We'd be remiss to let the week slip away and not mention Sunday's very special City section of the Times, devoted to "A Century of Times Square." Fortunately, Elaine Swann, an 85-year-old resident of the area, spoke for us all:
I hate Times Square and everything they've done to it. It's destroyed our lives... The idiot tourists come in droves. I want to kill them when I'm trying to get across the street... I wish the area had stayed the way it was. I liked the pornography stores. The neighborhood used to be for people who lived here. I used to live in the Village, and I wish like hell I'd stayed in the Village.Runner-up for best quote goes to the general manager of the Times Square Olive Garden: "The thing I hear most often from out-of-town guests is: 'We didn't know you were here. We've been in New York over a week, this is our last day, and we're so excited we've discovered the Olive Garden.'" Times Square and the Olive Garden: Discover them again for the first time.
· Their Times Square: A Dozen Dispatches from Wonderland [NYTimes]
· A Century of Times Square [NYTimes]