
If you live in a big Manhattan apartment building, you probably have one: the person down the hall who is maybe an HR staffer, a retired civil servant, a restaurant manager, a “consultant” of indeterminate field. He or she is invariably the first to know what’s going on in the neighborhood, whether via peering out a window or just keeping close tabs on the building grapevine. And at some point, the events of the day rise to the level of news, and the camera crews arrive, and that neighbor is ready.
May we introduce Michele Herbert, the clearly excited-to-be-on-TV neighbor of Rudy Giuliani (and, in an odd but exquisite New York turn, the ex-wife of Pantone color magnate Larry Herbert, who apparently tipped her off to what was going on).
We appreciate your eye for detail, Mrs. H., and we’d appreciate it if, after this, you would talk to the co-op board about the people in 5H who keep leaving their bikes in the hallway, which they very well know is against the bylaws, thank you very much.