
If you are not familiar with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram I recommend you study up on your social media quickly because I can assure you things are going to get real interesting very soon! On Monday, March 2nd, N.Y.C. public school students will once again be allowed to bring their cell phones to school with them. The law of unintended consequences just about guarantees that the little darlings will rapidly discover some ingenious and innovative ways of furtively posting to their social media accounts as a means of documenting their time spent in class!
Broad Channel – why would anyone want to live anywhere else?
Contact info: rtbetweenthebridges@gmail.com or call/text – 347-226-1293
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