The Writer's Life 1/17 - Cruisin'

I believe Ted Cruz is a worthy presidential candidate, but he made his first gaffe when he derided "New York Values." It's never a good idea to paint everyone with a broad brush. Certainly New York, especially NYC, is liberal, but it is also diverse, a few conservatives among the mix, especially outside the Big Apple. Of course, he would have no shot of carrying the state regardless of his comments, but a candidate has to pretend to want to be president of all Americans, not just his natural constituency. Cruz may be the smartest guy in the race on either side, but I think he would lose the general election by a significant margin. The most conservative candidate with a chance at the nomination, he is not likeable in the eyes of many, including Republican lawmakers whom he rightfully calls to task. Trump is also disliked by many, but not to the extent Cruz is.

Usually, a trip through the newspaper is largely bleak, as reporters, editors and readers are most interested in tragedy and scandal. Barry Ratzer offers hope in his article on falling crime rates in the U.S.. From 1991-97, homicides fell 42%, robbery 22%, assault 45%, burglary 38%. In NYC, samples were drawn from 13,000 people who were arrested in a period from 1987-97. In people born before 1969, 50% tested positive for crack. Of those born in 1972, 20% tested positive. Of those born in 1979, 5% tested positive. He offers these stats to support his belief that society has improved.

Since there was no sunshine today, it didn't matter where I set up the floating book shop. On Sunday I head to Park Slope because it's the only day parking there is fairly easy. I wanted to go to 5 Av. & 9th Street, where I've had success lately, but two cars were waiting for spots to open up, so I went to John Jay H.S., waited a few minutes, then quickly backed into a space vacated by an SUV. This allowed me to put out almost the entire contents of the trunk. Alas, only one book sold, The Autobiographies of a Black Couple of the Greatest Generation by Norma & William Anderson and Pat Grauer. It was bought by a man walking with a cane. Once a sidewalk bookseller himself, he's been on the shelf since being hit by a car. My thanks, and also to the elderly gentleman who donated Commander in Chief by Mark Greaney, who is writing under the late Tom Clancy's name, using the Jack Ryan character. I did a little addition by subtraction, pulling a number of books, almost all obscure non-fiction, from the trunk and leaving them in a box at the curb. I hope the snow flurries haven't damaged them.

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