This gentleman did not lumber down the stairs so much as he oozed down them. He’s reached the stage in life where he only uses his left leg to step down, but he does it with so much style that it calls into question any other stairway descending technique. Younger citizens swished past in their hurried urban way of course, but our subject’s pace remained deliberate.

What always strikes me about older folks, when I see them swallowing up the same sidewalks as the people my age, is that they haven’t lost a step at all. They’ve been high-stepping these avenues long enough to know who’s lost what, thank you very much. And if they’re still here, fighting each step down to the 57th St Q, then it’s because they want to be here, not because the rest of us are looking for someone to push past on the platform. Maybe some of all of the buzz that makes a place like this work is just the energy of youth, spent (but not wasted) on keeping the sidewalks bustling — keeping the ball in the air, so to speak. That, and leaving just enough room for the oozers among us — even if we have to brush against them sometimes.