Two excellent pieces in this week's Talk of the Town section of the New Yorker:

Ben McGrath confirms our belief that this walking around town stuff is pretty popular. That dirty "blog" word even pops up when the subject of the story, Caleb Smith of NewYorkCityWalk.com who has covered every block in Manhattan by foot, gives a nod to his apprentince, Mike Epstein of the photo blog Satan's Laundromat. [Walk On]

Nick Paumgarten compares fallen porn publishing icon Al Goldstein to a bird, the Pale Male hawk of 927 Fifth Avenue. Goldstein found a home (and someone to pay the rent) in an outer-borough and gives this advice to Pale Male: "Defecate on the tenants as they walk into the building. Defecate on the doorman. And play around - don t get locked into a female hawk thing. You re going to lose your nest anyway." He's like the fourth wise man. [Pluck You]