"History is to New York City as bird watching is to anywhere else � if you have some idea of what to look for and a good pair of eyes, it won�t matter where you are. You�ll see something. And not just something, but something with a story behind it, something that someone has probably written volumes about, has studied from every angle and can present a five-hour disquisition on with short notice. Something that you have most likely never, until now, given a second’s worth of thought to. Something like streetlamps. Those who have read Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist know that even an item as banal as an elevator carries with it an entire culture, a body of knowledge, a taxonomy to rival Linnaeus."

Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist is a fabulous read, as is this Morning News article on the lampposts of New York City.
The Morning News: Crooks and Longarms