My sister, Carolyn Slutsky’s piece in The Morning News. Enjoy!

PINK SUEDE SHOES

Sometimes it takes the right pair of shoes to kick you over the edge into adulthood. For writer CAROLYN SLUTSKY, it’s other people’s shoes that do the kicking.

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It was the perfect ad for me, and when I checked the address I found it was just around the corner from my apartment: “Free Women’s Shoes, Size 10.” I felt my pulse quicken. My aimless, 4 a.m.-trolling of the ads on Craigslist, that cesspool-cum-treasure-trove, had finally turned up something useful amidst the ridiculous (“YOU HAVE A DATE WITH DESTINY! Too bad Destiny’s such a lousy kisser”), the futile (“Free Sawdust—On the Curb”), and the unfortunately spelled (“dinning table set and ottoman—$150”).

Had someone already snapped them up? Was the ad just a front to lure me into someone’s clutches? I shot an email into the dark and fell into a deep sleep.

When it comes to footwear, I always hear my mother’s plaints about the dearth of large shoes and her admonishment to pounce on any pair of size 10’s I see, regardless of style, color, or utility. A lesson hard-won from a woman with size 11-wide feet and I have not ignored it.

In addition to large sizes, my mother always pushed comfort over style. Even into my twenties I owned only clunky, durable shoes, with flat bottoms and traction, always traction. I justified this fashion-backward policy more strongly when I became a journalist, telling myself I couldn’t run around the city in much short of sneakers. I could never imagine buying girly gold sandals to match a dress, or the frivolous heels I saw women teeter on around Manhattan. When I saw those girls with their impossibly tall shoes I felt contempt. Contempt, but always with an underlying tinge of envy, of covetousness.

My Craigslist find was not my first foray into the world of free, used footwear. Years ago in graduate school, poor and not particularly caring what my feet looked like, I’d scoured the DSW store in Union Square searching for black snow boots. I turned up one pair in the elusive size 10, but when I brought them up to the register, the cashier informed me that the store did not sell this shoe.

“Well, I got them over there,” I said, pointing to the haphazard stacks.

“It’s not in the computer,” she said, moving to throw them in the trash behind the counter. Someone, I realized, had switched their old shoes for whatever new pair was supposed to reside in that box.

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Last night, Sens. McCain and Obama met for the Al Smith Dinner in New York City. Pretty funny stuff. Here’s the video series. Enjoy.

Obama – Part 1:

Obama – Part 2:

McCain – Part 1:

McCain – Part 2:

From Gawker:

Back in 1993, when Rudy Giuliani was making his second run for mayor, his strategists felt a need to soften his image and show that he wasn’t just the guy who would lead a group of racist policemen in yelling “Bullshit!” in front of City Hall. They came up with this ad (entitled “Gentle”) which featured then-wife Donna Hanover praising her husaband’s family values. As it turned out, he had so much love for family that he went and got a whole other one. Still, in light of recent developments, fun to watch!

From the New York times:
Noticeably Absent From the Giuliani Campaign: His Children

it is being reported that a small airplane has just crashed into a luxury 50-story building in New York City. The crash happened on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at 72nd Street and York Avenue. There is no indication that this incident was terrorism related. You can follow the story at CNN.com.

YouTube is quickly becoming my best friend. I am never sure who makes these short videos, but this one is pretty clever.

This video mocks the Republican rhetoric from the 2004 RNC convention in NYC. Pretty sad…