Author: ruhlwrite

It would be flip to say that it was a toss of the coin that landed Jennifer and Frank Greco at Astoria Coins & Collectibles. Astoria Coins & Collectibles has been in business 65 years. But it wasn’t much more complicated than that. The owner was going to relocate to New Jersey after a 15-year-long home run, and Jennifer and Frank were newlyweds in search of jobs in a deep recession. “My father was a collector, and he used to take me to the shop when I was a little girl,”…

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There’s a piano tucked into the corner like a baby in a bassinet. It’s guarded by a pair of guitars. But these instruments play second fiddle to the incense. There is none burning, yet the living room is filled with the memory of its sweet, seductive scent. Anne in a mindful moment. What is or isn’t in the air is more noticeable because it’s a million degrees outside, and Anne Cheteyan doesn’t have an air conditioner or even a fan. The windows, barricaded inside by…

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“You’re going to be shocked by what I tell you,” says Frank Carrado. “Sometimes, I don’t believe it myself.” Carrado, who is 84, is talking about the last five years of his life, when newspapers started writing stories about him and everyone began calling him The Mayor of Long Island City. Frank, aka The Mayor of Long Island City. More colorful than his scorching-orange Hawaiian shirt and 84 times as big as life, Carrado wears the title like a crown. But he’s…

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This is no joke. The pancakes are damn good. Tom Daddario had wondered whether he should make them. As a stand-up comic, he’s obsessed with getting the last laugh. People always told Tom he was funny. In all seriousness, people expect him to be funny even when the stage is his kitchen and he’s tossing oatmeal, mashed bananas and sliced chocolate bars into the Aunt Jemima mix. As in his routines, he will let life, not pancakes, supply the punch line. Tom and 19-year-old Elijah. He’s…

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The central aisle of Norwood Rexall Drugs is long and narrow like a train tunnel. It leads straight to Syed Naqvi. The pharmacy counter is tall. Syed is not. Syed came from Pakistan in 1972. You can see only the top of his head under the blue-blooded PRESCRIPTION sign. Syed, who took over the shop nearly 40 years ago, is just as much a fixture as the weight and horoscope machine at the front door. It, too, is a relic of the past: It no longer tells the future, but feed it a nickel, and you can…

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