New York: The soul of Queens (Get it? See, Aretha Franklin was called...ah, never mind)

 Text and photos by George Molé

Perhaps some of the other boroughs are a bit more iconic.  The Bronx--Yankee Stadium; the Bronx Zoo; Howard Cosell telling everyone that it's burning.  Brooklyn--Ebbets Field (knocked down); Coney Island (partly knocked down); Thomas Wolfe telling everyone that only the dead know it.

But Queens has some soul of it's own.

"I don't know how youse do it anymore," a guy in Queens says to a cop.  "It's so crazy out there..."


Woodland clearings have nothing on under the el when it comes to dappled sunlight.


"So f---ing crazy.  People don't give a s--t..."



Need curry--store on the left.  Need to curry favor--store on the right.


"I'm waiting for robberies and everything else to start picking up..."



A steal--needs a little work.

"I don't care if God becomes president.  We ain't gettin' fixed..."

Few remember that paperbacks were once called "pocketbooks."  Actually, few remember paperbacks.

"We're in big trouble."

Rainstorm, Hillside Avenue.

And we've barely dipped our fork in the place...