The desi-run newsstands of tweedy Upper West carry some fascinating magazines. Most newsstands, e.g. around Union Square, carry fashion and gossip mags. Around the 90s and Broadway the stands start picking up The Atlantic Monthly, which makes me smile. As you get closer to Columbia University, you start to see more New York mags and New Yorkers. At Columbia’s doorstep, you get the New Yorker, lad mags like Maxim and brown booty mags for the West Harlem crowd.

The brown guys behind the counter probably don’t care precisely what they sell as long as it moves. But it’s fascinating how good they are at matching the area’s demographic. Had only Nehru in the ’50s seen the newssellers of Manhattan, he’d have abandoned the centrally-planned economy then and there

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