Back in the summer of 1988, I was hanging out in Alphabet City with my chum, Jim Chu. He had lived in the same apartment all his life, on Avenue A between 5th and 6th. I was staying in a bunk in an office in his dad's four story walkup -- on 10th between B & C.

Anyway, we spent most nights walking around the East Village. We did construction for his dad in the day. One night we were walking near St. Marks Place and suddenly there were crowds of people running through the streets and eventually, huge teams of policemen in full riot gear facing off against the protesters. We headed back to Jim's apartment, threading our way through the melee, past Tompkin's Square Park, where they were burning a man in effigy (Mayor Koch -- as it turned out). I used to have photos (taken with my Pentax K1000), along with some other ones taken from the top of the Twin Towers observation deck. But they didn't survive.

Those were interesting times. Between that and surviving three litigations, the notion that a bunch of sketch comics sequestered away in Midtown would ever be able to ruffle my feathers is, quite literally, hilarious.