Why The Simpsons is (Still) the Best

The Simpsons celebrated its 20^th anniversary on the air tonight, and I still maintain it’s the best cartoon show on television and probably in the history of the world. No other cartoon has been as funny as long, and it will take an animated show truly amazing and historical to knock the Simpsons from their perch as the lords of the animated world.

I’ve been a big Simpsons fan for years. My favorite episode is probably the one where Springfield legalizes gambling and Marge becomes addicted to the slot machines. My favorite character is Krusty the Clown, he embodies all the cynicism and greed that encapsulates our age. And the shows that focus on him have been among the best.

I had even considered getting a Stonecutters tattoo years ago. I was amazed to see that there’s a woman in Argentina with this very tattoo who was shown on the 20^th Anniversary special. The tattoo looks pretty hot on her, not sure it would have worked for me.

I hate to say it, but many of my friends defected to the Family Guy camp years ago. While I am a fan of Family Guy, it can’t top The Simpsons. Family Guy does not have the depth or wit that The Simpsons has. It also suffers from what I call ‘Saturday Night Live’ syndrome, where the same jokes are stretched out for time and repeated overly recycled. The Family Guy is good, but it is the Three Stooges to The Simpsons’ Marx Brothers—and no, the Three Stooges are nowhere near as good as the Marx Brothers. I rank Family Guy in third place (South Park is second).

So fellow Simpsons fans who have stayed loyal to the greatest show ever, stay strong and celebrate. Happy 20^th anniversary Simpsons!

More Trouble in Stuy Town

The firms that bought Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will miss a $16 million debt payment due today.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village were built in the 1940s to house World War II veterans and their families. For decades it allowed middle and working class New Yorkers to live and work in Manhattan.

My mother grew up in Stuyvesant Town, and when I was growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., we would travel to the city to visit my grandmother in the apartment my mother grew up in. It was a spacious one bedroom and if they had known then what we know now about the city’s real estate market, my parents would have urged her to stay there and buy the place rather than move to Yonkers. It was where I watched the first space shuttle launch on television and went on the first Easter egg hunt that I can remember.

Even before it was bought by the real estate speculators in 2006, these complexes had gone back on their pledge to keep rents affordable, but the big buyout at the height of the real estate bubble was an exercise in the worst aspects of both real estate speculation and private equity excess. The only way the buyers could make back their money would be to turn these former middle class enclaves into luxury apartments. It was an exercise in financial hubris.

Despite these problems, Manhattan tenants are still going to lose out in the end. The creditors who may get some or all of the properties if the owners have to declare bankruptcy will certainly want to recoup as much money as possible, and that isn’t made renting to good-hearted working folks like you and me. Rents may not go up as much as previously thought across the city, but they’re not going down anywhere; that’s one thing that doesn’t change.

Good Riddance to a Rotten Decade

At midnight tonight, we will start a new decade. Those of you who want to point out that the decade is really going to start on Jan. 1, 2011 can go soak your head.

This decade has been cruel to New York. We started off tremendously. The year 2000 stands as a landmark year, the height of a latter-day jazz age of sorts. The economy was doing well and New York was at the height of its renaissance. We had a subway series for the World Series and the Yankees won, could there be a more perfect New York moment than that? (Yes, but only if you’re a Mets fan.)

The history of our decade really started Sept. 11, 2001. A lot changed after that day, but not in a good way. While the courage and sacrifice of our countrymen and the citizens of our city during and after the Sept. 11 attacks has been inspiring, the history of our country since then has only illustrated what looks like the sad decline of a crumbling empire. Our political leaders have been as shallow and vacuous as the pop-culture idols who consume what our corporations now peddle as news. Everywhere people mutter the same meaningless mantras while avoiding the tough decisions or doing what is right.

Where the twin towers once stood, a flimsy response to the attacks is being built slowly, very late and over budget. Unless things somehow change miraculously and fast, our New York City skyline will be a permanent monument to our injury instead of evidence of our resilience. Our city is in the hands of an undemocratic billionaire and a city council of overpaid demagogues and buffoons. In Brooklyn tonight, residents know that they could lose their homes if a big enough real estate developer decides his condominiums would look good in their neighborhood.

Not all about the decade has been bad. Friends have married and had children, and I’ve made a lot of new friends over the past 10 years. I’ve managed to make a living as a journalist for the last decade (with a big break of unemployment after the 2001 attacks that lasted about a year). And I’ve managed to do creative things that bring me much satisfaction. I have great hopes for the coming decade personally.

Still, the 00’s of this century have not been good. Here’s hoping the new decade brings good things.

Even Atheists Can Have a Merry Christmas

Every society, every culture needs a day of general joy and merriment. When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, followers married the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival held this time of year, to the mythology of Christ’s birth, most elements of which predate the time of Christ, and Christmas as we know it today was born.

Whatever your proclivities, today is a day to find joy in something. Given the news of the world these days—another attempted terror attack on one of our airliners, another great musician dying before his time—we need all the cheer and merriment we can squeeze out of this world.

I have AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ album, a great gift from my sister, to make sure this is neither a silent night nor a holy night. I am also finishing off the last of the eggnog with my good friend Captain Morgan. The eggnog and rum sit atop a mountain of turkey and other delicious food, making me sleepy to the point that this may be an early night.

Merry Christmas.

Snow Owns the Park

New York City was hit with the brunt of the latest snowstorm to hit the Northeastern U.S., and few people seem to mind. We all want snow around the holidays, and in the northernmost regions of Manhattan, the snow turns Inwood Hill Park into a winter wonderland.

I set out to hole myself up in my apartment like a mad hermit this weekend, and for the most part I have, but I was compelled to get outdoors this morning and take photos of Inwood Hill Park, a beautiful park that is made even more beautiful when it shows. When the park is blanketed with snow is when the park is at its best and most peaceful and beautiful.

New York City got about a foot of snow, and it was slow going slogging up the hill across the street from my apartment, but it was worth it for the peaceful walk in the woods. The park was far from deserted, and it was great to see one of the hills become a Mecca of snow sledding for kids from the neighborhood. This snow is also perfect for both snowball fighting and snowman building. It’s good to see those traditions being kept alive as well in the park.

Seven years ago, a snowstorm on Christmas Day felled several trees on Payson Avenue, which damaged several cars and closed the street for a bit. While this snowstorm was heavy, it was nothing like that, and while the snow is piled up pretty nicely in a few places, it is not the disaster I think some people thought it would be.

So unless you’re deathly ill or somehow incapacitated go out and enjoy the snow.