LittleJudy.com

A New Subway Hero

Want to hear something positive and uplifting for a change? Here you go:

From today's NY Times:

"Subway heroes, as they are inevitably tagged even before the grease from the tracks is rubbed off, come along every now and then — indeed, as the story of Chad Lindsey suggests, perhaps more often than we know."

Read more here: Hero Who Relishes Anonymity Describes Rescue on Manhattan Subway Tracks - NYTimes.com.

The Butterfly Conservatory

I spent the day at the Museum of Natural History yesterday, celebrating the "A" I got on my Astronomy midterm. I went to the Hayden Planetary and spent some time at the Rose Center for Earth & Space..

I also went to the Butterfly Conservatory which is really an amazing experience. Don't go if you're freaked out by bugs, because they fly around free. But if you love butterflies as much as I do you have to go. It's a real treat to see so many of these beautiful colorful creatures up close. And if you're lucky, one might land on your hand to say hello.

The Butterfly Conservatory | American Museum of Natural History.

Check Out PeoplePets.com

My pal Amy is the Senior Editor at PeoplePets.com, a new Web site from the people at People. It's all about pets of celebrities, pets who are celebrities in their own right and other animals in the news. Very cute and clever -- I would expect nothing less from my former ShowBuzz partner in crime!

At left is Jessica Simpson with her (I think) malti-poo.

Make sure to look at the unusually coiffed pets in the "extreme grooming" photo essay.

Check it out: People Pets | Sit. Stay. Play!.

V Train Blues

I arrived at the subway platform just as the V train arrived In a burst of good subway karma this afternoon.

When I entered the car I saw the usual orange and yellow seats and then spotted something unusual: a pair of blue ones.

I live for out of the ordinary  mass transit moments like this!

Holler if you've ever seen replacement seats this color before. I sure haven't!

The Great Tam Tam Crisis of 2008

I missed this post on the NY Times CityRoom blog from March 27:

What will you do in the great Tam Tam shortage of 2008? It’s true, the unleavened, bite-sized matzo cracker has nearly disappeared from shelves across the country, leaving Jews anguished as the Passover season approaches, and company officials scrambling to explain the situation.

What's interesting is the huge amount of comments about these little crackers. (Personally, I don't eat these during Passover because they're so rest-of-the-year. I'm all about the macaroons and the candy fruit slices.)

Link: Its Hide the Matzo, for Real: Where Are the Tam Tams? - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog.

Happy Hamukah

Apparently Balducci's, once a beloved Greenwich Village neighborhood gourmet emporium that's now apparently owned by a large corporation out of state, made a big boo boo last week advertising "Ham -- perfect for Hanukah!"

Reminds me of the time that Mr. Cooper, the cafeteria director at my high school Interlochen Arts Academy, wanted to surprise the Jewish students by preparing something special for Passover. We had our own seder with kosher food and matzah, but the well-intentioned Mr. Cooper also served - wait for it -  bagels! At least he meant well.

Hard to believe, though, that Ham-gate happened in New York. Well, to paraphrase a line in "Spinal Tap," New York's not a big Jewish town anyway.

Hag Sameach!

How To Thank New York's Subway Hero

My pals over at (or I should say upstairs at) WCBSTV.com have set up a page for people to express their gratitude to Wesley Autrey, the man who saved the life of a fellow New Yorker in the subway this week.

Just in case you've been hiding under rock all week and haven't heard this amazing story, a young man who was having a seizure fell on the subway tracks and Autrey saved his life by jumping on top of him and forcing him to stay in place as the train rode over them.

On tonight's "Late Show" with David Letterman, Autrey said that as a construction worker he was used to working in confined spaces. That's why he was able to judge, as the train approached, that he'd have just enough headroom for the train cars to safely pass over him.

Twenty-four inches to be exact.

So, if you want to say "thank you" to an international hero, and an inspiring true New Yorker, then click here: wcbstv.com - How To Thank New York's Subway Hero.

You should also check out a story about another pair of heroes, brothers Julio Gonzales and Pedro Navarez, who saved a three-year-old Bronx boy who fell four stories from a fire escape.

I watched this story at work (yeah, when you work for a TV network you get to watch TV from your computer!) and was overcome with tears.

What a joy to be able to report about good deeds for a change.

Even if you're not agile or strong enough to do what these men did, there's nothing stopping each of us from performing a simple act of kindness and reaching out to a person in need.

You just have to keep your eyes open for an opportunity.

How Molly The Cat Was Rescued

Greenwich Village feline Molly managed to capture the world's attention when she was stuck in the walls of one of the neighborhood's many historic buildings. Here's the story of how she was rescued:

In a purr-fect ending, a miner with a heart of gold searched until he rescued Molly the cat last night. After spending 14 days stuck in the guts of a 19th-century West Village building, New York's famous fur ball was safe and sound and eating sardines. The black cat's white knight was Kevin Clifford, 33, of Queens, a miner who loves animals and volunteered his after-work time to help save Molly.

More: New York Daily News - Home - Ending is cat's meow.

Attack of the Squirrels - The Final Chapter

I searched my apartment and didn't find any trace of a squirrel. My best guess is that the critter pushed his way through, knocked the plants over, freaked out and scurried back outside.

A few days later I pointed the hole out to my super and someone from the co-op board who said that the material around the air conditioner had simply worn out over time. As if! Their solution was to just "get some wood and patch it up."  Yeah, like I happen to have a woodworking shop in my one-bedroom apartment. I mean, I'm crafty, but I'm using up all the extra space for my scrapbooking supplies, beadwork stuff, glue gun and tons and tons of yarn. A girl just doesn't have room left for lumber!

I considered calling an exterminator, went online and read everything there was to read about squirrels, and mulled over my next step.

During the journey, I discovered several anti-squirrel web sites. I don't want to upset the folks at PETA (and you do know I love animals), but I hate rodents.  It appears that there is a conspiracy at play -- squirrels may be slowly positioning themselves to take over the world. I discovered the well-researched, informative, and, yes, inspiring Scary Squirrel World web site. They do a fantastic job of monitoring the squirrel's quest for world domination, particularly at our nation's campuses.

So, how did I resolve my own issue?

The Long Ride Home...

I took the subway several times this weekend, in spite of the terrorist threat that was announced Thursday.

Everything has been fairly normal except for tonight's return trip from Manhattan. I boarded the train at around 9:15 p.m. The car had a fair amount of people in it, but it wasn't crowded. I settled in and after checking my surroundings, I began playing Mummy Maze on my cell phone. At the first stop in Queens - 21st Street/Queensbridge on the F - the train stopped at the platform, opened its doors and then didn't move. We hung out there for about 10 minutes until the conductor told us the train was going back to Brooklyn. Of course, the conductor didn't know whether or not the train was going back empty to Brooklyn, or if we could ride back with it.

So, I followed the crowd, and since I have an unlimited Metro card, I figured I could go upstairs, take a look around, and if I didn't find a bus or a cab or something I'd take a train back to Manhattan and get a cab there.

Luckily, I actually got a cab after only ten minutes of waiting. As usual, it was a wacky cab driver. He said that he had his off duty sign so he could pick and choose his fare. I had a feeling I knew where that  conversation was going so I switched the topic to the price of gas and let him riff on that for a while. Then he asked me what I did for a living and as soon as I said "entertainment reporter" -- show prep format manager is too tough to explain -- he launched into a whole monologue about the celebrities he knew from driving cabs and just being a man about town for the last several decades.  Lauren Bacall: mean; Lucille Ball: cheap; Paul Newman: nice, can be found doing normal things like shopping for plants with Joan; Kay Ballard: nice, too, but we had a little argument over whether or not she was a Laugh-In regular. According to imdb.com, I was right, she was just a guest twice. I think he got her mixed up with Jo Anne Worley.

Then he mentioned Virginia Graham -- my idol!  She was a talk show pioneer who hosted a show called Girl Talk in the 1960s. Here's a fabulous picture of Miss Graham with Joan Crawford. It was the only one I could find of Graham on the Web but at least it shows her trademark can-of-AquaNet hairstyle. Oddly, the cab driver said he met her when he was 18 and working as a hairdresser.

I found an obit of Graham, who died at the age of 86 in 1998, and discovered some cool things about her. She was a cub reporter at the Chicago Tribune when she was still a teenager. Her first byline was on a story about the St. Valentine's Day gangster murders, which happened near her high school. That's why she was one of the first reporters on the scene and was able to give the paper an early account of the massacre. She was a poet and author who published five books. She also was a Red Cross volunteer during World War II and founded the United Cerebral Palsy foundation with 13 other women.

Barbara Walters said in an interview that she created her talk show The View as a cross between Graham's groundbreaking, unscripted Girl Talk and "the round table of This Week with David Brinkley."  Even though I was a little girl when I watched it the fact that I remember it must mean that it influenced me, too. I'd love to watch some old episodes and see if I picked up some of her interview techniques.

Well, I made it home to Forest Hills okay. It's funny how a change in my route home took me on a journey of another kind.