If you grew up in the 70s, like me, New York City was the most horrible place on earth.
Taxi Driver. The Warriors. Little Murders. The Out-of-Towners. Midnight Cowboy. Panic in Needle Park. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Death Wish.
(Hell, if you’re as introverted, agoraphobic and afraid of getting lost or run over as I am, even On the ****ing Town is a horror film…)
Watching TV as a kid, I wasn’t really sure what “mugging” was, but the word alone was terrifying.
People in New York were always getting “mugged,” usually in “Central Park” or near the “Port Authority Bus Terminal” or “Times Square” — all bywords for “hell.”
That’s when they weren’t plain old getting shot and stabbed.
At the very least, Walter Matthau would pop up and start yelling at you.
Everything was dirty and grimy, like the Barney Miller police station.
There were always blackouts and strikes.
The city was broke.
I have never had any desire to go there, even after the Guiliani clean-up.
Why bother going to New York City? I had seen it on TV already, my whole life.
But I got a bee in my bonnet to go to NYC for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the day it went back to being the worst place on earth again.
We’ll be at the “alternative” rally, at 3PM, that Pamela Geller is putting on and Ezra Levant is speaking at.
By an incredible stroke of luck, Nick DiPaolo is playing the Gotham this weekend, too.
So we’re leaving Saturday morning and scheduled to return Monday night.
Glenn Beck has posted an audio archive, including his monologue that day.
