New2NY: The Subway Celebrity

I had a whole other plan for my blog today.

I was going to talk about this generation’s incessant use of headphones. I was going to write about how we’ll all likely go deaf either from listening to headphones or from listening to other people listen to headphones. I was drafting it in my mind.

Then, about five minutes before I had to start drafting and start pouring coffee and refilling printer paper in my office, I saw her. That rounded-corner square button made of a silver-toned metal placed on the back center of a white trench coat. I saw it yesterday too!

Thus begins my continuation of last post’s subway characters…

In college, I used to think about the concept of “sidewalk celebrities.” At Boston University, most of your traveling happens on foot on…the sidewalks. I would see some of the same people every day, twice a week, or maybe just once in a blue moon, but something about them stuck out – the crazy rainbow-hair girl, the skateboard guy who would always hang out on a particular set of stairs, and the Care Bear backpack girl. After seeing them regularly, I would give them names like that.

Now, BU is a big school, but New York is a MUCH BIGGER city. What are the odds that I would see the same person twice two days in a row!? According to the July 1, 2006 census, there were 8,250,567 people living in New York City and according to the MTA’s Website, New York’s annual subway ridership is 1.563 billion. You can do the math.

Granted, apparently rounded-corner-square-button-made-of-silver-toned-metal girl and I do ride the same subway at the same time and get off at the same stop (49^th Street NRW downtown train at about 5 to 9:00 a.m. in case you were wondering), but still, there must be thousands of others with the same commute.

According to the July 1, 2006 census, there were 8,250,567 people living in New York City and according to the MTA’s Website, New York’s annual subway ridership is 1.563 billion. You can do the math.

What I find interesting, is with this celebrity, I don’t even know what her face looks like – just the button. So if she ever switches up coats, her celebrity status will be gone to me.

Here’s another example. Before I get on the N-R-W at 59^th St. every morning, I have to ride the 6 train from my apartment at 96^th Street, and of course back again every afternoon. Three times now in less than three months I have seen the beep-boxing, smile encouraging, Da-doo-run-running duo of old homeless men singing, dancing and asking for money on the 6 train. They must target a certain demographic with their oldies tunes, but I always find them entertaining. Of course I realize they go out of their way to be heard and recognized (unlike my button girl), but still what are the chances that I end up on the same train and the same car as this duo? I’m not going to find out the math, but I’d say slim.

What is different about subway/sidewalk celebrities from regular celebrities is that only you know about them. Well, you and maybe a few others. But on the scale of someone like Madonna, Angelina Jolie and well, need I say Sarah Palin, your celebrities just don’t have the popularity. That’s the cool part though, and if it gets you through your morning and afternoon commutes, even better.