NYC Edition: Don't Ask for More Condiments--It's Rude

The savory smell of hot dogs can be found on nearly every street corner in New York City. But a man who has been selling the food for fifteen years has some problems with people in the city.

“Hot dog? What you like inside?” Alex asks with a defined Greek accent to a customer.

He stands on the corner of 33rd and Broadway with a camouflage hat covering his dark black hair tinged with slivers of gray, a brown unbuttoned bomber jacket over his white v-neck tee shirt. With a small cross on a black cord necklace a man stands to make a living. He does not like to be named, but he calls himself Alex Zero.

Alex has been working selling hot dogs, on the same street—for fifteen years. After coming from Brazil he started his job as just another person trying to make a living with a cart on a street corner.

But he has had some setbacks and he doesn’t like what the city is starting to become. “The city sucks,” he says adamantly. Since he arrived in the city he feels like the city has changed a lot. Alex speaks of how New Jersey was a great place with friendly people, but New York is not a place where he is fond of anymore.

Experiences have shaped his attitude toward the city. Alex talks about how black people have given him the most difficulties during his fifteen years of work. “I’m not discriminating but they just give me a hard time.”

A black woman who had just left his stand proved to be his most recent difficulty. He says that she kept asking him for more additions to her hot dog—he tells her “I will have to charge you,” but the woman replied with a haughty, “I don’t care.”

With his blue rubber glove still on his right hand, Alex dove into the problems he has with the rudeness of his customers. He says that the people are “sometimes very rude.”

The rushes of New Yorkers come to get a simple meal of a hot dog or shish kebab from his stand during the noon hour but rude customers present problems. Alex talks about how if he gets a rude customer he starts to loose business because they keep complaining about the portions of condiments. “I give them all the normal amount but they want more everything.”

Alex has a business to run but if people keep up their ever increasing “outside attitude” the man will soon be fed up completely.

Attitude is something that tells about how a person lives—and Alex has a great one. “You have to stay clean and nice with the people.” While interacting with customers he is cheerful, he gives big smiles, and he asks how people are doing.

With such a good attitude, even when people are becoming more rude by the week, the hot dog salesman by the name of Alex Zero give even more depth to a city that an infinite amount.

NYC Edition: From Bryant Park

Bryant Park is calm at night. The lights of the surrounding skyscrapers keep the darkness out of the park. The scattered chairs are filled with people. Couples in intimate conversation, two girls taking pictures on the perfectly green grass, a flutist playing a sweet melody, and a man sitting next to the fountain engaged in reading his bible. The man with the Bible is named Wilmer Hernandez.

Hernandez is not a man who is fluent in English. His sentences are slightly jumbled, he struggles to find the right words in English to articulate what he is trying to say.

But one thing he is able to articulate, one thing he is sure of, is that "God is real."

He is a newcomer to the city. Hernandez has only been in New York City for three years working in a local restaurant. After living in El Salvador for 19 years of his life he came to Long Island, and shortly moved to the Big Apple when he was 24. "It's a good city," he says.

The most important thing to Hernandez however is God. While looking thoughtfully at his Bible he tells me, "I'm a Christian--I feel good because of God." His jumbled and soft spoken voice get lost in the sound of the lighted founded he is sitting next to but he keeps saying that God is what makes him happy and that God is good.

After asking Hernandez about how he came to be in New York he says "it's a long story," and that it is too difficult for him to tell because of his struggles with the English language. He struggles with trying to answer questions fidgeting in his chair, but he wants to be able to tell his story.

New York City is a place that contains the kinds of people who have depth, character, and are full of personality. People like Wilmer Hernandez have stories that the world needs to hear.

NBA Playoffs: What's Happening

The Playoffs are a place where anything and everything can happen--and it usually does. There are fights, there are questionable calls, and there are multiple teams who just seem like no matter where they shoot from the ball just goes in.

During the second round there have been some troubles as of late.

In the same night there were two separate altercations that led to one game suspensions for Lakers' Guard Derek Fisher, and Orlando's Point Guard Rafer Alston.

Fisher decided that when Louis Scola of the Houston Rockets came to set up for a screen that he needed to be knocked over. Fisher lowered his shoulder into Scola and leveled him straight to the ground. This resulted in a flagrant two foul--and immediate ejection for Fisher. The league decided to also suspend him for Friday's game three.

Alston did not particularly enjoy the way that Boston Celtics' Guard Eddie House just seemed to be throwing up three pointers right and left--and making them. Alston gave House a tap, that was slightly harder than a normal tap, to the back of the head. House reacted in usual fashion and the two ended up face to face having a little talk. Alston was not ejected from the game but he was given a suspension for game three against the Celtics.

Ron Artest, Houston Rockets Guard, has also been having problems playing the against the Lakers. Numerous times he was being elbowed and having his hands thrown off by Lakers' Guard Kobe Bryant. In an Interview with Artest he said that he was just playing "basic defense," but Bryant kept hitting Artest's arm. Artest went and complained to the refs multiple times, but it was to no avail. Finally Bryant threw an elbow towards Artest's neck and Artest had his last straw. He complained one more time to the refs and when they refused to do anything, he went back over to Bryant and said "You're hitting the young guy." This outburst led to Artest's ejection from the game.

The Playoffs just keep heating up as they progress. Players will continue to get frustrated. But the Playoffs are the place to stay calm and collected.