New Kid Behind the Desk

Eleven years ago, a man committed suicide in the Duncan Hotel on Chapel Street. He began by trying to kill himself in his bathtub, and, failing in that, staggered blood-soaked through his room to a window and threw himself onto the sidewalk below.
Six years later, when MFA student Angela Strassheim heard the story, she decided to find the man’s room, douse it in luminol, turn out all the lights, and take pictures of the glowing sprays of blood still clinging to the walls.

Egyptology professor John Darnell has battled breakdowns, snakes, and tomb raiders in the desert. Catherine Killingsworth talks to this swashbuckling professor about what it's like to be Yale's own Indiana Jones.

On a humid Saturday morning at the Brooklyn Greenmarket, Rick Field straddles a stool behind pyramids of jars. As his sign reveals, these are Rick’s Picks, and it’s clear they are not your average deli dills. Shoppers congregate by his stall, poking for samples of Rick’s spicy Mean Bean green beans and zesty Kool Gherk cukes. A vintage Potato Head-style pickle doll and an olive-tone leather speaker case display Rick’s love of pickle paraphernalia. The stand’s green motif borders on obs

Four years ago, Frank Douglass Jr. stood on the front porch of his newly purchased Elm Street home, the first piece of land he has ever owned, and vowed to make a change. “The day I got the keys,” Douglass said, “I thought to myself, ‘I think I should run for alderman,’ and left it at that.”

Part pastoral troubadour, part indie-pop professor, songwriter and author LD Beghtol looks like a man out of time and place. Mai Wang uncovers the bard behind the beard and the man behind the music.

“As a father,” says Joe Luciano, “my ultimate dream is to have a coin shop.” The owner of a valuable coin set named after his daughter Julianna — who lives with autism — Joe connects to his daughter through coins.