‘Hello, everyone’

A New York moment:

When you’ve lived in New York long enough, the subway announcements become a memorized hum, like a movie you’ve seen a hundred times. The pre-recorded announcements began with, “Ladies and gentlemen”–but that is now defunct. The MTA just revealed new announcements, designed to be gender-neutral.

“Hello everyone,” the new recording begins, usually announcing a service change or issuing a reminder not to throw garbage on the tracks. The main announcer is a woman giving a monotone delivery, sounding slightly annoyed about the change like a true New Yorker. This language change parallels the London Underground, which abandoned “ladies and gentlemen” in its announcements this past summer.

More importantly, New York’s subway service is worse than London’s. A new New York Times investigation showed that the subway has the worst on-time performance of the world's top 20 rapid transit systems. The system’s guts are in bad shape after decades of bad political decisions.

Everyone now has stories about how subway delays have ruined a day; a train will sit eternally, or an announcer will say that the Q train you’re on will now run on the F line. I always think of the scene in 30 Rock where Liz Lemon is unsuccessfully trying to exit a train in the New York subway, and as the doors close on her the announcer says, “This train is going express for no reason.”

But that’s where one other announcement change from the MTA is helping to soothe rider anger. Before, if a train were delayed, train announcers would simply say, “We’re experiencing train traffic ahead,” which everyone knew was baloney. Now announcers have to provide specific, real updates to passengers. They’ll say if there is a sick passenger at 96th Street, or a signal problem at Chambers Street. A train trip that takes twice the time it should is frustrating, but it sure is nice to know what’s going on.

Worth your time:

With the tidal wave of accusations of sexual misconduct toward people in all walks of life–the latest names include prominent members of the press like New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush and legendary television host Charlie Rose–Ross Douthat’s eviscerating obituary of Hugh Hefner is worth re-reading. He published it before the Harvey Weinstein news broke, and it is prophetic. “[T]he rot Hugh Hefner spread goes very, very deep,” he wrote.

This week I learned:

In New York City, a single person making $90,000 can qualify for taxpayer subsidized “affordable” housing, with rent at about $2,000 a month.

A court case you might not know about:

In downtown New York, the trial begins after Thanksgiving in the case of a Turkish banker who helped Iranians bypass U.S. sanctions for years. Joon Kim, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, brought this case. He is the “acting” prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired his boss, Preet Bharara, in March. Trump’s hasn’t named anyone to replace Bharara, but this case shows that the office’s high-profile litigation goes on.

Culture I am consuming:

I’m currently trying to watch all of Billy Wilder’s movies. The latest: The Apartment (1960), which is going on my all-time favorites list. Jack Lemmon is superb. With all the news about sexual harassment in the workplace, this film is a very adept critique of men abusing sexual power. And it's funny, too.

Postscript: Email me with tips, story ideas, and feedback. ebelz@wng.org