Tag Archives: NYC

Fall and Rise

Posted on September 11, 2025 by smellincoffee

24 years ago today, the ‘severe clear’ skies above New York were overwhelmed by ash and smoke, by ignorance and hate. Fall and Rise is a history of that day, one that was good enough to be favorably compared to … Continue reading →

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From the Inside Out: Twin Tower Escapes

Posted on September 8, 2025 by smellincoffee

Erik Ronningen came close to death several times on 9/11 as he made his way from the heights above Manhattan to the relative safety of the sidewalks below. The day after, while comparing notes with his wife, Ronningen was struck … Continue reading →

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The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World

Posted on September 5, 2025 by smellincoffee

I’ve been collecting WTC photos since high school, haunted by watching the Towers burn and fall on live tv. Some of the most interesting I’ve seen have been inside Windows of the World, a restaurant that occupied two of the … Continue reading →

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Gandolfini

Posted on August 19, 2025 by smellincoffee

Like many, I was awed by James Gandolfini’s performance throughout The Sopranos,  which made him an actor whose presence guarantees I’ll watch any movie he’s in. Gandolfini is a professional biography of an actor whose charisma and commitment to his … Continue reading →

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Live, from New York — It’s SATURDAY NIGHT!

Posted on February 27, 2024 by smellincoffee

At the end of 2022, a friend of mine discovered that his former roommate had left a boxed set of SNL’s first five seasons — or at least, season two of the same. He was a teenager when SNL first … Continue reading →

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The Lives They Saved

Posted on September 6, 2023 by smellincoffee

“Look for the helpers”, Mr Rogers advised children who were frightened by disaster. L. Douglas Keeney here offers a spyglass to readers. Instead of fixating on the flaming towers, the clouds of smoke filled with dust, jet engine fumes, and … Continue reading →

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My Name is Asher Lev

Posted on August 31, 2023 by smellincoffee

How to describe My Name is Asher Lev? The book opens with Asher himself describing himself as an apostate, a traitor, a mocker — and yet the reader will find no cruel intentions here, only a young man struggling with … Continue reading →

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Humans of New York

Posted on May 19, 2023 by smellincoffee

Humans of New York© 2013 Brandon Stanton304 pages If you ever needed proof that a picture is worth a thousand words, consider one shot near the end of this volume. The scene is a New York city street. A young … Continue reading →

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Of Cicero and base-ball

Posted on May 5, 2023 by smellincoffee

This week I’ve been finishing up a couple of audiobooks. The first is How to Grow Old, a short one by Cicero written during the early part of his retirement from Rome, before the odious Mark Anthony sent men to … Continue reading →

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Go Tell it on the Mountain

Posted on February 13, 2023 by smellincoffee

Go Tell it on the Mountain© 1953 James Baldwin272 pages A young man faces an enormous choice at a presumed-to-be-uneventful prayer meeting, and at this crossroads of his life,  the reader  experiences the choices of his kin whose lives brought … Continue reading →

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