All three articles excerpted are contained Mitchell''s great collection, "Up in the Old Hotel."

Three wonderful opening sentences from articles written by the unimpeachable New Yorker legend Joseph Mitchell.

••••••••••

From “Mr. Hunter’s Grave” (1956):

“When things get too much for me, I put a wild-flower book and a couple of sandwiches in my pockets and go down to the South Shore of Staten Island and wander around awhile in one of the old cemeteries there.”

••••••••••

From “Hit on the Head with a Cow” (1938):

“When I have time to kill, I sometimes go to the basement of a brownstone tenement on Fifty-ninth Street, three-quarters of a block west of Columbus Circle, and sit on a rat-gnawed Egyptian mummy and cut up touches with Charles Eugene Cassell, an old Yankee for whose bitter and disorderly mind I have great respect.”

••••••••••

From “Goodbye, Shirley Temple” (1939):

“I’ve been going to Madame Visaggi’s Third Avenue spaghetti house off and on since speakeasy days, and I know all the old customers.”