The Watch Doctor

“I am not a watchmaker,” Marcel Zalaznik says emphatically. “I am a watch repairer.” A watchmaker, he explains as he sets a tray of gold rings in the window of Grand Jewelers, can build a timepiece from the center wheel up. His father, Jack, who owned the shop before Marcel knew how to tell time, was trained to do that. A repairer such as Marcel merely makes sure the watches keep running on time. “It’s like being a doctor,” he says, a holding a Rolex that’s awaiting rehab.…

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The Woman Who Helps the Homeless

It’s really hard for Jordana Guimaraes to stay in the same place. Or keep doing the same thing. “I call myself a modern-day gypsy,” says Jordana, a statuesque woman with Cleopatra hair and eyes of fire. “Moving around a lot – that’s how I learn the most.” The proof is in her life, which, to her delight, has led her to Florida, New York and Minnesota and to a variety of jobs. Jordana, a woman of winter who likes to keep her apartment as cold as snow, spent the first 12 years of her…

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The Charity Worker

Although it takes up an entire tree-lined block of Long Island City, the CMMB Distribution Center is a remarkably unnoticeable building. The only thing that announces the presence of the long and low cream-colored 33,000-square-foot structure is a grey blend-into-the-background metal front door with a small sign so far overhead that you have to crane your neck to read it. It notes, in robin-blue lettering, that this is the home of the Catholic Medical Mission Board. Ralph Barberio, the longtime…

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The Guy Who Owns the Car Spa

Even if you and your car wanted to, it’s impossible to pass by Astoria Auto Detailing Center without gawking. Amid the boring brick buildings of the block, it presides, in construction-cone orange and caution-light yellow, like a psychedelic peacock. You have no choice but to slow down and watch the workers hand wash and wax the cars in a complex choreography set to the siren sound of Latin pop songs. Their soap-and-shine water ballet plays out against a backdrop of murals that sport classic…

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