Good morning. It's Friday. We'll find out how a Winston Churchill impersonator plans to spend Churchill's 150th birthday. We'll also meet the new head of New York City Transit, the division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the subways and buses.
Luke Boyd plans to begin the day tomorrow by pouring a glass of whiskey and lighting a cigar. It's not his usual morning routine, but he considers it a special day. Nov. 30 is the 150th anniversary of the day on which Winston Churchill was born. Boyd, a Churchill impersonator who lives on Staten Island, will get up at 11 a.m., "when Sir Winston would have emerged from his chambers." No doubt with a cigar, Boyd said. "And he would have been lubricated." Boyd sounded like himself when he said that, not like Churchill, who stammered and had a speech impediment that turned the "s" sound into an "sh." But Boyd toggled into character for one of Churchill's most famous lines: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never." "You use tools an actor uses to convey a sense of age or self-importance" to an audience at a historical reenactment, he said. "They're not saying 'Hey, you're not Churchill.' They're buying into this. They want to take your picture. They want to shake your hand. They feel like they've met someone from the past." Churchill is merely "a side hustle" and "a passion project" for Boyd, who is the director of education and public programs at Historic Richmond Town, a living history village on Staten Island. "It's simpatico with Churchill," he said, "but Churchill never came to Staten Island." Churchill did go to Brooklyn once — in 1953, to see the birthplace of his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, who was born Jennie Jerome. He was accompanied by Mayor Vincent Impellitteri and Bernard Baruch, a financier. "He makes these jokes about being half-American," Boyd said. But it turned out that the house they visited, on Henry Street in Cobble Hill, was the wrong house. Churchill's mother had actually been born a few blocks away, on Amity Street. Still, by visiting the Henry Street house and making a speech, "he made it historic," Boyd said. "There's a plaque there." He does not mind that the bronze letters commemorate the mother's birth, not the son's speech. "I know how much goes into making those things," he said. Boyd got into reenacting about 15 years ago when he was asked to play Stephen Douglas in a Lincoln-Douglas debate. Later he played Nathan Hale, the Revolutionary War-era spy who declared, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." He also portrayed several lesser-known figures from the 19th century. And then the Museum of American Armor on Long Island recruited him to play Churchill. "I said, 'I'm way too young to do Churchill,'" he recalled. "I was 32, about 30 years too young. They said, 'Well, we think that with some makeup, we can achieve this.'" It took more than makeup: He had to learn to talk like Churchill. "The way he pronounced his S's is challenging to replicate without some kind of Marlon Brandon props in your mouth," he said. "I do the best I can. I'd be lying if I didn't say I take inspiration from Gary Oldman and John Lithgow — famous, accomplished actors who have taken on Churchill." (Oldman portrayed Churchill in the 2017 film "Darkest Hour," and Lithgow appeared in the Netflix series "The Crown.") When he appeared at the Museum of American Armor a couple of weeks ago, at a gathering of social studies teachers, he talked about how less classroom time is spent on history. But portraying Churchill in the age of sound bites does have its advantages. "People aren't interested in a long speech," he said. "They want the 'storm the beaches.' They want the 'never give up.' Thank goodness their attention spans are so short. We don't have to memorize that much text." WEATHER Prepare for a sunny, breezy day with a high near the mid-40s. Tonight will remain breezy with a clear sky and low near 31. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Dec. 9 (Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception). The latest New York news
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Demetrius Crichlow followed his father and grandfather into New York City's transit system and rose through the ranks during a 27-year career. Now Crichlow is stepping into a new role as the head of New York City Transit, the division of the M.T.A. that runs the subways and buses. The job makes him arguably second only to Janno Lieber, the M.T.A.'s chief executive, in being responsible for the subway system. And Crichlow, who is more accustomed to working in the background, is moving up at a time when the M.T.A. is under more intense scrutiny than usual. The agency will begin congestion pricing in January, charging most drivers $9 to enter much of traffic-choked Manhattan. The plan is aimed at raising $15 billion for improvements to the transit system, but it is unpopular. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to kill it, creating fiscal uncertainty for the M.T.A. And the M.T.A., long a battleground for city and state officials, is again in the spotlight politically. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a famously hands-on administrator of the M.T.A. during his time in Albany, N.Y., criticized a plan to shut down a section of the A train for repairs as he builds his potential candidacy for next year's race for mayor. Lieber said that he wants Crichlow to improve service, to combat a public perception that the subway is dangerous and to tamp down fare evasion. "There's no silver bullet," Crichlow said recently as he crisscrossed the system. "It takes a lot of small improvements." METROPOLITAN DIARY Summer in the city
Dear Diary: In 1966, when I was still in high school, my older sister and I were allowed to go to New York on our own for the summer. It was the first time we had flown on a plane. The only advice we were given was to stay at the Martha Washington Hotel because it was only for women and to send home every day one of the stamped postcards we had been given to prove we were alive. The hotel was dark, old and hot, but it had what was described as a "roof garden." There was no actual garden, but the roof offered us our first glimpse of the city's skyline. My sister had heard that the "happening" place in the city that summer was Greenwich Village. So after one night in the hotel, we walked down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square and then onto Sullivan Street. We struck up a conversation with a man who was fixing a doorknob. We asked if there were any apartments available in the building. He said someone had just left a fully furnished place a few days earlier. The rent was $30 a week. We dragged our suitcases 30 blocks downtown and moved in. "Summer in the City" was the big song that year, and this was going to be ours. After settling in, we were hungry. We searched the kitchen to see whether anything edible had been left behind. All we found was a greasy bottle of oil, a half-full bag of flour and a few onions. My sister had a eureka moment. "Let's make onion rings!" she said. — Carrie Klein Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Makaelah Walters and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Meet the Churchill of Staten Island
November 29, 2024
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