Kramer loses; NYCentrism

   Time from Kramer leaving the room until he returns with cash:  I got
between 53 and 54 seconds.  That's fast.  In several ways (general
look and mannerisms), Kramer reminds me strongly of a friend of mine
(but my friend only wears black and orange).
   One thing I didn't like about the show was the voyeurism:  George
watching the sponge-bath, and everyone watching the nude woman across
the street.  On the show, it was funny; in real life, it would be an
unjustifiable violation of privacy.
   For what it's worth, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Elaine) and her husband,
Brad Hall, were formerly with the Practical Theatre Company in Evanston,
IL.  I don't know where they came from; might have been New York City
for all I know.  Several members of PTC including Gary Kroeger and one
other guy whose name I can't remember now (gwnIcrn) left to join
_Saturday_Night_Live_ (that was the Lost Year, the one never mentioned
in the 15th Anniversary special, which included a couple of heavily
anti-nuclear sketches).
   'Everybody is from somewhere, even if you've never been there.'

--- Mad Jack

Few years back I used to have a neighbor a floor below in the adjacent building who would take her shower around the same time was I shaving... It was very early in the morning(before the sunrise). So I would turn my head and look once in a while because IT was there. She cruised around the place for 10-15mins,then her bathroom windows would steam up...End of show. No big deal. She didn't care. It was amusing to me while it lasted. It's just part of great urban living...I don't think it's more of a violation of privacy than,say,over the phone salesgeeks...

-Mark

In article William H Temps III writes: [deletions...]

	In NYC, privacy is a relative term.  One assumes that, if your
	window is uncovered, someone is watching.  Public places (like
	hospitals, subways, etc.) are open game.  In reaction to this
	fact, most NYers have developed the ability to either not care
	or to protect themselves (through attitude or action). Just FYI.

[deletions...]

'A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet.'

Jeremy

In article , [email]

Oh, sure, if I stand in front of my window--naked or not--I figure there's a good chance someone's going to see me. Even so, sometimes I forget and I suspect there are people who have never made the connection. And even when I don't go out of my way to hide, I think it would be rude for someone to watch (though undoubtedly there are people who deliberately expose & exhibit themselves). Personally, I've never had such a clear opportunity, so I don't know how I'd react.

What really gets me is cases like the one in Florida, in which someone wanted to sue their neighbor for indecency in their own living room, and videotaped them for evidence. The indecency case never made it to court; I don't know whether there was a countersuit for violation of privacy.

In article , William H Temps III says:

Hi Bill. This is ALAN ROGERS. We've met if you will recall.

I'm not trying to dump on you but I would like to comment. I was born and raised in Chicago and I would say that your attitude reflects what most midwestern people like you and I would think. I spent six months on a contract in New York and I'm not sure that your NY responder is telling you a fib or fantasy. NY appeared to me to have very different attitudes about social situations than we do. In NY, I saw homeless tramps passing a bottle; sitting against a wall not far from the entrance of hotel. A front doorman opened the door to let a well dressed matron out to walk her dog. She had a fur coat on and obviously upper class. Neither party gave each other a second glance. She walked right by them. I don't think you would have seen anything like that here in Chi. The classes are quite segregated here and would brook no intrusions. In NY, I saw old hotels crammed with public aid people right in the middle of an upper class neighborhood. New Yorkers seem to have been crunched together to the point that they live with it in a much more blase manner than we do here. When a lower class tenants start moving into a neighborhood here there is a whooshing sound as everyone rushes to move to a suburb. I think Manhattan has used up every square inch of anywhere else to move to and has settled on just making do. Your responder is telling us that this goes even as far as who is going to close their blinds and who is going to look into them and who is going to care. I did not see this first hand but it is understandable. Let me point out that the Seinfeld show is not the first instance of a popular cultural popsicle to display new yorker's blase attitude to window peeping/displaying. If you ever saw the movie "After Hours", you know that it was as much of a new york insider movie as any movie can get. There was a scene where the main character was waitiing for his date in her bedroom and he watches two people making love across the walkway. One got the impression that this was a weird but not uncommon occurance.

To go even past this point about NY attitudes, I would like to say that one could go even farther and say that this particular episode of Seinfeld was farther away from the goofy but basically realistic stance they take in giving the show a base. When was the last time you and I ever had such a frank and nonchalant mention of personal masturbation (OH MY LORD, I said IT. and we were trying so hard to talk about the show without saying the M word. I am not the verbal master of my domain.) amongst our social groups. And when did this include females amongst males keeping equal time unabashed. My point is that this show was more fantasy than usual and the scene of voyeurism should not be taken so seriously. In other words, lighten up. In closing, I must say that my last point may be just my ignorance of what is acceptable to talk about in the current younger generation. Or maybe it's another NY thang again. Be well and smile. ALAN ROGERS

In article writes:

Well If you stand naked in the window and someone looks thats life. I just think that the attitudes toward the naked body in the US are screwed up. In other countries they don't make such a big deal over a naked person. There are billions of people in the world and they are all naked (under their clothes). After you have seen enough people naked it loses its thrill. It's the whole forbidden fruit thing that causes problems wherever it raises it's head. Drugs, alcohol, sex, nakedidity whatever. Go to Munich Germany and head over to the Englisher Garten or the river and check out the naked humans (on a warm day). After the first few times I'm sure you won't give it a second thought. Well back to Puritan States of America.

There was an opinion column in the NYTimes not too long ago about the fact that New Yorkers tend to be voyeuristic. I personally have always been obsessed with observing other people, which is what I like about living in New York (there are so many too watch, and they're SO WIERD!) But I think that the line drawn between public and private observation is in some ways less important in this city. For one thing, chances are you will never meet the people across the street, and noone you know will ever find out what the people across the street know about you. So, who cares what they see.

The second point is, everyone has seen everything in this city, and they see it on a daily basis. One of my most vivid memories is the day that I was getting off the #1 train at 14th street, which is an express stop with a center platform between two sets of tracks. A noticed a woman stand up from a crouching position, pulling up her pants, and quickly walk to and hop on the train. Yes, this woman had dumped a load right in the center of a busy train platform in the middle of the day. I realized that this would be the experience of a lifetime for most of the people in my little hometown, but it is the kind of thing that I see on a daily basis.

My girlfriend and I have our eyes on the apartment across the courtyard. We think the man has murdered his wife ...

Robert

I've heard that she is from Timonium, Maryland and she still visits from time to time. Maybe her parents are here or something like that.