There are people who live long enough to create a link — a one-generation link — to figures from what feels like a distant past, and their presence among us shrinks history. When “Long Ago” suddenly becomes “So I said to him …,” long ago jumps closer. There are many examples of people who shrink history this way. The blogger Jason Kottke has been collecting examples. He calls them “human wormholes,” because these people help us leap across space/time. Here are my favorites.
Defender 90 with Mattracks
(Source: whereisthecoool)
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The city is a fantastic playground in 1976, ’77. My best friend and I crash gay discos. We wear our hair up because it is said that Son of Sam targets girls with long brown hair. We wear short shorts and halters and smoke Newports and eat Hostess cherry pies when we get the munchies. There is no need for school, no need to go home. I want to stay out forever.
Nancy Rommelmann - Dazed and Confused [via NY Times]
Air Force 1 Duckboot care of Undefeated. Ready to get back to NYC winter.
Born In New York
“That’s the problem with being born in New York… You’ve got no New York to run away to.”
- from Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Poor Greg.
![A mysterious triangular mosaic is set in the sidewalk in front of Village Cigars in the West Village at 110 Seventh Avenue South at Christopher Street. It reads: “Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated for Public Purpose.” This tiny piece of land is the result of a dispute between a former owner, the David Hess estate, of Philadelphia and NYC. Hess owned the Voorhis apartment building at that corner which had been condemned to build a subway line. The estate refused to surrender a remaining triangle, 500 square inches, the smallest piece of private property in the city. In 1938 they sold the plot to Village Cigars for $1,000. Cracked and worn, it remains a testimony to one small triumph over the city of New York…
[via New York Daily Photo]](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyc7knsAzc1qz77oeo1_500.jpg)
A mysterious triangular mosaic is set in the sidewalk in front of Village Cigars in the West Village at 110 Seventh Avenue South at Christopher Street. It reads: “Property of the Hess Estate Which Has Never Been Dedicated for Public Purpose.” This tiny piece of land is the result of a dispute between a former owner, the David Hess estate, of Philadelphia and NYC. Hess owned the Voorhis apartment building at that corner which had been condemned to build a subway line. The estate refused to surrender a remaining triangle, 500 square inches, the smallest piece of private property in the city. In 1938 they sold the plot to Village Cigars for $1,000. Cracked and worn, it remains a testimony to one small triumph over the city of New York…
[via New York Daily Photo]
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The only girl I ever loved took 20 minutes to download, but she was worth the wait. She never moves.
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The grass roots they can generate is, frankly, concerning.
Cary Sherman, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said of the Internet community. [via A Clash of Media Worlds (and Generations)]
