I’m no stranger to the offerings of the 92nd Street Y. As an Upper East Sider, I spent a significant portion of my childhood there: I took ballet there. I’m an alum of Camp Yomi as both a camper and a counselor. I did community service there. Like I said, I’ve spent a lot of time at the Y.
But since entering the decidedly non-camp-attending years of my mid- (I’m going to be 27 in a few months… do I have to start saying “late” now?) twenties, the Y has pretty much fallen off my radar. I’m not looking for ballet lessons or day camps anymore, so it never occurred to me to keep making the Y a part of my life.
Until I was looking through my most recent issue of Time Out: New York and saw two amazing talks scheduled at the Y for last week: Brian Williams with Jonathan Tisch discussing “the state of the news, business, and the nation” on Wednesday and “Inside the Mossad” on Thursday, where Michael Bar-Zohar would be discussing the totally-badass Israeli Mossad with Mandy Patinkin.
Yeah, that Mandy Patinkin (image via blog.zap2it.com)
And the best part? While tickets for both events were running at around $30-$40, for those of us who are lucky enough to be under 35… they were only FIFTEEN DOLLARS. Are you kidding me? Upon further investigation, it appears that the Y has a whole initiative aiming to get us young’ns more involved. And I was more than happy to take advantage of that.
Rebecca and I ended up attending the Mossad talk, and even though Mandy Patinkin had to cancel (boooooo — although Ethan Bronner did a fantastic job filling in), it was GREAT.
I’m a giant history/politics nerd (and, um, spies are cool), so hearing an expert talk about the origins of the Mossad and sharing interesting stories from its histories was music to my geeky little ears. I don’t remember the details, but Bar-Zohar told a story where in order to escape at an airport, the Mossad turned an airplane towards a control tower to blind the controllers with its lights, then snuck someone onto the plane and took off. Tell me that’s not awesome (actually don’t, because you’d be lying).
The event was meant to promote his new book about the Mossad, which I totally would have bought if my budget wasn’t crying under the weight of plane tickets, Flywheel classes, and new running shoes (#firstworldproblems).
I feel like places like the Y can get a reputation for only having boring programming, or things for kids or real grown-ups (which I definitely am not. I’m writing this post sitting on the floor watching hockey after finishing a bag of Cadbury mini eggs). But maybe the Y is a little cooler than I thought.
Those $15 tickets are the bomb. I’ve done three and loved them all.