Mad Magazine

The news conference yesterday in front of the Port Authority after the fairly unsuccessful terrorist bombing is not the occasion you look forward to to hear the subway lines referred to by their old designations, but there was the NYC Police Commissioner, James P. O'Neill describing to all that the explosion took place in the passageway between the IRT and the IND lines that connects the Times Square station with the Port Authority bus terminal.

The more commonly recognized numerical and alphabetical designations were mentioned, but not until IRT and IND passed his lips. The commissioner's roots were showing. And a little bit of his age, 59.

As much as you might think all NYC police commissioners are NYC natives and came up through the patrol ranks, this is not always the case. Not all that long ago the police commissioner was Lee P. Brown, from Houston, Texas. Commissioner Brown made so many trips back to his origins that he was nicknamed by those who didn't like him, 'Out-of-Town-Brown.' He wasn't popular.

As anyone who can remember the subway token, and perhaps even 15¢! tokens will tell you, the NYC subway system was built by three private companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Co—the IRT; The Independent Company—the IND; and the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Company—BMT. No standardization was ever thought of. All three lines used different gauge track. Thus, the cars from one line cannot run on either other line. This creates maintenance and storage problems, since everything is separate. Not the way you would build a railroad today.

Even though the commissioner is a decade younger than myself, I'm going to guess he read 'Mad Magazine' as a lad making his way through grade school, and maybe even high school. Reading is always good for you, even if it's a comic book. 'Mad' is still around, although I haven't seen it for decades. There are no physician offices that I've ever been in that seem to subscribe to it. That is a shame.

Satirical and cartoonish, the magazine always featured Alfred P. Newman on its cover, the "What, Me Worry" character. Inside were great cartoon features, like Spy vs. Spy, a strip I always believed gave us Boris and Natasha on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.

If you were really paying attention to all the things in 'Mad' magazine you of course would know there was always a cartoon figure nestled in the M of the MAD title that for some reason was pointing to where the IND was. It's hard to make out, but the 1961 cover above shows someone sticking out from the M giving direction s to the subway.

Trust me, he's telling you how to get to the IND line.

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