NewYork Pulse: Flatline

The New York Post. It only costs a quarter, and in an age of $5 coffee this seems like an incredible value, even for budget pseudo-news. The NY Times makes you break change, so you just wait to read it online. The Daily News smells funny and the ink rubs off too easily. Newsday is a rag for lining the shirts of vagrants in February. But the Post, so long as you drop your coin into the Pakistani palm with an appropriate sense of ironic nonchalance, is a perfect single-serving of skeezy news, short AP headlines, witty sports banners and oh-so-delicious gossip to have a head start on Gawker reading. Just steer clear of the Op-Eds and don't ever get caught in a Post-related conversation with a lifer secretary, and you're set. Well, almost. See, occasionally, it can't help but rear its head as a hilariously bad newspaper.

Today's New York Pulse section features the article "Singles Making Tracks for the F". According to Maureen Callahan, "For singles, the hot new scene has no guest list, drink minimum or membership fee- and the price of admission is just $2. It's the F train." Highlights of the always newsworthy Craigslist: Missed Connections page round out her expose, with a couple interviewees rattling off stations where they'd seen hot people. Most of the page is taken up by a full size shot of this.

Jacket & Tie with Diesels really works for you, firebush. And that furled Post is a nice touch.

The article's cutting-edge trendiness for the real pulse of New York is what most astounds. About two years ago, when I worked for the Mayor reading city news, I had to outline a story about a grassroots email campaign to set the first car of every subway as a singles' car. A single Park Slope resident taking the F to and from work, I even did some g-sleuthing-- not too much of a stretch since I'm always people and/or freak-watching on the trains anyway. Alas, nothing to report. A car full of Mexicans, teenage moms and seedy brooklynites does not a singles car make. This story was D.O.A. straight out of the can in '02, and has unfortunately stayed that way-- even despite the efforts of the clever advertising people at Smirnoff Ice who've since shown us how to do a party on a subway car right.