Jason Kottke posted a helpful guide to the New York subway a while back, which was highly commented on. However, Jason failed to provide rules for getting on/riding in New York subway cars, thus providing me with a flimsy excuse for a blog post.

1. If your baby carriage is so large that it can be mistaken for a sulky, you may wish to consider a less-crowded car. Or a more effective method of birth control.
2. Do not wait for the doors to begin closing before you lunge through them. We're all impressed at your ability to flow through tight spaces as though you had no skeletal structure, but we still want to kill you.
3. Do not hold the door for your friends several dozen yards behind you. When civilization falls and cannibalistic zombies roam the earth, you won't be so eager to hold the door, will you, Mr. Smartypants? Consider this early training.
4. (For men only) While you may very well be hung like a mule, there is no need to flaunt your genitalia by sitting with your legs akimbo, taking up the seats next to you.
5. Do not make direct eye contact with the other passengers. But everyone knows that one.

I considered adding one about not blocking the doors, but let's be realistic here.

97 degrees today. 97 should not be an outside temperature, not this early into summer. A radio station, sure. The first word in a bizarre Brendan Behan quotation, OK. So here's the plan. Create a diversion by shoving hapless tourist under the merciless hooves of Central Park Carriages. In the confusion, "liberate" a canister of liquid nitrogen from a convenient street corner. (image "liberated" from http://www.cockeyed.com. Anyone who can recommend a good cheap digital camera so I don't have to do this sort of thing?) Nonchalantly walk canister down steps of Columbus Circle subway station, pausing to shake fist at globe, symbol of a world that hates and fears me. Ride with smoking canister of liquid nitrogen to Penn Station, eyefucking anyone who dares to look in my direction in classic New York subway rider fashion. Change for PATH station and prepare for bio-vitrification!

Much comic book reading of late - finally got around to picking up the first volume of A Distant Soil, I continue to spread the word on Strangehaven and for the hell of it I'm sticking with Daredevil. Oh, and after talking with Bryan I picked up Elektra: Assassin. I really couldn't care less about Elektra as a character - the whole Japan kick never did anything for me - the main appeal is that gorgeous Sienkiewicz art. OK, and Ken Wind of course. Bendis' crime fiction take is doing wonders for Daredevil, even if he is limited by the nature of the title ("Oh look, the Kingpin's clawing his way back to the top of the heap again!" "An impending showdown with Bullseye! How novel!"). At its best, Daredevil has some great dialogue, Alex Maleev has a great artistic style and I loved the idea of a supervillain crimelord being taken out by the FBI for a change. And in non-comics-related news, I'm reading Lynn Abbey's Sanctuary, a recent Thieves' World novel. 165 pages in before there's even a mention of Tempus - hurrah! (see Robin Wayne Bailey and Diana L. Paxson's response to the question "What were some of the weaknesses of the original series and do you [Robin Wayne Bailey and Diana L. Paxson] see any way they could be avoided?" for part of the reason I despise Tempus so).