Episode 1
The Murder of Felix Brinkmann
Mr. Laff’s, a neighbor to our establishment was the favorite watering hole for the city’s professional athletes. The bar, opened in 1965 by Yankees’ utility infielder Phil Linz, attracted baseball teammates, as well as Knicks and Rangers players. The crowds waiting to enter were large and police cordoned off the sidewalks to control overflow crowds waiting to enter. Joe Namath, the Jets star QB, frequented Mr. Laff’s and Maxwell’s Plum, another bar, but rarely came to our bar. Surely, it was not trendy enough for “Broadway Joe.”
Episode 2
The Frontrunner
While browsing a bookshop for a volume on human anatomy, a striking poster caught my eye. It featured a “Frontrunner,” a cowboy, sprinting for his life across the Old West, pursued by an entire tribe of Native Americans—seeking payback for insulting their chief. Though the timing remained uncertain, I couldn’t help but imagine this well-trained, charismatic surgeon as a kind of frontrunner himself—boldly heading into an uncertain clinical landscape. The poster seemed fitting, so I bought it as a gift, a playful symbol of what he might face upon arrival.