Episode 80 features the first three-time guest, who was the original guest, and a very good friend of the show, Mr. Bill Sweeney! He has returned to the show for a geography lesson about his hometown; New York City.
We talk about transportation, temperament, and tourism. Boroughs and Bridges. Discuss a few myths and legends, and much much more.
Throughout the conversation, we discuss:
- Where are you from?
- The Five Boroughs
- Borough names vs. County names
- Defining “Upstate”
- Transportation
- Bridges
- The Forgotten Borough
- Profanity
- Temperament
- “Everyone’s your friend in New York City” – They Might Be Giants
- New York City Food
- NYC Authenticity in Media
- Superhero overload
- The way it used to be…
- What’s a New York Minute?
- What’s a New York State of Mind?
- And much more
Mentioned and Helpful Links from This Episode
15 TV Shows That Make You Want to Visit New York City | NYCGo.com
10 Best TV Series & Movies Set In New York | Screen Rant
The Interrogation of Agent Palmer by Agent 76
Music created and provided by Henno Heitur of Monkey Tongue Productions.
–End Show Notes Transmission–
–Begin Transcription–
00:00:00:03 – 00:00:23:06
Agent Palmer
Previously on Agent Palmer dot com. Pour one out for the excellent Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. No more FOMO. And while I may not be a published author myself, I seem to understand them and have their process down. I wonder what that means, but that’s for another time. This is The Palmer Files episode 80 with my first three time guest who was the original guest and a very good friend of mine, Mr. Bill Sweeney.
00:00:23:20 – 00:01:08:16
Agent Palmer
He has returned to the show for a geography lesson about his hometown, New York City. We talk transportation, temperament, and tourism. Burrows and bridges discuss a few myths and legends and much, much more. Are you ready? Let’s do the show.
00:01:08:21 – 00:01:26:58
Agent Palmer
Hello, and welcome to the Palmer Files. I’m your host, Jason Stershic. Also known as Agent Palmer. And on this 80th episode is Bill Sweeney, who at this moment is formerly of the Wicked Theory podcast, which still sometimes surprises people with activity on the feet every few months, and who is still podcasting most days of the week, but just not recording it.
00:01:27:03 – 00:01:45:00
Agent Palmer
He is from Staten Island, the forgotten borough of New York City. But it’s New York City no matter where or how you slice it, unless you are from one of the other boroughs, apparently, which we’ll get into. This isn’t a soft ball of glossy tourism propaganda. This is New York City from a guy who’s lived there his entire life.
00:01:45:15 – 00:02:03:20
Agent Palmer
So grab a cup of coffee or a hot dog or a bagel, perhaps even a slice of pizza, and get ready. It’s time for a geography lesson. Is it true that no one sleeps in New York City? What is the lifeblood of the city? What is New York Minute? What is the New York State of mind? Is everyone your friend in New York City?
00:02:03:24 – 00:02:22:43
Agent Palmer
All of that and a whole lot more is coming your way shortly. But first, if you want to discuss the episode as you listen or afterwards, you can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest Bill Sweeney at Wicked Theory, or this show at the Palmer Files. You can find more information about my friend Bill at Wicked theory.com, which is where you can find things that he has done.
00:02:22:57 – 00:02:46:09
Agent Palmer
And, well, I push him to stop procrastinating. It’ll probably be where you’ll find out what he starts next. Don’t forget, you can see all of my writings and writings on Agent palmer.com, including the one time Bill interrogated me for my entire series. And of course, email can be sent to the Palmer files at gmail.com. So, without further ado, let’s take a tour around New York City.
00:02:46:14 – 00:02:49:31
Agent Palmer
If you.
00:02:49:36 – 00:02:58:45
Agent Palmer
Bill, when people ask where you’re from, what is your stock answer?
00:02:58:49 – 00:03:06:38
Bill Sweeney
Hesitation and denial. No. Yeah, a little bit. It depends if if the.
00:03:06:42 – 00:03:13:11
Agent Palmer
Like if you don’t know anything about them, I guess, like, you’re at a convention for some reason, like, oh, where are you from?
00:03:13:16 – 00:03:37:24
Bill Sweeney
It’s it’s like 5050, I might say in New York City. I might say Staten Island. It’ll depend on, like, a feeling at the moment. Maybe, but, like. Yeah, I don’t always just spit out Staten Island. And I guess it’s a little bit like if you were, like, somewhere, like, you know, in Idaho, if you’re from Idaho, you may not say, you know, Boise or some other, even lesser known town.
00:03:37:29 – 00:03:38:45
Agent Palmer
There’s only one town in.
00:03:38:50 – 00:03:45:33
Bill Sweeney
Notoriety for notoriety. I think Boise is like the Brooklyn of Idaho.
00:03:45:38 – 00:03:45:51
Agent Palmer
For.
00:03:45:51 – 00:04:05:27
Bill Sweeney
Notoriety and the notoriety scale. Okay. Any scale. So like, if I said Staten Island would be like, if you were from Idaho, I’m just going to make up a town and say periwinkle because I’ll be like, oh, where is periwinkle? I never heard of that. You’d be like, oh, that’s why I said Idaho first. You mean like, yeah, I didn’t think you were going to know it.
00:04:05:29 – 00:04:09:21
Agent Palmer
I’m trying to be nice to you. I’m giving you the answer you need.
00:04:09:28 – 00:04:12:37
Bill Sweeney
Stop digging. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:04:12:42 – 00:04:19:16
Agent Palmer
All right. But why is it the Brooklyn and not the Manhattan? Because there are five boroughs in New York.
00:04:19:21 – 00:04:23:15
Bill Sweeney
So that’s kind of what I spell out. But you’re right. That’s that’s what I should have said.
00:04:23:17 – 00:04:43:52
Agent Palmer
But but which is it, though? Like on on a scale of what you hear from other people like because because they’re like, let’s, let’s go into it real quick like it’s Staten Island where you are. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, which by the way, is the only one with an article in Brooklyn.
00:04:43:52 – 00:04:44:29
Bill Sweeney
You said Brooklyn, right?
00:04:44:30 – 00:04:50:46
Agent Palmer
I said Brooklyn. Yeah. Yeah. Why does the can’t can you, can you answer that. Like why does the Bronx get an article?
00:04:50:51 – 00:04:55:44
Bill Sweeney
You know, I don’t want you to confuse it, with, the other Bronx, which is just Bronx.
00:04:55:53 – 00:04:57:45
Agent Palmer
What, what?
00:04:57:50 – 00:05:08:57
Bill Sweeney
No. I’m kidding. It was just. I have no idea. I mean, why is Staten Island? Well, here’s the thing. Why is Staten Island called Staten Island, where it’s, like, actually like Richmond County, like you. You mean like.
00:05:08:57 – 00:05:09:46
Agent Palmer
Well, I mean.
00:05:09:51 – 00:05:11:56
Bill Sweeney
There’s Google documents. It’s Richmond County.
00:05:11:57 – 00:05:29:15
Agent Palmer
There’s a few other ones, too, right? Like, because Brooklyn’s Kings County, Manhattan’s the one that makes the least sense. Because Manhattan is New York County, because we wanted to make it more confusing in the state of New York, in the city of New York.
00:05:29:29 – 00:05:49:16
Bill Sweeney
Well, I’d have to I’d have to say that chances are it starts in Manhattan. Right. Like historically and like it spreads, right? Like like like, oh, this is New York Island, you know what I mean? York from the Dutch and all that stuff. You know, a lot of Dutch history here. So New.
00:05:49:16 – 00:05:50:41
Agent Palmer
Amsterdam.
00:05:50:46 – 00:06:06:48
Bill Sweeney
All right. Exactly. Imagine if we stuck with that, you know, that it spread upstate, you know what I mean? And, like, for me, like, you know, that’s a thing, like, you know, about the vernacular here, is that, like, you know.
00:06:06:53 – 00:06:08:40
Agent Palmer
Upstate is what, like Albany.
00:06:08:45 – 00:06:14:02
Bill Sweeney
The Albany, Glens Falls, these kinds of areas, these are the only two that I can. What’s Buckhorn.
00:06:14:14 – 00:06:16:40
Agent Palmer
Oh Buffalo’s out. Buffalo’s out west.
00:06:16:45 – 00:06:20:38
Bill Sweeney
Right. It might as well be. Wow. Well it might as well be.
00:06:20:48 – 00:06:21:26
Agent Palmer
Like,
00:06:21:31 – 00:06:23:41
Bill Sweeney
Buffalo. Sounds like it should be in Arizona. So.
00:06:23:53 – 00:06:31:47
Agent Palmer
But does the city do you keep to yourselves, like, do you feel like you’re different from the rest of, quote unquote upstate?
00:06:31:55 – 00:06:54:18
Bill Sweeney
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s definitely because once you get upstate or outside of the the borough limits, like, you know, the city limits, it starts to feel like Pennsylvania or towns in Jersey or this kind of thing where it’s like it’s a little more spread out, you know, the vibe is between people changes rather quickly, you know what I mean?
00:06:54:23 – 00:07:17:01
Bill Sweeney
And all that stuff. So, yeah, like, you know, I would. Yeah. Upstate got a different vibe upstate. It’s got a different vibe. Like as a kid every summer going to Glens Falls to hang out, like in my grandmother’s house for a week. Was always like a trip and as, like, going to the corner store over there and, like, or meeting, like her neighbors or the kids that lived in that that little neighborhood that she lived in.
00:07:17:06 – 00:07:37:38
Bill Sweeney
And, you know, they almost felt like country people, like, in a way. But they were kind of worried, like, looking back, I can see how they are like one step removed because we’re moving outward from a central point of, like, New York is where, like, you know, people are like, have this kind of vibe or this kind of sensibility.
00:07:37:38 – 00:07:40:42
Bill Sweeney
And then as it spreads, like, you know, you get.
00:07:40:47 – 00:07:41:52
Agent Palmer
Less and less.
00:07:41:57 – 00:07:43:22
Bill Sweeney
Less and less different sense.
00:07:43:27 – 00:07:58:48
Agent Palmer
How does one get around within either like are there go tos for for transportation in certain boroughs, like, yeah, Staten Island, you don’t have a subway, right?
00:07:58:48 – 00:08:05:18
Bill Sweeney
So we have some aboveground rail, but it doesn’t connect off the island.
00:08:05:23 – 00:08:23:57
Agent Palmer
So it’s just bridges, right? Only it’s only you don’t you don’t have you. You’re not like other parts that have a tunnel. You only have bridges. So in it, when the evil villain wants to take over the island, it’s just three bombs, three bridges, and you are completely cut off.
00:08:24:02 – 00:08:53:02
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. Or the ferries. You know what I mean? Oh, well. City run, so good luck with that. I mean, we’ve got some marinas and stuff around, so there are boats that if you want to steal one or you have a friend who’s got one, good luck. You might you might survive. But there’s a joke that’s like always like, well, you know, if there’s ever some kind of, like, traumatic, you know, giant event, you know, end of the world type stuff.
00:08:53:02 – 00:08:57:11
Bill Sweeney
We’d all be stuck on the bridge, you know what I mean? And, we probably still have to pay the toll.
00:08:57:16 – 00:09:08:40
Agent Palmer
By the way. Let me let me. Okay, so. So I have been to you to to visit you, to see you, to pick you up even. It’s cheaper to get into.
00:09:08:45 – 00:09:09:30
Bill Sweeney
That’s how onto.
00:09:09:30 – 00:09:17:18
Agent Palmer
The island and it’s so expensive to leave. But by the time you’re on your way out, you’re on a bridge and there’s no escape.
00:09:17:22 – 00:09:21:02
Bill Sweeney
But you’re happy to go.
00:09:21:07 – 00:09:22:32
Agent Palmer
I mean, you live there.
00:09:22:35 – 00:09:33:52
Bill Sweeney
Happy that you’re happy to pay the extra toll to get out. It’s like, oh my God. Okay, whatever the cost. How much does it cost to escape this place at $28 to cross a bridge? Okay, fine. So.
00:09:33:57 – 00:09:39:46
Agent Palmer
So it’s aboveground on the island. Can I call it the Islanders? That now? Long Island. Like, what’s.
00:09:39:51 – 00:09:48:04
Bill Sweeney
That’s you got? Yeah. You got to watch out for that. Like, you know, I mean, depends on who you’re talking to. I’ve had that happen, where? Meat, meat, meat meat.
00:09:48:04 – 00:09:53:40
Agent Palmer
Meat, meat, meat, meat, the meat. Me on the east coast of the island and all of a sudden were 300 miles apart.
00:09:53:53 – 00:10:09:48
Bill Sweeney
I was talking to somebody who didn’t. I didn’t really know it was me and a couple people that I didn’t know. And so, like, just loosely, I was saying the island a couple times and they were like, so where are you from? Long Island? So when you say like, no, no, Staten Island, they’re like, oh, right, right, right, right.
00:10:09:53 – 00:10:12:33
Agent Palmer
But but in that regard, you are the forgotten borough.
00:10:12:37 – 00:10:34:38
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. That’s, the title. Oh, that, we gladly well had put upon us, but we wore, like, a badge, so we could whine and cry. You know, we don’t get enough attention. But meanwhile, it’s like, of the boroughs. This is where you want to kind of be, because it’s like we have our trouble spots to our trouble.
00:10:34:42 – 00:10:54:21
Bill Sweeney
The areas that would remind you of Brooklyn, you know, or the Brooklyn, you know, from movies and TV, you know what I mean? Like, we got those areas too. We have housing projects or whatnot. But like, it’s, you know, we have a green belt, which is like, you know, just preserves to, you know, protect a lot of the green land and marshland because we have a lot of marshland.
00:10:54:21 – 00:11:28:05
Bill Sweeney
So you can’t really shouldn’t be building on it anyway, certain parts of the island, but they do. But certain areas are protected. So it’s like, you know, one of the reasons we have like shitty traffic infrastructure that we do is because, like, it wasn’t. It wasn’t designed to have like 600,000 people, like living on it, really. And now certain parts of the land are so locked up that you really would be struggling to find a new way to alleviate unless you put a giant fucking highway right through what’s called the Green Belt.
00:11:28:10 – 00:11:50:14
Bill Sweeney
And like, that’s not going to fucking happen. It’s like federal, you know, it’s like, you know, for like designated, protected lands, you know, all right, all the better. But like, you know, Staten Island is completely jammed up for about eight hours of its day. If you consider, like, morning rush hour and afternoon rush hour, it’s like the whole island starts to lock up because it just bleeds out, you know, all the arteries.
00:11:50:19 – 00:11:58:07
Agent Palmer
So aside from the bridges, when you get to the other boroughs, you do have a subway system.
00:11:58:12 – 00:11:58:22
Bill Sweeney
Yeah.
00:11:58:24 – 00:11:59:45
Agent Palmer
And busses and.
00:12:00:00 – 00:12:01:35
Bill Sweeney
Stuff. I mean, I got busses out here too.
00:12:01:46 – 00:12:06:30
Agent Palmer
And and taxis and. Sure. Well, I mean, you.
00:12:06:35 – 00:12:08:39
Bill Sweeney
Horse and buggy. Yeah, man. What the fuck? Yeah.
00:12:08:39 – 00:12:14:08
Agent Palmer
Wait, you have horses like. No. Well, you say that, but like, I’m in a I’m not in a rural area.
00:12:14:17 – 00:12:14:39
Bill Sweeney
No.
00:12:14:39 – 00:12:30:48
Agent Palmer
Yeah, yeah. But we have like, cab company. Right. Like. And if like you, if you don’t call the cab, good luck finding one. Like, you’re not just going to randomly. And I think that’s. Yeah, a lot of other places and I think yeah, it maybe it’s not just a cliche for New York. I mean, you can only.
00:12:30:48 – 00:12:45:33
Bill Sweeney
Flag down a cab like you see in the movies. You can only do that in Manhattan. Okay. Like, yeah. Like I don’t think you can do that in Queens or in Brooklyn. I mean, unless it’s like certain maybe places because it’s like, oh, this is like,
00:12:45:38 – 00:12:46:49
Agent Palmer
Like the airport.
00:12:46:54 – 00:13:06:03
Bill Sweeney
Like the airport, or maybe near, like one of the stadiums or something like that, you know, because it’s also near like a bus depot or something like that, but like, it really is all Manhattan for like, that kind of thing. You got to call a cab. Okay. Here. You know, but, people walk. Yeah.
00:13:06:03 – 00:13:08:56
Agent Palmer
Otherwise, like, people aren’t afraid of walking.
00:13:09:01 – 00:13:27:54
Bill Sweeney
Not really. A lot of people. A lot of people, because it’s a city you’d be surprised at the number of people like don’t even have their license. Like I don’t have mine. But you could definitely like live without it, you know, because it’s, you know, the transportation systems there. You know, it’s it’s it’s functional. It’s completely you know, we kind of make an it’s we’re kind of making it sound like, you know, it’s definitely got much.
00:13:27:54 – 00:13:56:04
Bill Sweeney
But no, it’s busses run like crazy. And if you got to get off the bus, oh, you know, the busses go over the bridges and then once you get, once you get into the other boroughs, you know, they have the trains run a lot like how you would think they do in Manhattan. So it’s like once you get into like Brooklyn Queens, like you can get anywhere, like any I mean, that’s includes like go up to Long Island by train and, I don’t travel that much by train.
00:13:56:17 – 00:14:07:58
Bill Sweeney
Okay. For the like, I haven’t really hit the boroughs much in my life, so I’m not the guy to ask about that yet. Really? Like, you know, could I get to Jersey? Can I get up to Poughkeepsie? Like, I don’t know, maybe Scranton?
00:14:08:03 – 00:14:12:20
Agent Palmer
I mean, you probably just getting a, you know, getting a cab and say that way, I don’t know.
00:14:12:22 – 00:14:30:36
Bill Sweeney
Well, that’s what I do. Just. I hate because I’m a little like, I get real kind of paranoid intense because whenever I’m on the subway will anxiety. So, like, if I’m ever, like, with friends or on a I’ve been on a date or something like that, I’m like, can we just take cabs? Unless that person I’m with is like.
00:14:30:41 – 00:14:32:56
Agent Palmer
I got it. I, I know what I’m doing.
00:14:33:01 – 00:14:52:25
Bill Sweeney
Well, they’re very Manhattan every day, like they’re commuter for work or whatever. Like, you know, like my two, like my two most recent ex-girlfriends, both spent a hell of a lot of time between work and school in Manhattan. So it was like, all right, you’re leading the way, though. You know, I’m, you hold in my hand this time, you know.
00:14:52:30 – 00:15:06:11
Agent Palmer
My guy is is all of this traffic tension, which I believe is not just you and and the sitting on the bridge and waiting for the Boston. Is that why New York is so angry?
00:15:06:16 – 00:15:07:10
Bill Sweeney
Well.
00:15:07:15 – 00:15:09:04
Agent Palmer
As a city, I like anger.
00:15:09:04 – 00:15:25:52
Bill Sweeney
I don’t know that it’s anger. I think everybody’s just in a hurry. Everybody’s in a rush. And I think that that curtain is in that New York City harshness or like, get right to the point type thing, coupled with a.
00:15:25:57 – 00:15:28:10
Agent Palmer
Direct just let’s go with directness.
00:15:28:24 – 00:15:31:13
Bill Sweeney
Directness and profanity was where I was going.
00:15:31:15 – 00:15:31:51
Agent Palmer
Oh, okay.
00:15:31:51 – 00:15:52:09
Bill Sweeney
I can give the impression that people are a lot more angry than they are. Like, you know, you know, I someone says, hey, buddy, hey, buddy, can you fucking move it? Like, you know, depending on how harsh it comes out, like, you know, I mean, I’d be fazed by that because it’s just like, hey, he’s probably right. I’ll be dragging my ass.
00:15:52:14 – 00:16:09:17
Bill Sweeney
And B, you know, let’s kind of like dropping F-bombs sometimes. You gotta gotta remember, like, not everybody’s slipping one in there because it’s like. And too many uses of the well, the many uses of the of the F word. Right. Like so it’s like is a this is a verb this more adjectives.
00:16:09:19 – 00:16:25:12
Agent Palmer
I mean in my experience it’s like and I don’t maybe not as much. But when you listen to people talk and sometimes, is their crutch or like is their crutch. Yeah.
00:16:25:12 – 00:16:47:44
Bill Sweeney
In in well, I was told that a couple times. I was told that by my friend’s girlfriend one time. She was like, you say fucking every other word and I was like, that’s cause I’m stoned. I was like, really high. And I then, like, it was you, right? It was my crutch. It was my, I was like, this fucking guy, like, you know, he’s fucking coming over there and he’s fucking, you know, like, what the fuck is?
00:16:47:44 – 00:17:07:29
Bill Sweeney
And I’m like, fuck you. You fucking, you know, like. And she’s like, oh my God, could you stop? And I’m like, I’ll try. No promises, but I’ll try. But yeah. So like so I think a little bit of that. But you know, I think that’s also why like, you know, half the fights I said I’d start over.
00:17:07:29 – 00:17:29:42
Bill Sweeney
Nothing really. Start over. How somebody actually said something. And then in New York City, people just like, you know, like it’s not like any it’s not like other places. I mean, I guess it’s a city thing for sure, you know what I mean? And, you know, to a degree. But like, there’s got to be towns where, like, if somebody came in and was like, fuck you, let’s start yelling.
00:17:29:42 – 00:17:40:31
Bill Sweeney
Like most of the people in that place would be like, hey, all right. Like, you know, take it easy. It’s all good. All right. My opponent, like, you know what I mean? Like, you would get hit with sweet and sugar, you know what I mean?
00:17:40:31 – 00:17:41:43
Agent Palmer
Yeah. Okay.
00:17:41:48 – 00:17:47:48
Bill Sweeney
So, like, you know, it’s a so when two people from New York, I think it’s easy for things that dust up.
00:17:47:48 – 00:18:08:36
Agent Palmer
I don’t think it’s just New York, though. I think it’s northeast. Right. It’s Mid-Atlantic because you and I talk. I mean, accents aside, you and I have the same lexicon. And I feel like to a certain extent, we have the same patience level for, like that. Like, well, get a fucking move on it. All right. Well, let’s just fucking go.
00:18:08:41 – 00:18:33:41
Agent Palmer
And it’s not. It’s not personal. And you just get it versus like, I spent some time in North Carolina and the culture shock is just how slow everything moves. Not they’re not, they’re not like dragging their feet but they’re not in a rush. And it’s like yeah why why aren’t you in a rush. Every year everybody’s in a rush.
00:18:33:46 – 00:18:54:05
Bill Sweeney
And it’s not even like oh like it’s almost like a thing where like it’s, it’s, it’s like, oh, let’s just go, hurry up, get it over with. It’s almost like it’s like, don’t you know that if you went a little faster, you could be done with this already? It’s almost like a, it’s like a pro tip kind of thing where it’s like, the only thing you’re doing wrong is taking your time right now.
00:18:54:05 – 00:18:57:32
Bill Sweeney
Come on. Like, you could, you could we we could have done this three times already.
00:18:57:34 – 00:18:58:08
Agent Palmer
It could be done.
00:18:58:08 – 00:19:12:51
Bill Sweeney
And it’s just and it’s just and that’s just an off, you know, that’s just a byproduct of being like a rush, rush, rush type. Yeah. What I mean or like, you know what I mean. Or like, you know, that’s like a workplace mentality where it’s like, well, if I get all this done, I can get more done because I love working for the man.
00:19:12:51 – 00:19:14:23
Bill Sweeney
Oh, yeah.
00:19:14:28 – 00:19:18:13
Agent Palmer
I don’t know. I was always, if I can get more done, I can slack off sooner.
00:19:18:13 – 00:19:20:55
Bill Sweeney
Well, yes, I know it depends on how much you love your job.
00:19:20:55 – 00:19:30:02
Agent Palmer
Well, so if not everybody’s angry, then is everybody my friend in New York City?
00:19:30:07 – 00:19:45:42
Bill Sweeney
No, but I think they’re friendlier than you’d imagine by movies and TV, you know? So I don’t know how. To segue into the song, though.
00:19:45:42 – 00:19:57:18
Agent Palmer
I mean, that’s it’s where I get it, right. I mean, I it’s literally everyone’s your friend in New York City is a line from They Might Be Giants on New York City. Right. And yeah.
00:19:57:19 – 00:20:11:57
Bill Sweeney
And so which I have listened to a lot, I had that on a mixed CD. They had like a couple of they everything was a very uptempo, upbeat, kind of like fun thing. So on this, on this one particular CD that I, when I was with this one chick and we used to listen to it a lot.
00:20:12:11 – 00:20:34:02
Agent Palmer
Okay. So there’s a lot in that song. Like, it feels like a very authentic song. Now, I don’t know that because I’m looking at it as like, oh, well, I’ve heard of those things. So the list, which I’ll just get into, instead of beating around it is and I’m not going to sing it for that just so everybody knows.
00:20:34:02 – 00:20:35:58
Bill Sweeney
All right, all right.
00:20:36:03 – 00:21:01:19
Agent Palmer
So it’s Statue of Liberty stat and Island Ferry, Co-op city, Katz’s and Tiffany’s, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State where Dylan lived, Coney Island and Times Square, Rockefeller Center I wish I was there now, that’s that’s not just Manhattan. That’s like all that’s ever. Oh we’re co it’s a covering the city like these. The whole city.
00:21:01:24 – 00:21:07:24
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. They could do a tour based off that song. They might be Giants tour of New York City. Now are you hit all these spots?
00:21:07:24 – 00:21:15:46
Agent Palmer
Are you are you happy that you got second billing? Like the fair. You got second billing? The Statue of Liberty?
00:21:15:51 – 00:21:34:02
Bill Sweeney
Look, I’m sure it’s like, you know, any town where it’s like, you know, okay, you know, we’re known because we have a bronze statue of Superman. And that’s the only reason anybody ever comes to this town. Like, you know, I mean, or where that town in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, like, you know, like if if we got a ballfields, we got a bell, you know, like.
00:21:34:02 – 00:21:54:16
Bill Sweeney
But if it was like, that’s all that they had, you know, I mean, so, like for Staten Island, it’s like, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a water bus, like, you know, I mean, like it’s cool like in a, in it’s way, but like, it’s, but then again, like there’s not a lot else to slip into that song because if it wasn’t for that, it would have been like the garbage dump or something like that.
00:21:54:16 – 00:22:13:05
Bill Sweeney
I mean, but it’s the song is literally feels like a touristy kind of, hit list of things to do, like an away or things to see, because that’s actually what this song is about. Yeah. Well, it’s like, you know, so many great things to see. Yep. You know, let’s, you know, part of the refrain.
00:22:13:05 – 00:22:16:24
Agent Palmer
Well, the best thing about New York City is you and me.
00:22:16:29 – 00:22:20:39
Bill Sweeney
Know it’s me. You don’t come here. You came here once.
00:22:20:44 – 00:22:22:05
Agent Palmer
Twice, three times.
00:22:22:10 – 00:22:23:37
Bill Sweeney
Three times. The lady.
00:22:23:42 – 00:22:30:41
Agent Palmer
Haha. Now, Bill, of this list, how many of these things have you been to?
00:22:30:46 – 00:22:34:24
Bill Sweeney
Well, we’re only doing that stanza. They hit me with it. I’ll just.
00:22:34:26 – 00:22:36:41
Agent Palmer
Oh, okay. Statue. The Statue of Liberty.
00:22:36:46 – 00:22:39:45
Bill Sweeney
No, we can come back. Okay.
00:22:39:49 – 00:22:43:01
Agent Palmer
Staten Island ferry. Yes. Okay. Co-op city.
00:22:43:05 – 00:22:44:23
Bill Sweeney
I don’t even know where it is on a map.
00:22:44:26 – 00:22:47:27
Agent Palmer
I don’t know what it is, I know what what is it?
00:22:47:31 – 00:23:04:02
Bill Sweeney
We’re going to have to do some research. I’m sure it’s a neighborhood or it’s, you know, it’s, like Soho or one of these kinds of things. It’s one of these neighborhoods, I think. All right. Katz’s, I don’t think I, I don’t think it was in there, but I know I’ve passed it. I’ve been outside of it.
00:23:04:04 – 00:23:05:30
Bill Sweeney
Okay, so it’s a.
00:23:05:30 – 00:23:10:10
Agent Palmer
Deli. If for anybody who doesn’t know, it’s a deli. Tiffany’s?
00:23:10:14 – 00:23:16:54
Bill Sweeney
I don’t think so. I might have passed it without even realizing it, though. Did a lot of did a lot of walking around in Manhattan when I was taking design classes. Okay.
00:23:17:08 – 00:23:18:15
Agent Palmer
Central Park.
00:23:18:20 – 00:23:20:35
Bill Sweeney
Yes. Okay. So they might be Giants in Central Park.
00:23:20:37 – 00:23:24:35
Agent Palmer
Oh, nice. Nice. Brooklyn Bridge.
00:23:24:39 – 00:23:25:28
Bill Sweeney
Crossed it for sure.
00:23:25:33 – 00:23:29:40
Agent Palmer
Okay. The Empire State.
00:23:29:45 – 00:23:43:36
Bill Sweeney
Look, as a young kid on a school trip, I’m sure I can never remember if it was the Empire State Building or one of the, twin towers that I got to go into. We didn’t go.
00:23:43:41 – 00:23:45:17
Agent Palmer
To the to the top. Okay?
00:23:45:26 – 00:23:55:33
Bill Sweeney
I don’t think, but we went out to a level where you could definitely look at. It was all, you know, like the angled windows, so you could lean and get the vertigo.
00:23:55:35 – 00:23:59:11
Agent Palmer
I think. I think that’s, I think that was World Trade Center. If I think it.
00:23:59:11 – 00:24:08:14
Bill Sweeney
Was two and I think the and I know that for a fact that the elevator was like a high speed elevator where like your ears pop when you’re riding it because you go now as.
00:24:08:14 – 00:24:12:41
Agent Palmer
A, as a little kid, the elevators got to be the best part of that.
00:24:12:46 – 00:24:30:41
Bill Sweeney
It is. But it feels weird because it doesn’t feel like a cool, friendly elevator. It almost like looking back. It almost feels like a freight elevator. Because it just like it wasn’t like a welcoming kind of design. And plus you crammed in there with like, it’s. And I think it’s not the same size as the other elevators.
00:24:30:41 – 00:24:38:56
Bill Sweeney
I think it was smaller, and it would shuttle people up and down, probably at a higher speed. So and probably was, might have been put in.
00:24:39:01 – 00:24:39:45
Agent Palmer
I gotcha, you.
00:24:39:46 – 00:24:51:20
Bill Sweeney
Know, we got these bank of elevators. We’ll put a small high speed one in the middle maybe, I don’t know, I’m not a design guy. Or am I? But is that’s how I would do it.
00:24:51:27 – 00:24:54:13
Agent Palmer
All right. Coney Island?
00:24:54:18 – 00:24:57:21
Bill Sweeney
I don’t think so. If I was there ever. I was there when I was a little kid.
00:24:57:28 – 00:24:59:28
Agent Palmer
Okay. Times square.
00:24:59:33 – 00:25:00:34
Bill Sweeney
00:25:00:39 – 00:25:02:44
Agent Palmer
Rockefeller Center.
00:25:02:49 – 00:25:06:19
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. Yeah. Never went ice skating. Never, never did the ice skating thing.
00:25:06:19 – 00:25:07:42
Agent Palmer
Can you skate?
00:25:07:47 – 00:25:33:53
Bill Sweeney
Not really. I did some roller skating. Like again upstate Glens Falls. That’s where the roller skate rink was. We didn’t have one on here. Not for me. Growing up like a generation back, there was like three roller skating rinks out here. So. And that was another thing too. It’s like, you know, Staten Island, so self-contained that like, no matter how many like miles across and long it is like, it’s very fun for yourself.
00:25:33:53 – 00:25:45:51
Bill Sweeney
So it’s not like, oh, just a couple movie theaters. It’s like, no, as many as, like a normal town would have that was bigger. Like, we’ve got that many. So it was like eight movie theaters, three roller rink. And then like, now they’re all gone.
00:25:45:56 – 00:25:48:49
Agent Palmer
Well, you got to we need places to put everybody, bill.
00:25:48:54 – 00:26:01:21
Bill Sweeney
I mean, yeah. So anyway, Times Square. Yes. But not for the. I’ve never seen the ball drop at New Year’s, but is is the thing about oh the thing about the touristy stuff. Right. Well let’s do it. Some of them, but not everybody.
00:26:01:26 – 00:26:35:06
Agent Palmer
So I personally do not think I’ve been to the Statue of Liberty either. I because having lived in northeastern Pennsylvania, especially for that, like Middle high school type age, we did trips to New York. Yeah. So we saw it. But like, yeah, we can do other things. Like we can go see a Broadway show. And oh, by the way, if we drive this way, we can go, hey, there’s the Statue of Liberty, and then we don’t have to get on a boat and go there.
00:26:35:11 – 00:26:53:57
Bill Sweeney
Well, here’s the thing, too. If you’re on a Staten Island ferry, when you’re out in the middle of the water, when you hit, like, the closest we you’ll get to the the statue. Yeah. And it’s great for taking pictures at that point. Like, you know, the the conductor, the driver or whatever. He’ll come on, say, now’s a great time.
00:26:53:58 – 00:27:11:32
Bill Sweeney
If we want to, we’ll be approaching Staten, the Statue of Liberty, and so you can feel the whole boat go on. It’s just like half the people especially, you know, in the middle of the week, it’s touristy time. You feel half the boat just got to one side, and they all kind of walk over there. But, yeah.
00:27:11:32 – 00:27:13:24
Bill Sweeney
So that’s the thing.
00:27:13:29 – 00:27:18:06
Agent Palmer
Like, do you, do you have an interest? Like, honestly, do you have an interest? Do you think it would be fun?
00:27:18:06 – 00:27:26:29
Bill Sweeney
I think it would be cool to kind of like, go inside the Statue of Liberty and go, like up the steps as far as you can go. I don’t know how much I really want to go up into the arm.
00:27:26:29 – 00:27:31:17
Agent Palmer
You don’t, you don’t. You don’t want to relive your own. You don’t want to relive your own Ghostbusters, too.
00:27:31:22 – 00:27:54:41
Bill Sweeney
I’m, I’m more into, like, X-Men one, because that ended at, the Statue of Liberty. Okay. No, no, no, no, I don’t want to relive any of that. Either of those movies actually, but, Yeah, I mean, you know, there is some kind of, like, interest, I guess if it had ever come up amongst friends, like, I think we had one of those better kind of conversations, like, why don’t we do that?
00:27:54:41 – 00:28:11:10
Bill Sweeney
We should plan that. And then like we did, like I would have gone, okay, you know, I’ve done some touristy ish kind of stuff, you know, but nothing like the big hits, you know? But a lot of my friends have a lot of my friends have gone to, like, Rockefeller Center to do the ice skating thing because it’s like, oh, you go to see the Christmas tree get lit up.
00:28:11:10 – 00:28:14:59
Bill Sweeney
So I’ve done that a couple times, but that’s like it also like a date thing.
00:28:15:11 – 00:28:17:12
Agent Palmer
And Coney Island.
00:28:17:17 – 00:28:36:27
Bill Sweeney
Coney Island, I got to say no. Like, I know I think the whole thing, Coney Island is the fucking rickety old roller coaster there, you know, there it was like it’s still made of wood, metal and the hotdog eating contest. And I think neither of those things I, I’m, I’m good from over here. Okay. Kind of a thing like, you know.
00:28:36:32 – 00:28:42:19
Agent Palmer
Well so let’s talk about food for a second because outside of the hot dog eating contest.
00:28:42:24 – 00:28:43:13
Bill Sweeney
Right.
00:28:43:18 – 00:28:58:44
Agent Palmer
When you say New York food to people outside of the city. Yeah, it’s pizza, it’s delis, and it’s a hot dog cart on every corner. Because because they’re not thinking about the five boroughs when they’re doing this.
00:28:58:44 – 00:29:14:22
Bill Sweeney
So if you if you could make a pizza that had pastrami on it, it was that made out of bagel dough that I don’t think you get more New York than that. I don’t know if you’d have red sauce on it. Folks write in and tell them.
00:29:14:27 – 00:29:16:39
Agent Palmer
That’s a good day, I think this week. Yeah. I mean.
00:29:16:51 – 00:29:18:02
Bill Sweeney
That’s how to make that work.
00:29:18:11 – 00:29:21:22
Agent Palmer
That’s, interesting. That’s I’m. Yeah.
00:29:21:27 – 00:29:23:28
Bill Sweeney
I mean, you’re right. Those are the big hits, right?
00:29:23:30 – 00:29:29:47
Agent Palmer
That it feels like it. But bagels I feel like get the short end of the stick most of the time.
00:29:29:47 – 00:29:37:24
Bill Sweeney
I think bagels are getting to the point now where it’s like pizza is. I think every city, every, like, decent sized towns, probably got a bagel store.
00:29:37:29 – 00:30:15:14
Agent Palmer
But this is where this is the thing where being living, having lived outside New York City my whole life and especially having lived in Pennsylvania but not Philadelphia, all of the stores around here are either New York Bagels or Philly cheesesteak, right? Like we don’t have anything of our own in the middle here. So you’re either going to get like a New York style pizza, or you’re going to get a Philly style cheesesteak, or you’re going to get a New York bagel and God bless the like, bagel places who are not trying to be New York bagel because nobody goes there.
00:30:15:18 – 00:30:37:09
Bill Sweeney
Well, certainly no one’s going to a place. It’s like, you know, Bethlehem Bagel. No. Or, you know it. Pennsylvania state bagels are us, you know what I mean? Of course not. Like, you know, I don’t think on Staten Island is a I don’t think there’s any Staten Island bagels. And then. But you will find a lot of Staten Island blank businesses, like, you know, I mean, like, Staten Island cars.
00:30:37:09 – 00:30:51:38
Bill Sweeney
Was a cab service out here for a long time. And, you know, and it’s not that everything is Richmond. Everything. Because it’s like I said, it’s like the old school name, you know? So everything’s Richmond County Savings Bank and, you know, Richmond Auto.
00:30:51:43 – 00:31:01:25
Agent Palmer
Do you have, like, a favorite show that depicts, like, the authenticity of New York?
00:31:01:29 – 00:31:02:44
Bill Sweeney
00:31:02:49 – 00:31:04:40
Agent Palmer
I can run some by you once.
00:31:04:45 – 00:31:11:48
Bill Sweeney
By me initially, I would probably say I think the most faithfuls probably like some of those law and order shows because they actually filmed here, you know.
00:31:11:48 – 00:31:17:45
Agent Palmer
Because I was going to say I got two lists that are from very different places.
00:31:17:49 – 00:31:19:18
Bill Sweeney
Okay.
00:31:19:23 – 00:31:47:28
Agent Palmer
That are very interesting in their overlaps. But, so we got the New York City Goal.com list, which is not ordered. And this is, shows that want to make you visit New York City. Okay. And that would be Seinfeld. Girls, sex and the city. Billy on the Street. Felicity, 30 Rock, real Housewives of New York City.
00:31:47:28 – 00:32:09:55
Agent Palmer
I didn’t even know there was one. Louie, Sesame Street, Broad City, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And then we get my four favorite, at the top of this, at the bottom of this list, which is all in the family slash The Jeffersons, just, Mad Men, Master of None, and Barney Miller, which I’m like, throwbacks.
00:32:09:55 – 00:32:12:44
Agent Palmer
I don’t know if New York’s that any more.
00:32:12:49 – 00:32:27:10
Bill Sweeney
Well, yeah, well, that’s the thing, right? Like, they’re all kind of dated and Mad Men on purpose. I mean, well, like Mad Men, I never even watched, so I didn’t even know that that was, took place in New York. That could have been Chicago for all I know. Okay. They just never really seem to use the city in any real way.
00:32:27:10 – 00:32:30:10
Agent Palmer
In it was it was more promotional.
00:32:30:10 – 00:32:32:29
Bill Sweeney
Stuff that would give me the vibe of New York City.
00:32:32:29 – 00:32:49:45
Agent Palmer
I got no well, I think I watched the show a very long time ago, but I think somebody lived in either the suburbs or on one of the islands. I don’t know if it was long or star. Sure, sure. Sure. And then the other one, which is from Screen Rant, which is a different perspective. Obviously, this isn’t like a tourism perspective.
00:32:49:45 – 00:33:18:27
Agent Palmer
This is a medium. Perspective is the the best shows that were set in the city, which they count down as sex and the city is number ten. Broad City, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Bird Man, 30 Rock, how I Met Your Mother, when Harry met Sally, West Side Story, Modern Love, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. And I Feel Like Modern Love shouldn’t count because it’s based off of New York City letters sent to, you know, like the times.
00:33:18:27 – 00:33:19:10
Bill Sweeney
Based on true.
00:33:19:10 – 00:33:23:28
Agent Palmer
Story. Yeah. So that’s that feels like that feels like the wringer in all of it.
00:33:23:33 – 00:33:30:54
Bill Sweeney
But here’s the thing. I feel like Billy on the Street is the most New York City show out of, like, all of them.
00:33:30:59 – 00:33:31:28
Agent Palmer
Okay?
00:33:31:35 – 00:33:51:11
Bill Sweeney
Because it’s not drama, like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s it’s all shtick and bit, but it’s like live on the street and he’s randomly going up to New Yorkers and just saying, you know, ridiculous things. And so like, everything’s got the flavor and the taste of it, but that’s the only one that’s like right in the middle.
00:33:51:11 – 00:34:22:30
Bill Sweeney
And so like, I mean, it is some of the reactions that he gets, you know, I mean, because he’s not going for crazy reactions and most people don’t give him to over-the-top stuff, but like the the brush offs that he gets just always feels so classic fucking New Yorker to me. Like every single one of them, you know, even if it’s something meek and mild, like, oh, you know, to some lady who gets freaked out or whatever, but, well, the variety of people he runs into too is a big is a big thing because he’s in Manhattan doing that.
00:34:22:30 – 00:34:38:06
Bill Sweeney
And it’s just like, you know, you see the rainbow, you know what I mean? Of New Yorkers there. But I think sex and the city, liked to. And I have watched some sex in the city.
00:34:38:10 – 00:34:39:10
Agent Palmer
Who hasn’t?
00:34:39:15 – 00:35:13:01
Bill Sweeney
Well, I had a girlfriend at the time, so having. I have an excuse. But that’s a show that likes to wear New York on its sleeve in a way where it was about, you know, a little bit of class and style and these kinds of things. So everything that I ever talked about was on a pedestal a little bit like, you know, it’s like, you know, they weren’t super wealthy women, but they were women of well-to-do enough that they were having a nice upper middle class lifestyle in the middle of Manhattan, which is, not cheap.
00:35:13:05 – 00:35:30:16
Agent Palmer
Well, let’s, let’s let’s talk about something else. It’s not cheap, Bill. Saving your life. Saving your life. Okay. New York seems to have more superheroes per capita and evil villains. I guess they go and they go in tandem together.
00:35:30:30 – 00:35:34:53
Bill Sweeney
What is the segue that we ended up here? Okay. I’m listening.
00:35:35:05 – 00:35:40:11
Agent Palmer
Do you would, like, have having been a comic reader?
00:35:40:16 – 00:35:44:50
Bill Sweeney
Not a superhero. I, I never saved anybody. What are you trying them?
00:35:44:55 – 00:35:47:22
Agent Palmer
You might have, but, you know.
00:35:47:22 – 00:35:47:53
Bill Sweeney
Which.
00:35:47:58 – 00:36:10:32
Agent Palmer
One doesn’t make it? Yeah. You know, once it’s like a hobby. Yeah. You never made a career. You never went pro. But but, you know, having shows like Ninja Turtles and every superhero show from Marvel and other things being based in New York, you read these comics growing up. They were in your backyard. They were just a bridge away, right?
00:36:10:32 – 00:36:33:30
Bill Sweeney
Like, well, yeah. So I mean, that’s I think it’s a little bit of, well, a well, there’s a couple things here, but I’ll say initially to the big thing of like all of them, all of the Marvel guys, the majority of them, you know, operating out of New York was kind of like cool. But like, you know, it’s it’s you don’t really because you’re from here.
00:36:33:30 – 00:36:53:35
Bill Sweeney
It’s you’re a little kind of spoiled by it. Like, you don’t really even think of it like, oh, isn’t, well, at least I did it anyway. Isn’t that really cool that like, they’re all, like, in my town? Like, you know what I mean? And plus, like, at the time, like, I was so into comics, they’re like, you know, like Stan Lee would always have that as part of his many refrains about the Marvel Universe.
00:36:53:35 – 00:37:03:03
Bill Sweeney
And it was like, you know, back when we created it, we, you know, we we put them in places that we know, you know what I mean? So why not just have them right outside our window at the offices? You know what I mean?
00:37:03:03 – 00:37:31:48
Agent Palmer
And so so I want to ask real quick. I want to interject for a second. All right. Most of these heroes are in Brooklyn or Manhattan or Queens. Yeah. When sometimes the Bronx. Right, right. They’re not so they’re not from Staten Island. So. So do you. Is there a part of it where I’m saying this is somebody from, like, Pennsylvania, but you’re being like, they’re not from my town because they’re from the other side of the bridge.
00:37:31:53 – 00:37:49:47
Bill Sweeney
Well, this was the other thing I was going to get to is that what was really cool for me, because I was in I was into GI Joe. Right? And then like, help me get into comic books, like really at the counter of books. Anyway, because I had had some comics and stuff like that, but I really wasn’t like on a regular, like dying to read them.
00:37:49:52 – 00:38:10:01
Bill Sweeney
But, was the Colbert GI Joe comic books, you know what I mean? Because I was a it was just like, oh, here’s like the cartoon show that I want, like, you know, where it’s like, yeah, a little bit more mature. It’s not talking down to me. I mean, it’s written for like ages 6 to 60. But like, it’s not talking down to me, like, you know, like the cartoon was.
00:38:10:05 – 00:38:27:01
Bill Sweeney
But what was really fucking cool was that, like in the cartoon, like G.I. Joe was like, main base is like a, you know, it’s a fucking big toy diorama. The thing that’s like on the show, it’s like in the middle of the desert for like, no explicable reason where maybe to protect civilians if it’s ever attacked. Let’s say that.
00:38:27:09 – 00:38:50:58
Bill Sweeney
Okay. But in the comic book, Staten Island has, is the home of the G.I. Joes base. There’s a real army base on Staten Island called Fort Wadsworth. And in the general comics, at least for the majority of the Marvel run, the guy who wrote the book fucking knew of that base and thought it was, like, really cool that it was kind of like off to the side and like a lot of people didn’t know about it.
00:38:50:58 – 00:39:14:41
Bill Sweeney
So it would not be a cool, like to have a secret base. And so, like in one of the, in one of the, like, hangars or buildings or whatever, it was like a secret, lowering platform, like, you know, you would pull in your vehicles and it would just drop armor. And it was a subterranean Joe’s base, you know, the pit, it was called, which eventually, like, you know, issue like 88 or some shit, like Cobra finally blows it up.
00:39:14:46 – 00:39:33:42
Bill Sweeney
And then it literally became a pit. But so, so it was cool, but it was like it was never a thing that they did on the show, you know, that wasn’t like, and it didn’t mentioned Staten Island on the show. And I think, you know, I mean, certainly not in that context. Like, there was a lot of differences in the comic book and the and the and the TV show.
00:39:33:44 – 00:39:58:46
Bill Sweeney
But like, that was that was like the only thing like Peter Parker was from Queens but seemed to operate mostly out of Manhattan. And then everybody else is like in Manhattan. But at least I got like G.I. Joe, like their main base was, you know, so sometimes, like, you know, the caption would swing back, like, meanwhile in Staten Island and like the first time I noticed that, I was like, what?
00:39:58:51 – 00:40:05:23
Bill Sweeney
Like we exist. They would have been. It would have been like, you have it like in your hometown. And it’s just like, I, I why is my town mentioned?
00:40:05:27 – 00:40:31:25
Agent Palmer
I can give you one example. I was reading a, an old comic from, I don’t know, had to be like the 60s or 70s like Big Steel still existed, right. And so Bethlehem, because of Bethlehem Steel, got mentioned by one of the villains that they were going to blow it up as a source of steel. Right. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen.
00:40:31:29 – 00:40:48:46
Agent Palmer
Yeah. That the name of the city in a comic book. And it was. It was. And it was like a passing thing, like we got mentioned with Pittsburgh. Obviously, it wasn’t just us, right? It’s like, but it’s like, oh, okay. Well, we at least then we existed for a thing, right? Like, you know, I got it.
00:40:48:51 – 00:41:17:27
Bill Sweeney
You know, it’s like, that is good for me. It’s like when I would see, like the ferry, the orange Staten Island ferry, like, in the background somewhere that’s like. It’s like, you know, when you get, like, the small almost nod in a way. It’s not like a really direct. It’s not like, oh, you know, it’s like someone taking the Staten Island Ferry ride in a movie, but they totally admit the fact that, well, when you get to the Staten Island side, then what do you do?
00:41:17:31 – 00:41:39:19
Bill Sweeney
You just turn around and get back on the boat, and you come back like if you’re doing it as a tourist thing or just to take the ride like you don’t. I mean, because there’s nothing to do out here that you can’t do. Like, there’s no there’s no touristy things out here. They’re trying to put a giant Ferris wheel out here and like, I’m like, guys, it’s just going to fall in the ocean one day.
00:41:39:19 – 00:41:47:05
Bill Sweeney
Just what’s the don’t don’t, don’t, don’t we don’t need that. We need we need other things. We don’t need the world’s biggest Ferris wheel.
00:41:47:10 – 00:41:55:20
Agent Palmer
Bill, we’re going to we’re going to do some really, really generic questions. What is a New York minute?
00:41:55:24 – 00:42:01:05
Bill Sweeney
It’s, it’s longer than you think.
00:42:01:10 – 00:42:07:24
Agent Palmer
But shorter than, like, I feel like it’s a joke, right? Like it’s longer than anything, but shorter than an hour. Like. Yes.
00:42:07:24 – 00:42:18:25
Bill Sweeney
Like. Right. Right. Yeah. It’s one of these things, that just feel like there’s too much set up to get that response, to get, like, anything else out of me for that one. I think.
00:42:18:30 – 00:42:39:31
Agent Palmer
That’s fair. I, it’s I don’t know, I feel like if any other city had worked in that song, he wouldn’t have used it. I feel like it’s. Oh, that only works if it’s in a New York minute. Like you can’t be in an LA minute. Nobody cares. Like, New York has a mystique that I feel like, okay, we can throw it in there like it works.
00:42:39:31 – 00:42:39:40
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:42:39:53 – 00:42:58:35
Bill Sweeney
And I guess, like in that kind of phrase, phraseology of like you do your minute, it’s supposed to be like this thing that’s like super fleeting. I guess the hustle bustle means that a New York minutes faster than or goes by quicker than a minute somewhere else. You know, I’m going to kick your ass in the New York minute, you know what I mean?
00:42:58:35 – 00:43:14:29
Bill Sweeney
Is it kind of like how you use that, right? I mean, I, I mean, there’s the there’s there’s the use in that Eagle song or Don Henley or whatever that is. And it’s also like as, a colloquialism or whatever. It’s just a phrase, you know what I mean? So it’s like,
00:43:14:33 – 00:43:25:41
Agent Palmer
Where do, what is the lifeblood of New York City? Because I feel like the lifeblood of New York as a state is very different than the lifeblood of New York City.
00:43:25:46 – 00:43:28:57
Bill Sweeney
Well, probably, you know. Yeah.
00:43:29:02 – 00:43:31:08
Agent Palmer
Is their lifeblood, I guess.
00:43:31:13 – 00:44:01:30
Bill Sweeney
Yeah, I, I probably would vary who you ask to. Like. You’d probably get some different answers, but I would think, like, your top answers would be like coffee, pizza, you know, marinara sauce, these kinds of things. And, something about, like, the hustle, something about, like, the drive, the constant motion, the constant moving forward that happens here in New York where it’s just like, well, especially when you think of Manhattan anyway, you know what I mean?
00:44:01:35 – 00:44:02:31
Bill Sweeney
But,
00:44:02:36 – 00:44:20:55
Agent Palmer
Yeah, but but I’ve been I mean, based on the traffic we talked about earlier, and the trains that always run on time and, you know, the subway and this, that and the other thing and the busses and the systems, it feels like movement is the lifeblood of the city, regardless of.
00:44:20:56 – 00:44:31:55
Bill Sweeney
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I but that’s got to be true for any city though, right? I mean, it’s, it’s like, that’s a universal kind of like it’s the nature of a city. It’s it’s.
00:44:31:55 – 00:44:32:37
Agent Palmer
True.
00:44:32:41 – 00:44:42:28
Bill Sweeney
You know, it’s it’s the hustle and flow of, of everybody rushing to get to a job they don’t want to be at and then rushing home to get away from the job. They were out all day.
00:44:42:33 – 00:45:08:06
Agent Palmer
Do you think that part of that is everybody at one time wanted to go to the city, to New York City, right? Like, does it still have the stature it once held? I mean, obviously in some scenarios like Wall Street’s still there. But like, yeah, the music industry is not there anymore. Like, but it’s still New York City.
00:45:08:10 – 00:45:32:35
Bill Sweeney
I think it’s got it’s appeals to different people for different reasons. And there is still a thriving creative community. You know what I mean? It’s not L.A., but you’d be surprised how much like really kind of does happen and gets done in New York. And a lot of that is on the comeback in a way. You know, there’s a lot of enticements for productions and stuff like that.
00:45:32:40 – 00:45:33:47
Bill Sweeney
But,
00:45:33:51 – 00:45:43:50
Agent Palmer
Well, yeah, but that’s because an entire generation of New Yorkers grew up seeing Vancouver as New York. And you, you got they got upset. Well, it’s a.
00:45:43:50 – 00:46:12:48
Bill Sweeney
Little bit of that also too. It’s just like, you know, why wasn’t any of that industry really producing stuff here? Like, oh, we’ve got casting calls and we’ve got Broadway and we’ve got production companies to make these shows, you know, I mean, and but all that work goes out to California. Well, these are the states, you know, I mean, so it’s just like, well, you know, let’s try and do some stuff, you know, I mean, so actually like the prison that’s out here that’s closed on Staten Island gets used in a lot of shows and, and a lot of movies.
00:46:12:53 – 00:46:31:51
Bill Sweeney
It’s used for that now, basically, as even though it’s closed, it’s still, you know, operational to a degree. Silver Cup Studios, I think is, is out here and, you know, so they’re trying to bring all that back in the same way, like, you know, other states are trying to give all those incentives, but I think just derailed a little bit from your initial question.
00:46:31:56 – 00:46:35:38
Agent Palmer
Not really. Okay. We’re not any more than anything else.
00:46:35:38 – 00:46:36:32
Bill Sweeney
Yeah.
00:46:36:37 – 00:46:41:52
Agent Palmer
I mean, speaking of stature, right. And I know you’re older than me, but you’re still young.
00:46:42:06 – 00:46:47:16
Bill Sweeney
Watch yourself here, boy. I’m telling you that the.
00:46:47:21 – 00:47:08:28
Agent Palmer
What are the stories that you’ve heard about the most drastic before and after of Giuliani, regardless of what anybody may think of him cleaning up the city? Because there is definitely a before and after, especially. And when you look at movies and television, you see it most drastically. Oh.
00:47:08:28 – 00:47:30:16
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Look, there’s look, there’s people who is a generation that’s like right ahead of me age wise, that’s like latched on to the old school, you know, the Warriors era of, you know, Charles Bronson, the kind of Manhattan, I remember when I can get two whores for a dollar, you know, in Times Square.
00:47:30:16 – 00:47:50:31
Bill Sweeney
And now you can’t get nothing. You can’t even get, you know, you can get Eminem’s at the Eminem store, you know what I mean? And it’s a huge cultural change. Like, if you’re a person who, like, grew up with that and remember that era and then to go into Times Square now I’m sure it’s it’s a thousand light years away, like, you know what I mean?
00:47:50:31 – 00:48:12:46
Bill Sweeney
It’s like imagining like, you know, the because also too like New York, for all its reputation during that time probably wasn’t far off from their reputation. But like, you know, it’s like taking some place like Detroit and then now it’s like the new Las Vegas, you know what I mean? It’s like what? Yeah. Like what happened? And then also like for three block radius, then it’s like, wait, what?
00:48:12:51 – 00:48:39:54
Bill Sweeney
But yeah. And like, you know, hey, say what you want about Giuliani, blah blah blah blah, blah, you know, these days. But back then, you know, he was a mixed bag kind of guy because he was tough on everything, but got the results in the end where it was a cleaner and better run city. But the sacrifice was that like, oh, we’ve got to change how certain parts of this Manhattan.
00:48:39:58 – 00:48:59:18
Bill Sweeney
Operate and exist like you only mean like these kinds of businesses have to go. And we got to pressure them out with zoning laws. And so all the peep shows were gone, and suddenly it was like, oh, this is prime real estate. How did we, you know, how did these guys who ran these buildings, like, not realize that, like, you don’t have to have peep shows here.
00:48:59:18 – 00:49:28:48
Bill Sweeney
Probably got you could probably get someone to pay more rent than a guy running peep shows and strip clubs and like shitty strip clubs at that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, eventually came to a point where the only strip clubs up in Manhattan were like the best. So like, you know, like the ones like Howard Stern used to go to, like, only mean scores and, I can’t remember the names of these big strip clubs, but eventually they were gone to, like, you know, but it’s a trade off in a way, because it’s like, yes, you do have a better city.
00:49:28:53 – 00:49:47:57
Bill Sweeney
But, and I only mean it like, oh, do you want the crime? No, but it does feel completely sold out in a way that, like like it just is the way it is these days. So you can’t really hold it against, like, that’s just what the city’s become. Yeah. I just the it’s.
00:49:47:57 – 00:49:49:42
Agent Palmer
Like in Newark they Disney you.
00:49:49:46 – 00:50:09:42
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. Well the nucleus of any city like that that that center most like this is the most touristy part of the city in a lot of modern cities is very much like that, where it’s like the most expensive shops and the most coolest things to go do and see. So, like, you know, for the biggest city in the world.
00:50:09:42 – 00:50:18:13
Bill Sweeney
Finally it was live. It’s live now it lives up to that. Whereas back in the days it was like, yeah, there’s some stuff, but watch where you go in.
00:50:18:27 – 00:50:34:32
Agent Palmer
Is it dangerous? Like, do you, does it feel danger like? Because the here’s the thing, based on what you’re saying before, probably a lot more dangerous than it is now. Now, I’m sure it’s got its neighborhoods, but there’s this New York City feel dangerous right now.
00:50:34:36 – 00:50:57:09
Bill Sweeney
The I think it’s not like to a degree I would say yeah, but that’s not like any more than anywhere else in the city. Whereas like it would be easier to say there was trouble areas where like everywhere, you know, now they’re in certain areas or they are certain moments in the high okay.
00:50:57:14 – 00:50:57:47
Agent Palmer
Yeah.
00:50:57:52 – 00:51:14:13
Bill Sweeney
High value areas there. But they still happen and it could still happen. I mean every now and then, I mean, it’s like any city you get some crazy guy in a fucking subway, you fucking stab somebody for their phone. Even though the guy was like, okay, here, take it and you get stabbed if you weren’t fast enough, fucking gets.
00:51:14:14 – 00:51:24:22
Bill Sweeney
That’s like literally I heard it on the radio today. Ten, ten wins. Like. And the guy just got stabbed because he didn’t move fast enough. Anyway, on to the weather. It’s just like, what.
00:51:24:27 – 00:51:29:03
Agent Palmer
It is is New York City, the city that doesn’t sleep?
00:51:29:07 – 00:51:49:45
Bill Sweeney
Absolutely. I mean, I worked for a little while cleaning kitchens, with, like, a pressure washer. You’re going to have to the place closed. Oh, spray it down with some degreaser, let it sit, and then you come with a pressure washer and it holds it all down in the, you know, the hood range over the stove, you know.
00:51:49:45 – 00:52:13:20
Bill Sweeney
Yeah. Because it just, you know, you go in there once a week or whatever, that’s a service. But it’s nasty. It’s a late night job. It’s not overnight always, but it’s definitely late late nights. It can get late. You know, you do 2 or 3 places starting at like 10:00, like, I mean, so like and because this was a scrappy company ran by a friend of my brother’s, like, you know, he had we got a couple of places in Manhattan.
00:52:13:20 – 00:52:35:59
Bill Sweeney
We got a couple places in Brooklyn. We got a couple places here on Staten Island. We got to try and round robin it, you know what I mean? And, you know, it was a half assed thing, but I got to see firsthand how much of the city is active even during the week. Like, I mean, like, oh, sure, it’s 24 hour party Friday and Saturday for sure, but because of all that kind of thing.
00:52:35:59 – 00:52:55:39
Bill Sweeney
But you’d be surprised how much is really going on a fucking Tuesday, you know what I mean? And I do mean still like clubs and bars, okay? You’d think they’re like, oh shit, like Tuesday. Like, why is anything happening at this place? And it’s just like, well, you know, it’s 4:00 in the morning and it’s, it’s it’s, you know, it’s a venue.
00:52:55:44 – 00:53:08:54
Bill Sweeney
So some rock show or whatever, but like guys where I’m fucking putting shit into the truck and it’s a big pressure washer, like, it’s like 60 drunks coming out great. Buy a bag of weed off one of them. It turns out to be leaves. Okay.
00:53:08:59 – 00:53:11:43
Agent Palmer
All right. We’re going to do a little rapid fire, my friend.
00:53:11:48 – 00:53:13:05
Bill Sweeney
All right. Hit me fast, baby.
00:53:13:20 – 00:53:16:56
Agent Palmer
Are there alligators in the sewer in New York City?
00:53:17:01 – 00:53:19:38
Bill Sweeney
No, but there are giant rats.
00:53:19:43 – 00:53:22:17
Agent Palmer
Is there buried treasure on Liberty Island?
00:53:22:32 – 00:53:24:35
Bill Sweeney
If there was, it’s probably not there anymore.
00:53:24:39 – 00:53:28:44
Agent Palmer
If you drop a penny off the Empire State Building, can you kill a man?
00:53:28:55 – 00:53:43:33
Bill Sweeney
I don’t think that’s true. I think you just gonna make him $0.01 richer, that’s all. Even if it’s embedded in his skull or something like that. I think there’s a I think there. I think there’s some signs to that, terminal velocity of a penny off the building. I don’t think you can kill somebody.
00:53:43:38 – 00:53:47:14
Agent Palmer
Is there a ghost ship on the Hudson?
00:53:47:19 – 00:54:01:52
Bill Sweeney
I don’t I if this is a thing. I’ve never heard of it, never heard of it, and never been invited to go check it out. I don’t know any Hardy Boys or any Nancy Drew’s or Encyclopedia Browns. I didn’t know any of those kinds of kids.
00:54:01:56 – 00:54:10:11
Agent Palmer
Okay. And, and and lastly, what is a New York State of mind?
00:54:10:16 – 00:54:25:26
Bill Sweeney
I don’t know, but it’s not as like blazing smooth is. That’s like, you know, that sounds like a dumb. You can almost fall asleep with that, like, until you start hitting the big notes, you know what I mean?
00:54:25:26 – 00:54:27:31
Agent Palmer
And that’s not the city at all.
00:54:27:36 – 00:54:34:35
Bill Sweeney
No, it’s it’s definitely the beats per minute have to come up on that track. You know what it’s it’s.
00:54:34:42 – 00:54:38:27
Agent Palmer
It occurs to me as I ask the question, maybe he was talking about upstate.
00:54:38:37 – 00:54:51:40
Bill Sweeney
Oh, it’s very much actually, you know what it is. The song is, I think literally about, like getting out of the city and going up and enjoying the Hudson River. Like, I’m like, what is the Hudson River line? Is it a is it a bus company?
00:54:51:40 – 00:54:53:19
Agent Palmer
I think it is a train.
00:54:53:24 – 00:55:05:12
Bill Sweeney
I think that’s the thing. Like, I don’t know, you know, it’s like but I feel like he was soft balling it for the tourism board. He’s like, you know if I write this fucking song they at some point they are going to release the song.
00:55:05:14 – 00:55:08:09
Agent Palmer
Well we, we aren’t softball this for the talking point.
00:55:08:14 – 00:55:27:47
Bill Sweeney
No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. They should be they should be using they might be giants. New York City I mean, we’ve had enough of the Billy Joel. Let’s ramp up the beats per minute. Something fun in up tempo. That’s like like an ear, like a like an earworm in a whole different way. Like, you know, that song burrows in.
00:55:27:52 – 00:55:55:21
Bill Sweeney
It’s a little too chipper, almost in a way that doesn’t feel completely genuine for New York City. What? That goes to a certain kind of spirit that does exist here that, like the They Might Be Giants guys really encapsulate, which is like this nerdy, positive, kind of like, hey, man, like, you know, this is cool to like, hey, like, you know, let’s get some fucking drums and just like, you know, or like, you know, some beatnik bullshit, like, you know what I mean?
00:55:55:21 – 00:56:06:27
Bill Sweeney
Like, there’s a lot of that to, you know.
00:56:06:32 – 00:56:24:57
Agent Palmer
As you heard, there is plenty in Bill’s own hometown, as large as it is that he hasn’t done. And I can tell you that in my hometown, even though I spent some time working in tourism, there’s plenty that I haven’t done either. The point I’m getting it is that we should be better getting to know our own backyards.
00:56:25:12 – 00:56:45:51
Agent Palmer
People are so interested in travel and going elsewhere, and I’m not saying don’t do that, but I am wondering how many of your local hometown, quote unquote tourist traps have you been to? When people think of the place where you live and they come up with a list of things to see and do, how many of those things have you as a local scene and done?
00:56:45:56 – 00:57:03:47
Agent Palmer
I can tell you that Bill is the majority. Sure, he lives in a place where there may be more to see and do than someone in a smaller town, but percentage wise, I’d say Bill has seen about one half to one third of all there is to see and do, and that’s probably about average for all of us.
00:57:03:51 – 00:57:23:23
Agent Palmer
But we can all do better. And if you’ll allow me to slip back into my old tourism hat, it’s good for your local economy and it saves you money. The idea of the staycation isn’t just to stay at home and take time off, it’s also to treat your home town, the place that surrounds the structure you call your home as a destination.
00:57:23:27 – 00:57:42:23
Agent Palmer
So do so. Be a tourist in your own hometown. It may not be New York City, but you may just surprise yourself with what you find. Thanks for listening to The Palmer Files episode 80. As a reminder, all links are available in the show notes. And now for the official business. The Palmer Files releases every two weeks on Tuesdays.
00:57:42:24 – 00:58:00:20
Agent Palmer
If you’re still listening, I encourage you to join the discussion. You can tweet me at Agent Palmer, my guest Bill Sweeney at Wicked Theory, or this show at The Palmer Files. You can find more information about Bill at Wicked Theory. Dot com and old episodes of the Wicked Theory podcast can still be heard to this day on your podcast app of choice.
00:58:00:25 – 00:58:12:33
Agent Palmer
Email can be sent to this show at the Palmer Files at gmail.com. And remember, you’re home for all things. Agent Palmer is Agent palmer.com.
00:58:12:38 – 00:58:18:13
Unknown
You.
00:58:18:18 – 00:58:49:38
Unknown
You need.
00:58:49:43 – 00:58:53:41
Unknown
Me.
00:58:53:45 – 00:58:56:00
Agent Palmer
All right. Bill, do you have one final question for me?
00:58:56:09 – 00:59:20:31
Bill Sweeney
Well, I guess I guess I kind of have to flip it around a little bit. Right? Ask you about your where you’re from. And, you know, I think, as a specifically about your town might be limiting it a little bit, but, you know, is there something for you that stands out in movies or TV, like you were saying to me about New York that for you was like, oh, that’s kind of like that feels to me like the most Pennsylvania thing I’ve seen.
00:59:20:31 – 00:59:32:10
Bill Sweeney
Or that’s like a that’s actually a very true kind of representation or, you know, to a degree or like, you know, that that that feels like home to me in a way, you know, that seems spot on.
00:59:32:14 – 01:00:17:50
Agent Palmer
So I went to high school in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, and one of the things that is that area’s claim to fame is that they were home to the very first steam engine in North America. But that’s not nobody cares about that, right? What they really care about when they find out about it is that Winter Wonderland was written about Honesdale, like the guy who wrote the lyrics was from there, and Honesdale is a very small town, like small enough and in up in, you know, in northeastern Pennsylvania that like its claim to fame is that it’s the county seat.
01:00:17:55 – 01:00:26:06
Agent Palmer
Right? Right. So, so like it is the big city up there. It’s not a big city, but it is the big city that exists.
01:00:26:13 – 01:00:27:58
Bill Sweeney
We’ve got voting power here.
01:00:28:03 – 01:00:55:30
Agent Palmer
Yes. So like but but when it does snow. Right. It is that or at least when I was living there it had that charm. Like even though we hated it growing up there. Right. Because there’s nothing to do like this first thing in, in in fairness to Honesdale, at that time, we all couldn’t wait to get our licenses and drive the 60 to 90 minutes to Scranton, which was the bigger city, right?
01:00:55:30 – 01:00:56:29
Bill Sweeney
Yeah, sure I could.
01:00:56:35 – 01:01:19:43
Agent Palmer
I couldn’t wait to get out. But you cannot ignore the fact that, like, there is this part of town, just off of Main Street, which, by the way, you want to talk about, like, classical towns, there’s Main Street and then one block over, you know, parallel to it is church Street, where guest, guest, guest, all the churches are.
01:01:19:48 – 01:01:46:47
Agent Palmer
And then one block over from that is Court Street, where the courthouse is. And in between Church Street and Court Street. In front of the courthouse is a literal park with a fountain that is like postcard picturesque. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like when it snows, I mean, it’s that song and you can’t avoid it. So that’s like the one thing that, like, is authentic because that’s what it is.
01:01:46:52 – 01:01:50:08
Agent Palmer
And I understand that like any small town.
01:01:50:13 – 01:01:51:38
Bill Sweeney
Sure can feel above.
01:01:51:38 – 01:01:58:51
Agent Palmer
A certain latitude that gets snow. Might be able to claim that. But that’s where it was written. And you can you can just you can feel it.
01:01:59:06 – 01:02:14:50
Bill Sweeney
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For you guys like, you know, once you know that, it feels kind of like, oh, like, that makes sense to me. It’s like, transfer it on in a way, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah. That’s cool. Walking in a winter wonderland is, written them written in.
01:02:14:51 – 01:02:18:51
Agent Palmer
Your written of my town. But, you know, the guy was sure, you know.
–End Transcription–
This transcription was processed by PalmerTech 3.1 and may contain errors for HUMINT (human intelligence).