Nothing is "Free"

Commuting in and out of New York City is enough of a pain in the ass that you don't need help in making it an even BIGGER pain in the ass than it already is.

For the last couple of years, New York commuters have had to not only deal with the daily hell of bumping into hundreds of other fellow commuter-sapiens, but now we have the added joy of being accosted by dozens of derelicts of questionable origin hawking "free" newspapers.

The two main culprits are publications called the Metro and AM New York, both of which exhibit questionable editorial content and massive advertisments - hence, the "free" part.

Even the fledgling New York Sun (now back in production after a bazillion years) has gotten into the act, recruiting varying levels of human flotsam to hand out the normally two-bit newspaper (and I use that term literally).

So where do you think these idiots stand? Right in front of the Subway exits. That's right - you're trying to escape the Subway station via a narrow set of concrete steps, surrounded by a hundred of fellow New Yorkers, all of which you'd like to zap to Mars, and some moron is standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE EXIT with two OTHER morons, all yelling "Free News! Free News!" in your ear.

I don't understand why the MTA allows this, as it's not a MINOR inconvenience - it's a MAJOR inconvenience. Plus, if I own a newsstand in or around a train station - and I'm paying top dollar for that piece of real estate - I'm not very happy about seeing Sol, Mutt 'n Jeff handing out bird cage liner directly in my line of sight.

I'm sure this will go on until one of these guys gets flung into a double-decker sightseeing bus by an angry commuter experiencing train rage. And if they're not careful, it might be ME.