Go play strip poker in the park

In 1920 women were finally granted the same right as men to vote. A few year later (1992) New York went one step further. They said, "Hey, look at all these dudes walking around topless all gross and stuff. That's just not fair!" Thus the New-York-women-can-be-topless-too law came to pass.

I know, you don't believe me. But here you go. Oops. I meant here you go. Proof that not only can you go topless in the great city of New York but you can also sue people who tell you not to go topless in the great city of New York. What a city.

So ladieeeeeez, if you're feeling hot/litigious and want to make some extra cash why not go play strip poker at Central Park? Why not practice pole dancing on the subway? Why not become an erotic magician for children's birthday parties? Worst case scenario is that you go to jail for a few hours and make several thousand dollars.

On a slightly more serious note the photo above belongs to the artist Jordan Matter who shot an excellent collection of women going topless in New York City. You can preview it here.

On a less serious note we should warn you party-crazy types that while it's cool to go topless in the city it's still illegal for your donkey to fall asleep in your bathtub in Brooklyn. So if your donkey suffers from narcolepsy best to take it out only in Manhattan. Real laws. Really. Google it if ya don't believe us.

Longest Line Ever for Marionette Show

Special thanks to our guest blogger David Perrin for so beautifully capturing this event:

Recently I spotted a really long line in Central Park. I'm used to standing on long lines for clubs and restaurants and Trader Joe's. But this line got me really excited because it led right up to the Swedish Cottage.

The Cottage has the oldest Marionette Theatre in America (that I could find). It was originally built as Sweden's exhibit for the 1876 Centiennial Expo in Philly, after which Fred Olmsted (hot urban designer that he was) moved it here to CP to function as a bathroom and cafeteria. The Marionette Theatre seats a capacity of 100 (three-yr old sized humans) so I'm not sure how the 5,614 people camped out on this this footpath were all going to get in. Rumor has it that a gaggle of 12 year olds were drugged by their parents and dragged here to sleep overnight on the sidewalk to be among the lucky ticket holders for Peter Pan the next morning.


I was somewhat perplexed by the current fascination in woody Peter and his stringy friends since the current production has been going since last October. The few drowsy line-waiters that I polled told me that waiting on this line is something every interesting NY'er should do before they move on to Minneapolis or Santa Fe.

Notice in this picture the ironic flute player serenading the woozy marionette fans. When I asked the Park Ranger about his beat he said he was supposed to be convincing people that Anne Hathaway was more interesting in 12th Night than Wendy Darling ever would be. As you can tell he was having no luck, not even when he tried an impromptu reading from the 12th Night script, because no one on line would even look at him.

Turns out that everyone was disappointed this particular day because the actor playing Peter went awol, snipped his strings and disappeared from his sleeping quarters. The note he left read, "I'm going to see the real Neverland that Michael built because it will soon be as overrun and as spoiled as Graceland. Besides I need to do more character research on kids who don't want to grow up - I'm beginning to sound a bit like Daniel Radcliffe in my role (yuck). And the Lost Boys are really pissing me off. I need a break. Back before Saturday. Signed, big Peter."