16 is the new 6, teens as toddlers
BY LENORE SKENAZY | When Walt Disney was 16 he forged his parents’ signatures and lied about his age so he could join the American Ambulance Corps, which was part of the Red Cross. That’s how he...
View ArticleI was the victim of a slide show
BY LENORE SKENAZY | A high school friend I hadn’t seen in years was passing through New York. We had just a few precious hours to catch up, so we wandered around Central Park, exulting in its blossom...
View ArticleMother’s Day mission: Finding the will to chill
BY LEKNORE SKENAZY | Mother’s Day is usually marked by burned toast, dandelion bouquets and crayon drawings of mommies and children with hearts all around them. It is a great day. This Mother’s Day,...
View ArticleEtan Patz fear vs. reality: It has never been safer to be a child
By LENORE SKENAZY | As we settle in to the reality that we will probably never know what happened to Etan Patz after he disappeared that May morning in 1979, maybe we can finally come to terms with the...
View ArticleThe Platonic Oreo & the ever-more elusive vanilla ice cream
By LENORE SKENAZY | Not everyone shares my hobby, but let me put it out there. It is grocery shopping. Nothing I enjoy more. And since we live in the city, I’m shopping all the time, because who has...
View ArticleFor the love of the bodega in N.Y.C.
By LENORE SKENAZY |It is the place you can grab a gallon of milk or a can of frosting at midnight, but is it possible it is also one of those amazingly New York things that, like Central Park, makes...
View ArticleAre we too hard on sex offenders?
By LENORE SKENAZY | Emily Horowitz spends a lot of time with people other professors don’t. Criminals. Domestic violence victims. Domestic violence perps. Sex offenders. Guys convicted of murder. A...
View ArticleAre we too hard on sex offenders?
BY LENORE SKENAZY | Emily Horowitz spends a lot of time with people other professors don’t. Criminals. Domestic violence victims. Domestic violence perps. Sex offenders. Guys convicted of murder. A...
View ArticleA slice of old New York survives Downtown
BY LENORE SKENAZY | To me, “old New York” is the city I moved to in 1981. Back then, the subway cars were so covered with graffiti, you couldn’t see out the windows. You always added a 20-minute...
View ArticleHey ‘iWatch,’ you could be the next Zenith or RCA
BY LENORE SKENAZY | As you fantasize about getting yourself the very coolest, hippest, newest gadget on the block — an Apple Watch, that is — pause for a moment to consider the perspective of the...
View ArticleX-Men & other superheroes of gay marriage
By Lenore Skenazy | Superman helped America find its fighting spirit. Captain America did his white male, square-jawed, hetero-normative bit, too. But it was the next generation of superheroes — the...
View ArticleThe X-Men & other superheroes for gay marriage
BY LENORE SKENAZY | Superman helped America find its fighting spirit. Captain America did his white male, square-jawed, hetero-normative bit, too. But it was the next generation of superheroes — the...
View ArticleSomething to nosh on: Downtown’s delis came decades after the Jews
By LENORE SKENAZY | Every time Ted Merwin sat down to research his new book, he would get hungry. After interviewing him, I had the same problem — I ran out and bought myself half a pound of Hebrew...
View ArticleLaw forces N.Y. doctors to prolong the suffering for terminally ill
By LENORE SKENAZY| Agony is not something most of us want to live through, especially when the end result is not something great, like childbirth, or learning to walk again, or recovering from...
View ArticleN.Y.C.’s new slang dictionary
BY LENORE SKENAZY | New Yorkers have always had their own slang. We all know that “coffee regular” means coffee with milk and sugar. A “straphanger” is a subway rider (though, come to think of it,...
View Article25 years for teen who had sex with minor
By LENORE SKENAZY | Les and Amanda Anderson arrived in New York from Indiana this past Thursday night and headed straight to Times Square, as many tourists do. But as they gaped at the billboards and...
View ArticleMemories of the city’s summer smells: Can you believe some are sweet?
By LENORE SKENAZY | Summer in New York is nothing if not pungent. So pungent that there are certain smells that conjure up a New York August the way the smell of crayons whisks you right back to first...
View ArticleBusty, skinny or broody? Fashion’s got a decade & jeans for you
By LENORE SKENAZY | You get up in the morning and walk out the door clad in history. Every item you’re wearing owes a debt to the genius of yesteryear, just as surely as Elvis owes a debt to Muddy...
View ArticleSeparate & unequal schools in New York City
BY LENORE SKENAZY | What’s it like to be a substitute in the New York City public schools? That’s not what Elizabeth Rose’s new book, “Yo Miz!,” is about. It’s about what it’s like to be a sub at 25...
View ArticleStop it — the Hudson Yards subway station got built, and it’s beautiful
By LENORE SKENAZY | Do yourself — and your soul — a favor. Hop on the 7 train and go to the last stop in Manhattan, the brand- spanking-new one: 34th Street Hudson Yards. You will emerge into the...
View Article