I'm a born & bred New Yorker, so I feel I can say this...I hate New York. Not all the time...but frequently. Sometimes, walking through Central Park on a gorgeous mid-summer afternoon, I only actively dislike New York. But then, after reading this articlehttp://www.vice.com/read/amphetamine-logic-disappeared-cat-marnell and then this, heartbreaking article, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/nyregion/the-short-life-and-lonely-death-of-sabrina-seelig.html?smid=pl-share...I kind of want to scream. I kind of want to rent a car, throw the cats and some books into it, and flee the overpriced cesspool city right now. Move to Wyoming or Montana and start a pro-cat, free-love commune or something.

Perhaps you see my point? Cat Marnell is alive and well and able to stuff as many drugs as possible into her bony, cadaverous 98-lb frame...while the chick with promise, the girl who was trying to create something real with her life...oh, she's dead. She died alone, tied to her bed in an outer-borough dungeon "hospital," with no doctors or nurses checking on her for hours. No malpractice there! That seems like standard procedure...for Auschwitz. Paging Dr. Mengele! Where did they get that jury? Oh yes, they came from right here in NYC! Some of them are probably my neighbors, for f**k's sake.

I have lived in many other places--Russia, India, Washington, D.C., the Midwest, etc.--so I'm not one of those exasperating New Yorkers who tediously bitch about this city, but can't leave it. I've left plenty of times. I even have a driver's license. But right now, due to the various business projects I am involved with, I have to remain here. And I suppose  honestly, the bigger issue, the real issue, is that I'm disgusted by people who choose to destroy their potential--Cat Marnell, for all her melodrama, is, in my opinion, a rather talented writer--and other people who choose to have no empathy. Sabrina Seelig was all of 22, fer Christ's sake. Remember when you were 22 and you made some stupid choices? (Remember last night, when you probably made another stupid choice? Exactly.) She didn't deserve to die alone, neglected, tied to a bed, because she took a supplement. I'm cranky because I'm so disgusted... and because my heart just aches for Sabrina and her family.