I’m All Lost In, #117: The NYT loses the plot; congestion pricing wins; and I’m still on vacation.
I’m adding an X-is-Greater-than-Y roundup to my weekly reports.
The #60 > the #14. If you ever find yourself in Providence, Rhode Island and you want to take the bus to Newport, go with the #60. Sure the 14 route comes with a stunning sequence over the Claiborne Pell suspension bridge, but the 60, which takes meditative back roads, is simultaneously less circuitous. Be sure to get the RIPTA app so you can tap on to this peaceful local bus.
338 > 246 This was my winning Scrabble score at the Hop Vine Pub on Thursday night. With “quill” and “veiny" (the Q on a triple letter score, and “veiny” on a triple word score), I posted a satisfying win over my Scrabble nemesis [I’m All Lost In, #81, 5/4/25.] They’re still winning our head-to-head 12-7.
Moleskin notebook > the Notes app. In order to upgrade my scrivener habit this year, I bought a stately pine-green Moleskin notebook last week. Putting pen to paper makes writing luscious; plus, you’re not giving your brilliant poetry to A.I. data centers.
Marta Kostyuk > Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva. Kostyuk, the world No. 26, beat the much-hyped World No. 3 Anisimova (currently America’s top-ranked star) and the World No. 9, Russian teen sensation Andreeva, en route to the Brisbane 500 semifinals this week. (As of this writing Kostyuk is heading into the semifinal against America’s very steady Jessica Pegula, the World No. 6. The winner will face my favorite player, World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, in the final.)
I name checked Kostyuk in an early version of my 2026 WTA predictions [I’m All Lost In, #114, 12/14/25]. It’s true. But because I wanted to focus on under-the-radar players, I eventually kept my hot takes to those ranked outside the top 30. I amended my pro-Kostyuk soothsaying to simply say this: “There are plenty of players in the top 30 who can find form and wreck a tournament bracket.”
Well it appears No. 26 Kostyuk is wrecking the Brisbane bracket this week. It’s extra compelling because Kostyuk is Ukrainian; she refused to shake Andreeva’s hand after beating the Russian 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 in the quarterfinal. With Trump’s tepid support for Ukraine and his subservience to Putin now casting America as a bad guy too, it would have made perfect sense if Kostyuk had also refused to shake American Anisimova’s hand after beating her in Round 16.
And Kostyuk beats Pegula too… 6-0, 6-3 …
Before I write about this week’s obsessions, I should say it’s curious that I’m not fixated on the current revolutionary unrest in Iran. I’ve been preoccupied with Iranian politics since junior high school. I’m not kidding. [I’m All Lost In, #96, 8/17/25]. Subsequently, I was all in on Mohammad Khatami’s Iranian glasnost and perestroika in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And also all in on the street protests back in September 2022. My lack of excitement this time around might be a combo of We’ve-been-here-before cynicism and a general hopelessness about how world events may play out under the cloud of Trump.
1) ICE Agent Kills Minnesota Woman, Firing Three Shots from Point Blank Range
God bless @NYTPitchbot for routinely saving me from becoming the wild-eyed crank in the famous “I’m mad as hell” scene in Network.
But if you'll allow me, I’d love just one second to become the wild-eyed crank in the famous scene from Network: The Trump administration’s shuffle away from democracy is matched by the NYT’s shuffle away from journalism. Why was their story about the ICE agent who killed a woman in Minneapolis this week abstractly headlined, “Officials Dispute Federal Account of Fatal ICE Encounter in Minnesota” ?
My complaint isn’t that the NYT is defaulting to Trump’s POV as the baseline reality; though, that’s certainly madness. Nor that their story never made it to the top of their front page. My complaint is more straightforward: Trump’s rhetoric versus Democratic rejoinders isn’t news. The news is that a federal officer shot and killed an American. Full stop. Consider by way of example the NYT’s above-the-fold Kent State headline 55 years ago: 4 Kent State Students Killed by Troops.
Yes, the fact that Democratic officials tried to call B.S. on Trump’s Orwellian story line is newsworthy. But that’s a sidebar.
By submerging the news of an ICE killing under the swirl of a political He said/She said, the NYT is preventing the public from seeing this seismic event clearly.
I’ve always loved the notion of journalism as the “first rough draft of history;” the idea that future historians will scour original news reporting to understand our human drama. Unfortunately, by failing at news basics, the NYT is helping ensure that historians of the future will lose the plot.
Okay. Back to my meds. @NYTpitchbot had this to say about the federally sanctioned murder.
@NYTPitchbot’s response to ICE killing Renee Nicole Good.
2) Congestion Pricing For the Win(s)
Congestion Pricing is a longstanding personal obsession [I’m All Lost In, #113, 12/13/25; I’m All Lost In, #71, 2/23/25; I’m All Lost In, #35, 6/14/24.]
When I wrote about congestion pricing at the beginning of 2025, I framed it as an exquisite affront to Trumpism.
It’s perfect that congestion pricing—the policy of charging people who drive their cars into the city—is the battle Democrats have chosen… The standoff (Trump declared that he’s shutting down NYC’s local program) exposes Trump’s ersatz populism by pitting it against an honest government effort to support the masses.
Lots of news reports this week marked the anniversary of the program’s first year in place. Here are the receipts: Commute speeds from New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Queens have increased 23.8%; bus ridership increased 8%; bus speeds increased 2.3%; there were 21 million fewer vehicles driving downtown; the program generated $518 million to support the subway and other MTA transit projects. And as the NYT reported: “Retail sales and foot traffic in the zone have also increased, despite critics’ concerns that congestion pricing would harm the economy.”
Not only does congestion pricing appear to be a success story, but Trump’s initial threats to stop the program in its tracks are bogged down in the courts. And so far, judges are siding with NYC’s public transit program.
3) I’m Still All Lost In Vacation
12/26/25, the Halsey subway stop across the street from the Tiny Cupboard comedy club in Bushwick.
Speaking of NYC’s elegant subway, I’m having a hard time letting go of the year-end trip I took to NYC and Rhode Island a few weeks ago. This lingering obsession gives me a handy excuse to ID a batch of favorite spots that I didn’t note in my initial recap which mostly focused on the International Tennis Hall of Fame [I’m All Lost In, #116, 1/3/26.]
Some of these places have gotten notice in previous posts about my escapes to New York, such as: the Nirvana-inducing Relax Station on Mulberry Street in SoHo’s Little Italy neighborhood [I’m All Lost In, #48, 9/14/24], and the Tiny Cupboard comedy club across the street from the the Halsey Street J Train stop in Bushwick [I’m All Lost In, #94, 8/2/25.]
The Tiny Cupboard, 1/26/25.
Here are some other greatest hits and old standbys. Untitled, the perfectly-placed, groovy Lower East Side hotel for precocious 30-somethings playing grown up; it features a college-dorm dining hall/lounge with a pool table, piano, and free coffee. The West Coffeehouse and Bar in Williamsburg, a trusted grungy hippie hangout where, on New Year’s Eve, I had the best almond milk latte I’ve had all year. My Newport airbnb, a creaky cozy three-story colonial boarding house located on Mary St. just a block off the quaint commercial drag. I felt like a sexy fugitive lodger on the lamb after running some hush-hush revolutionary errand in nearby Boston.
Mary St. lodgings just a block east of the main drag, Newport, RI, 12/31/25.
Gazab, a casual, fancy, and tasty Indian dinner spot at Essex and Houston on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. I recommend the mushroom biryani and the crispy cauliflower appetizer. Pour Judgement, the Matt-Damon townies baahhr I went to both nights I spent in Newport. I ordered their excellent black bean burger both times. I also took comfort chuckling at the “HUMP: Make America Great Again” bumper sticker plastered behind the bar in the fantasia of taps and tavern ornaments. Manhattan’s Vig bar at Spring and Elizabeth Streets in NoLita where I slipped in for a warm drink during the mini-snow storm on the Friday evening after Christmas. The Loreley Restaurant & Beergarten on Rivington across the street from my aforementioned favorite Lower East Side hotel. Why haven’t ECB and I ever noticed this spot before? The castoffs thank you for being open on Christmas night. And lastly, Empire Tea & Coffee in Newport where I warmed my hands over their open-flame stove at 7am before catching the #60 bus back to Providence.