Today I was went to the dentist so he could prep for his role in Saw VI.  After tasting approximately a pint of my own blood, being told I needed a crown (for those who brush and floss regularly,  a crown is like a mega filling – like when a filling just won’t get the job done you get a crown) and forcing my dentist and his receptionist to watch my Obama impression, I took a long walk through Riverdale (my hometown, except if I ever run for political office in the Bronx, during which I will say I am from Kingsbridge, a more heavily Latino neighborhood my family lived in until I was 6, when our upstairs neighbor stabbed her boyfriend).

As I walked through Riverdale I noticed more and more stores closed than I had ever seen.  I felt like Bruce Springsteen looking at some mill town in New Jersey that had just closed up.  All that was missing was My Hometown in my iPod and Steve Van Zandt sneering behind me.

Pizza shops, a book store, a video store and other things (not including numerous unoccupied new buildings) were closed that had been open for years.  Oddly enough the Indian Restaurant which I have never seen customers in is still open (let’s get Bronx Vice on this obvious mob front).  Also still thriving – the comic book store.  Really, this industry is still going strong?  The baseball card and comic book shop?  This place has been open for twenty years without a hitch.  So the book store closes, the comic book store still open.  I will keep my diatribe to myself, but I am sure the loyal 13 readers of this blog know what I would think of that.

I think President Obama (that has a nice ring to it) should look to Riverdale as a bellwether of the economy.  I mean if a middle class/upper class neighborhood loaded with Jewish people can start to go under, then is there really any hope for our economy?  At least we know Marvel Comics will not need a bailout.