The only blog written from the NYC Subway system

Am I the only one that feels hyper of every cough, sneeze, or sniffle around them these days?

I know I have ranted in the past about germs on the subway, but this is taking it to another level.

Personally, I think the whole swine flu insanity is a lot of hype.  Yes, those people died, and that is sad.  The fact still remains that good old fashioned regular flu kills far more people both in raw numbers and percentage.  Almost every case of swine flu in NYC has been reported as mild.

However, even being a super intelligent person such as myself, I have found myself being extra aware of the “germs” around me on the subway.  I know it is crazy.  As I’m standing there thinking it, I’m saying to myself, “You’re being a f*&%ing idiot.”

What’s even crazier is seeing how other people are reacting.  Now when someone lets out a big sneeze, people literally get up and walk away.  They move to another part of the car or go stand on the other end of the platform.

It’s getting pretty crazy.

One of the more frequent emails SUBWAYblogger receives has to do with the plethora of subway related iPhone apps.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there are more iPhones out on the subway than ever.  All of a sudden, everywhere you look, someone is rocking out on one.  They’re either listening to music, watching a video, playing a game, or all of the above.

So we decided to put together a master list of our favorite iPhone Subway apps.  We’re calling it SUBWAYblogger’s iPhone App Cheat Sheet.

We’ve tried all of these apps, and like them all.  Only the good ones made the list.  Luckily, many of the developers hooked us up with free demos so we didn’t have to buy all of them.  So the ones that made the cut are here.

The Cheat Sheet is exclusively available via email, and is completely FREE.

You will receive a two part series.  Today, you’ll instantly get our list of favorite subway utility apps.  Then tomorrow, we’ll send you our favorite subway/transit related iPhone games.  In the first issue, you’ll also get a link to a free subway map application.

Sign up anytime, and you will instantly receive Part 1  in your mailbox.

We hate all that bullshit spam as much as you do, trust us.  Every time we put up a new email address on this site, we start getting spammed like crazy.  It drives us insane.  So we promise to never SPAM you.  Your information is safe and will not be sold.  You can unsubscribe if you change your mind at anytime.

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Maybe next time, take a cab?

Jeanie Colberg was on the 4 train with her young daughter on the way to the hospital yesterday when her water broke.

Luckily, a good samaritan was there to comfort her and calm her down a bit.  At Union Square, EMS workers were there to handle the rest.  She ended up giving birth to a 7 pound baby in the back of the ambulance.

She even gave the baby her middle name, Rochelle, after a transit worker that assisted her.

I don’t know for a fact that she was on the way to the hospital because she was in labor.  If not, it’s a pretty freaky coincidence.

So let’s assume she was in labor, would you really take the 4 train?  I’m personally gonna go with NO.  It’s either 911, or take a cab.  Even if you’re a bit light on the cab fare, I’m pretty sure they’d let you get away with it.

The weather is getting warmer, that’s for sure.  Today wasn’t especially warm, but for some ladies the summer clothes are out and they’re not going back till the fall.

With that comes the lowcut tops, short shorts, and micro skirts. This is truly one of New York’s greatest treasures, IMHO.

Today, there was a young lady sitting down in front of me.  I was holding on to the bar above where she was sitting.   She was wearing a sundress type thing with little straps.  I guess the dress was a little big on her or something because one strap kept falling off her shoulder.

I looked down, and oops…there’s your boob.  Nice to meet you.

Unfortunately, she was not terribly attractive.  Wasn’t quite to the point of being offensive, but it did give me pause.  So I turned away.

It’s like forcing yourself to not look at a car wreck.

Anyway, I got a seat at the next stop more or less across from her…a slight angle. I thought everything would be safe now because I was now at her eye level instead of looking down over her.  How wrong I was.

She was reading people magazine or something and was totally focused.  Whoops, there goes that strap again.   Only this time, it really went.  There’s no way that people sitting next to me couldn’t see her entire boob hanging out.

It was easily the entire length of one stop to another before she picked up the strap.  But she did it totally casual without even taking her eyes off the magazine.  I don’t think she “felt the breeze” at all.

I kept waiting for another woman on the train to say something to her.  There’s no way in hell a guy is going to say anything.  For one, it is against our DNA to do so, and secondly that is a line we never cross.

I just assumed it was part of the “girl code” to tell each other when your boob is hanging out, regardless of being strangers.  Right?

(coming soon)

For the first ever SUBWAY Monthly newsletter, I’m thinking of creating the greatest list of subway riding tips ever.  I’m not sure how I’m going to aggregate it just yet.  Or even how it will be arranged.  Luckily, I have a lot of ideas.

For one, I’m going to reach out to as many transit experts as I can to see what they have to say.  I’m hoping I can get some pretty big names.

Secondly, I’m thinking of aggregating great tips from riders like you.  If you’ve got a good tip, let me know using this form.  It will send an email directly to the SUBWAYblogger team for review.  If we like your tip, you’ll get full credit in the newsletter.

These transit tips can include things like maximizing your MetroCard usage and bonuses.  How to time the perfect ride and hit all of your transferrs.   Where’s the best place to wait on the platform for the train?  Are there such things as “free rides.”?  Etc.

Use this form to submit your tips for SUBWAY Monthly. If you’d like your name or website linked to with your tip, be sure to include your info.

If you’ve got the scoop, we’ll make it known and give you full credit.

Anyway, that’s just one of the ideas we’re working on.  I think it could turn out to be pretty awesome.  Of course, only subscribers (free) will get a copy!

I’m to lazy to go and look up the temperatures from last May, but I feel like we’re getting off easy this year temperature wise. I have a feeling these relatively mild weeks are going to quickly come back and bite us in the ass.

I’m predicting that we get our first sustained heat not this week but next week.  This week will be the last week of the nice mild weather.   I’m just going on a hunch that next week is going to be the official beginning of the balls hot weather.

Of course, I have absolutely no scientific data to back that up.  It’s just a feeling.

As with everything on the subway, I get really jumpy when things go too well for too long.

Being able to leave home without a jacket and not sweat my ass off on the platform is delightful.  But I’m used to only being able to do that for a few days a year.

Now, remember SUBWAYblogger’s three day theory.  It takes a full three days for the temperature underground to totally catch up to the outside temp.  One day of 98 degree weather won’t do anything down below.  We need three back to back days in the mid eighties for it to become totally unbearable underground.

I’m really not looking forward to the heat in the subway this year, not that I would any year.  This year particularly though.  There’s a really distinct smell of urine ripening at my stop that just gets worse by the day.  I can only imagine what the heat is going to bring.

There’s clearly some homeless guy that keeps making a daily deposit there because there’s no way that one quick piss could be persistent this long.  That ammonia smell is getting pretty ridiculous.  It’s almost to the point where you can taste it.  I’m considering walking all the way to the other end of the platform from now on.

Anyway, mark my words.  Heat’s a comin’.

“…and it starts with you go f**k yourself.”

On the newer trains (like the 2 train), they’ve added some more public service announcements.  They aren’t especially new, but they seem to be playing them a lot more, and they’re starting to piss SUBWAYblogger off.

For the longest time, you only had a couple basic announcements from the voice in the ceiling.

“Backpacks and other large containers are subject to random search by the police.”

“Please do not block the doors while the train is in the station.”

“If you see a suspicious package or activity, do not keep it to yourself.  Tell a police officer or an MTA employee.”

Those pretty much summed it up for years.

Now there’s these obnoxious ones that say, “If you see an elderly, pregnant, or handicap person near you offer your seat.  You’ll be standing up for what’s right (pun intended).  Courtesy is contagious and it starts with you.”

First of all, lay off the “jokes.”  Standing up for what’s right?  Hey here’s an idea.  You hire staff that knows how to speak English when using the PA system.  That sounds “right” to me.  It’s not to much to ask to be able to hear and understand the more critical announcements.

If you want to stand up so that Mrs. Preggers or Grandma can sit down, fine.  If you don’t, who cares.  That’s life.  We don’t need you’re little reminders.

It’s almost as infuriating as President Obama having to hold a press conference to remind people to wash their hands in order to avoid swine flu.

Gents, let’s just stick to running the trains.

Your thoughts?

Introducing SUBWAY Monthly by SUBWAYblogger.

We here at SUBWAYblogger have decided to offer a monthly newsletter product just for true subway riders.  There’s really nothing like this out in the market right now.  So instead of bitching about it, we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands.

Sign Up Now!

SUBWAY Monthly will be a…wait for it…monthly newsletter with tons of insider tips, stories, offers, deals, comedic out-takes and more.

What the heck does that mean?

Well for example, did you know that SUBWAYblogger gets sent dozens of emails from companies every month looking to give away their stuff on SUBWAYblogger.com?  Most of the time we tell them to take a hike.  If they want to buy some advertising, we’d be happy to feature their stuff.  If we put all of it up, the site would soon look messier than Billy Mays’s underpants after snorting lines of Oxy Clean.

On the other hand, some of the stuff is actually pretty good.  So we’ll make those offers (only the good ones) to SUBWAY Monthly subscribers.

Some stories are a little more vulgar colorful than even we would publish.  I know, you’re thinking to yourself, “Wait, they actually have worse stories?”   YEAH.  You can’t even imagine some of the submissions we receive.  So we’ll pick the best of the bunch to include in the subscription only version, SUBWAY Monthly.

You may or may not know that the SUBWAYblogger crew has a life outside the tunnels.  As a matter of fact, most of us are pretty well connected.  So we hear about things from our political connections all the time.  Elliot Sander resigning?  Ha…old news.  Unfortunately, many of our sources frown upon us publishing the gritty details on the site.  So we either have to find creative ways around it, or not publish it.   Those little gossip nuggets will also find their way into SUBWAY Monthly. More details about SUBWAY Monthly