New York's Finest
Timeless stories from our 174-year archive handpicked to add context to the news of the day.
The Corruption That Never Sleeps
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“The most important city on the globe has become a laughingstock.”
–Eric Adams
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“We are not going to sit back and accept that rodents are taking over our city.”
–Eric Adams
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“I think you have totally and absolutely misinterpreted the law, because there’s something deranged about you.”
–Rudy Giuliani
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“I think sending a rat, a roach, and a photograph of the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel at rush hour would give anyone pause, even an alien.”
–Ed Koch
Read the former mayor’s contribution to “Notes in an Interplanetary Bottle”
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“Where are the good citizens of New York? Where are the men of light and leading? Inquire at the Missing Persons Bureau.”
Read “The Scandals of New York” by Alva Johnston
Unethically Sourced
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“Where was truth, and who was fit to bear the burden of the public trust? What had happened to the good old days when journalism was a noble occupation and journalists were serious professionals comparable to surgeons and deputy undersecretaries of state?”
Read “Punch and Judy” by Lewis Lapham
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“I know of writers who consider it a tragedy to earn a living from journalism.”
Read “No News Is Bad News” by Isaac Bashevis Singer
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“News standards, like conventions of morality, are subject to change.”
Read “The Art of Ballyhoo” by Silas Bent
Did He?
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“It’s particularly when women speak up about sexual crimes that their right and capacity to speak come under attack.”
Read “Cassandra Among the Creeps” by Rebecca Solnit
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“The Weinstein revelations spurred a reexamination of who was audible and who mattered. The persistent harassment in many industries was finally acknowledged: abuse, denigration, and assault had long been regarded as officially unacceptable but permissible as long as the public didn’t know that those in charge had been aware.”
Read “Nobody Knows” by Rebecca Solnit
In Memoriam: Fredric Jameson
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“His has been a voice of implacability that becomes a form of courage, proven by holding a moment’s hope or ecstasy over years and decades of patient labor, while other things run to sand, and all in order to keep our eyes fixed there too. A remarkable ending, and last words, for the book of a Marxist critic.”
Read “Glimmers of Totality” by Mark Greif