Over 2,000 New Yorkers showed up to smoke a cigarette with a man after he handed out flyers inviting them to join him.
A man called Bob, also known as ‘the cigarette maestro’ to some, went out delivering people flyers saying that between 2.00pm and 2.05pm local time on 21 November, he would be smoking a cigarette outside Washington Square Park.
He gave people a map, a picture of himself and a QR code promising attendees a free cigarette to smoke if they booked their spot in advance.
Hundreds of people showed up to the park in New York to stand with Bob and smoke a cigarette with him after he said he’d like them to ‘all light up together’.
On social media, Bob declared that ‘over 2,000 strangers came to smoke a cigarette with me’ and folks were marvellously impressed by the turnout.
“If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you currently smoke, and you have the willpower, quit. If you don’t have the willpower, at least reduce it,” he wrote on Instagram in a post celebrating the people who turned up one Friday afternoon.
“But if you just love smoking and it brings you joy, light it up!”
In a video, he could be seen thanking people for coming and signing their cigarette packets, while one guy even asked Bob to sign his skateboard for him.
The man declared he was ‘living my dream’ and told those who turned up ‘how grateful and happy I am’ they joined him for his event, saying he really liked ‘doing something fun together’.
Those who turned up were even chanting his name at one point, so it seems the people like Bob.
Obviously, we do have to be the fun police for a moment and remind you that smoking is bad for you, though Bob’s own message for people not to start smoking if they don’t and to quit if they have the willpower to do so is a pretty handy guide.
People who couldn’t make it lamented that they’d missed out on what seemed like a fun surprise gathering of people to show up for Bob and hang out with him for a few minutes.
Folks said they were ‘so jealous I couldn’t be there’ and reckoned it must have been ‘an experience for everyone involved’.
Even some people who didn’t smoke wished they’d shown up and said it must have been a ‘great community’.
Man made terrifying discovery after setting up camera to find out why food was going missing in his house
The New York apartment wasn’t just housing him and his girlfriend
A man made a terrifying discovery after setting up a camera to find out just why food was going missing in home.
Back in 2009, actor Joe Cummings was living with his girlfriend in a New York apartment.
Promising the story is ‘every bit as real and messed up as it seems’, he explained he kept on finding that food was going missing that he was sure he wasn’t eating.
He even confronted his girlfriend, but she promised it wasn’t her secretly snacking during the night either. But Joe didn’t quite believe her claim, and set up a video camera in the kitchen with the plan to catch her in the act.
And though he did catch a woman eating his food, that woman wasn’t his girlfriend.
Shared to YouTube, the eerie footage shows someone slowly climbing out of a storage loft in the night, climbing down onto a table before doing her business in the room.
And by that, I mean she went for a wee in the sink, drank something from the fridge and helped herself to items from the pantry.
Making things even creepier, Joe event emerged at one point and the unwelcome guest managed to hide herself from view.
After watching the shocking footage, Joe says he immediately left his apartment and called the police who came to investigate and escort her out.
“The police officers thought it looked as though she had been there for at least a couple weeks,” he explained.
In the description, Joe said he had ‘no idea’ who the woman was and that ‘she didn’t say much when the cops came and escorted’ her from the apartment.
She had apparently set up ‘a little nook’ for herself with a blanket in the storage area that goes ‘pretty deep back’. With no connection ‘to any outside ventilation’.
Asked how she must have gotten in there, Joe wrote: “I have no idea, the only way she could have gotten in is through the window, as I am on the top floor and there is a fire escape.
“The police think she was probably coming in to rob me [when I was] gone and decided to stow away in the crawl space. Supposedly this isn’t the first time the cops had come across something like this.”
It’s thought she may have been there for ‘at least a couple weeks’ or potentially even longer.
Afterwards, Joe decided not to press charges and ‘felt bad’ for the feral woman.
Well, that’s something to keep you up tonight.
‘Devastated’ owner of helicopter that killed family after crashing into Hudson River speaks out
The family are believed to have arrived in New York from Barcelona earlier that day
At around 3.17pm local time yesterday (10 April), a helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in New York with a family of tourists killed.
Witnesses said they saw the chopper ‘split in half’ mid-flight as the pilot made a radio call warning that it ‘needed fuel’.
An investigation is currently under way as the ‘devastated’ owner speaks out on the incident.
Officials said the flight was operated by New York Helicopter Tours as CEO Michael Roth described the incident as ‘devastation’.
The helicopter had six people on board, a Spanish family of five made up of three children, Siemens executive Agustin Escobar and his wife, Merce Camprubi Montal, as well as the pilot. It’s understood the family had arrived in New York from Barcelona earlier that day.
“I’m a father and a grandfather and to have children on there, I’m devastated. I’m absolutely devastated,” Roth told the New York Post.
“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter.”
He added that in his 30 years being in ‘the helicopter business’ he hasn’t ‘seen anything like that’.
Roth went on to speculate a potential cause of the crash: “The only thing I could guess – I got no clue – is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know.”
The CEO added: “This is horrific. But you gotta remember something, these are machines and they break.”
Witnesses told PA news agency that they had heard what sounded like ‘several gunshots in a row, almost, in the air’ before looking out the window to see the helicopter ‘splash in several pieces into the river’.
Another said they saw it ‘falling apart’ in midair as one said it was spinning uncontrollably with ‘a bunch of smoke coming out’ before hitting the water.
Aviation lawyer Justin Green, who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps, said it’s possible the helicopter’s main rotors struck the tail boom therefore breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free-fall.
“They were dead as soon as whatever happened, happened,” he said. “There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.”
New York City mayor Eric Adams said: “Our hearts go out to the families of those who were onboard. All six have been removed from the water, and sadly all six victims have been pronounced deceased.”
A Siemens Mobility Spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic helicopter crash in which Agustin Escobar (49) and his family lost their lives. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all their loved ones.”
LADbible has contacted the NYPD and US Coast Guard for comment.
People mindblown after finding out where iconic ‘I Love NY’ sign comes from
Graphic designer Milton Glaser came up with his masterpiece in the back of a taxi
In pretty much every place you visit across the world, you can find a patriotic souvenir shop selling merch emblazoned with three simple words.
Whether you’re in London, Paris, Tokyo or Berlin, you’ll be able to find a mug, keyring, T-shirt or magnet sporting the words ‘I love…’, followed by the location.
But do you know that there is a very interesting story behind how this simple slogan ended up taking gift shops across the globe by storm?
Don’t worry if not – as loads of social media users didn’t either, so they’ve been left pretty mindblown after finding out the origin of this simple sentence.
It all started in New York, nearly five decades ago.
Although we all know it as a buzzing metropolis, it wasn’t always this way – and during the 1970s, the US city hit a serious slump in tourism.
In a bid to combat this, the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Commerce, William S Doyle, turned to advertising agency Wells Rich Greene for some assistance.
He wanted the firm to develop a marketing campaign to encourage people to visit New York, and he also recruited the late graphic designer Milton Glaser to work on the project too.
Glaser agreed to do the job pro bono, as he himself was concerned for the future of his beloved city if things continued the way they were.
“The place itself had become so difficult to live in,” he told the Guardian in 2014. “I wanted to say ‘I’m gonna stay, I love this place, I’m not gonna be defeated, I’m going to make it better’.”
So, armed with this powerful message, Glaser got to work on a design.
And in the back of a taxi in 1976, with only a red crayon and a bit of scrap paper as his tools, the artist came up with a simple sketch which would go on to have a huge impact.
He sketched out the letter ‘I’ followed by a love heart and the letters ‘NY’ in reference to the Big Apple – taking inspiration from initials carved into tree trunks by lovers.
This original drawing now adorns the walls of Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), showing just how significant it is.
As we all know, the graphic designer’s creation went on to gain recognition against the globe following its incredible success in its birthplace of New York.
The logo was described as one of the most frequently imitated in history, which came as quite a shock to Glaser.
“I’m flabbergasted by what happened to this little, simple nothing of an idea,” he told the Village Voice in 2011. “It just demonstrates that every once in a while you do something that can have enormous consequences.
“It was a bunch of little scratches on a piece of paper!”
Glaser also revealed why he did the work for free, despite the state going on to make millions in licensing fees off the back of his artwork.
He explained: “The truth is, I have enough money to live the life I want to live. I don’t think about how it would be if I had another couple million. I have no needs that are not being fulfilled.
“I am just astonished by the amount of money it’s brought in. I went to Chinatown a few months ago, and it had been transformed to a gazillion ‘I Love New York’ T-shirts on every building and facade. It amazes me.”
Bizarrely, Glaser said that after he reworked the design to read ‘I Love New York More Than Ever’ following the devastating September 11 attacks in 2001, the ‘state threatened to sue’ him.
“They said I was infringing on the copyright,” the artist added. “You realise when you’re dealing with any bureaucracy, that they’re so indifferent to anyone but themselves.”
This absolute geezer sadly passed away at the age of 91 in June 2020 after suffering from a stroke, his wife Shirley told the New York Times.
Still, his logo will live on forever – as will his legacy as a true New Yorker.
Although half of them probably own a replica of Glaser’s original artwork, social media users were left stunned by the extraordinary story behind it.
One said: “That’s so cute, I love that it’s still a symbol for the city.”
Another wrote: “It’s crazy because I can’t imagine NYC without it.”
While a third commented: “Proof that LOVE is the answer. Something so simple, telling us to LOVE NY with the powerful symbol. So simple, but so powerful that it made a difference.”
Why 13th floor is completely missing in number of New York buildings
According to a 2020 study by StreetEasy, only nine percent of New York residential buildings actually label the 13th floor as 13
If you ever step foot in a New York high-rise, you may notice something unusual about the numbering on each floor.
And no, we’re not talking about the fact that Americans refer to the ground floor as the first floor either.
In fact, this is to do with the complete absence of one floor.
For example, in a 27-story skyscraper, you’d typically expect to find the floor numbers from one to 27; however, in some New York high-rises, builders may prefer to number the floors from one to 28 and miss out the 13th floor entirely.
Now I’m sure I don’t have to explain why some people have an aversion to the 13th floor, but what’s more surprising is that superstition around a number has influenced a city’s architecture. So why is that?
According to a 2020 study by StreetEasy, only nine percent of the New York residential buildings which go to 13 floors and above have a 13th floor, which is pretty wild.
Meanwhile, Otis Elevator states that 85 percent of its elevators in the city decide to leave out a 13th-floor button, instead skipping from 12 to 14. In some cases, buildings will mislabel the 13th floor as the 14th, while others may refer to it as floor 12A.
Some buildings may even decide against using the 13th floor for homes and instead use it for storage. Or leave the floor empty.
It would appear the quirk is confined solely to residential buildings as well, with famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building and the Flatiron reported to have an official 13th floor.
As for why real estate developers choose to forego creating a 13th floor for residents to live in, it’s all down to triskaidekaphobia.
Also known as a fear of the number 13.
“I know that there are a lot of people in this world, for who knows what crazy reason, feel that the number 13 is unlucky,” architectural historian Andrew Alpern explained to The New York Post.
“From the point of view of any builder, the owner is interested in renting the space, and he doesn’t want anything to get in the way of that. So 13 goes out the window.”
“Maybe a landlord discovered that people wouldn’t rent an apartment on the 13th floor. So he cut it out,” he continued.
“Then a second landlord copied him, and eventually it just became a custom. It’s one of those New York things.”
Why are people scared of the number 13?
It’s a question which on the face of it is difficult to answer. After all, why would anyone be afraid of a number?
And yet, it’s one of those strange quirks which has stood the test of time.
The exact origin of why so many people associate the number 13 with bad luck is unclear, as several possible theories have been identified.
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One explanation comes from Christianity, as Jesus Christ saw a total of 13 people before he died, with the 13th person to be seated being Judas, aka, the man who would betray him.
Norse mythology has Loki – who is the god mischief – as the 13th person seated at a dinner thrown by Odin. Meanwhile, tarot card decks also have the 13th card being death.
Whatever the explanation, it’s a fear which is baked into Western superstition.
