Say Goodbye to the Pay Phone

According to the news today we won't have pay phones to kick around much longer. It appears New York City is taking the lead. The Mayor's Office unveiled an ambitious plan to roll out a free city-wide municipal Wi-Fi network that officials say will be the fastest and most wide-reaching network of its kind in the world.

"At a press conference at City Hall, the city unveiled LinkNYC, which will rely on thousands of kiosks that will be deployed at locations currently occupied by pay phones. The kiosks will be installed in as many as 10,000 locations throughout the five boroughs and will offer Wi-Fi service of one gigabit per second within a radius of 150 feet. They'll also offer free domestic voice calls to all 50 states. The first of the kiosks is expected to begin service in late 2015."

The memorable Jim Croce song will no longer make sense after all the pay phones are gone. If you take it one step further, will anyone ever need to call the operator again?

"Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)"

Operator, well could you help me place this call

See, the number on the match book is old and faded

She's living in L.A

With my best old ex-friend Ray

A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

But isn't that the way they say it goes

Well let's forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell 'em I'm fine, and to show

I've overcome the blow

I've learned to take it well

I only wish my words 

Could just convince myself

That it just wasn't real

But that's not the way it feels

Operator, well could you help me place this call

'Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me

There's something in my eyes

You know it happens every time

I think about the love that I thought would save me

But isn't that the way they say it goes

Well let's forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell 'em I'm fine, and to show

I've overcome the blow

I've learned to take it well

I only wish my words 

Could just convince myself

That it just wasn't real

But that's not the way it feels

No, no, no, no

That's not the way it feels

Operator, well let's forget about this call

There's no one there I really wanted to talk to

Thank you for your time

Ah, you've been so much more then kind

You can keep the dime

But isn't that the way they say it goes

Well let's forget all that

And give me the number if you can find it

So I can call just to tell 'em I'm fine, and to show

I've overcome the blow

I've learned to take it well

I only wish my words 

Could just convince myself

That it just wasn't real

But that's not the way it feels

NY Ranger Sunday Matinees at The Garden

On beautiful autumn afternoons like today I am reminded of the many occasions we went to Madison Square Garden for a New York Ranger hockey game with a 12:00 PM start time. If the game was on TV the players would slick back their hair back and shave so they would look good on camera. There were no masks or helmuts, except maybe for our goalie Eddie Giacomin.

The Garden Faithful, as we were charitably referred to in the newspapers and on TV, would chant our goalie's name whenever the mood struck or the action demanded it. We would call out, "Ed-die Ed-die!" till our ears started to ring.