The Pulse: Fifty Years of Five Boroughs, LA’s Library-Card Costume and Eileen Otte Ford’s Business of Showing Up

Darlings, the costumes are off and the paperwork is on. This first Sunday of November finds both coasts doing something unglamorous and admirable: showing up. New York is running 26.2 miles through five boroughs; Los Angeles is lining up at vote centers and library desks. Our lens, as ever, belongs to Eileen Otte Ford, who co-founded Ford Models in 1946 and never confused charm with a plan. “Models are a business, and they have to treat themselves as a business,” she told the Toronto Star in 1988, “which means they have to take care of themselves and give up all the young joys.” Hold that thought; the week tests it.

New York: fifty years of five boroughs

The marathon is the whole conversation. On r/nyc, the top service post this morning is blunt: “New York City Marathon is today – Sunday, November 1st. Plan accordingly!” It is a milestone year. New York Road Runners and the Associated Press note that 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, first run in 1976, when just over 2,000 competitors started. Today roughly 60,000 runners are expected, and CBS New York reports the route changes in the Bronx for the first time in 15 years. The wheelchair division started at 8 a.m. Eastern (5 a.m. PT); the final wave goes at 11:30 a.m. Eastern (8:30 a.m. PT), and the finish sits in Central Park near West 67th Street.

The patron saint of the streak. The thread that softened even the cynics on r/nyc was NBC News’s clip of an 83-year-old preparing for his 50th consecutive New York City Marathon. Runner’s World identifies him as Dave Obelkevich, who has finished every five-borough edition since 1976, broke three hours in 1979 with a 2:50:18, and, after a life-threatening aneurysm, now walks the course with Athletes with Disabilities, his daughter as guide. His goal is “to finish the race” and have fun. His tip for the start corral: “Don’t be shy about introducing yourself. Everyone has different stories.” He even recommends carrying business cards.

The Eileen Otte Ford verdict: she would have signed him. Discipline, a clear goal, and a calling card in the pocket: that is a man who treats himself as a business, and the business is joy. The rest of us can manage a polite hello on the ferry.

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Meanwhile, on West 75th Street. New Yorkers spent a month falling for a family of barn owls nesting in a rooftop water tower, and this week the tower lost its roof. West Side Rag reports that New York State environmental officials issued a cease and desist for work on the tower on Friday, Oct. 30, after workers returned; the NYC Bird Alliance’s executive director, Jessica Wilson, said the city shares residents’ “anguish and outrage.” The r/nyc thread is equal parts wildlife love and water-tank engineering seminar, which is to say, very New York.

And the parade kept going. A r/nyc video titled “Village Parade kept going…” captured the noise of Halloween night from twelve stories up, well north of the route. Our full who’s-who of the people who build that parade runs today, too.

Los Angeles: ballots, bows and a library card

The costume of the year was a library card. The r/LosAngeles post that won Halloween weekend was titled “What do you mean you’re the sold out hello kitty library card for Halloween?” It is funny because it is true. LA County Library says its limited-edition Hello Kitty and Friends card is available again from Oct. 17 to Nov. 30, 2026, while supplies last, with “another restock” planned for Tuesday, Nov. 10. Existing cardholders can swap for the design at a reduced one-dollar replacement fee through Nov. 30, and they will get a new card number, so update it in Libby and Kanopy. Yo! Venice adds that it is one card per person, first come, first served, in person.

The Eileen Otte Ford verdict: “I create a look and I create a style,” she told People in 1983. A flat, laminated rectangle became the most-discussed look in a city of professional costumers. That is branding, darling, and it is free with a library card.

The weekend is for voting. r/LosAngeles is running “PSA – You can vote or drop off your General Election ballot in person starting TODAY” and, this morning, “In-person voting today.” The facts, per the Santa Monica Daily Press: all 646 L.A. County vote centers opened Saturday, Oct. 31, and stay open daily through Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT through Monday, then 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday. Any county voter may use any center, and the county runs 429 drop boxes until 8 p.m. Tuesday. City of Los Angeles ballots carry the mayor’s race (the runoff between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman), city attorney, two council seats and several measures. Registrar Dean C. Logan’s advice: “Don’t wait for the rush on Tuesday.”

The lighter threads. r/LosAngeles also spent the weekend arguing over a “Mount Rushmore of L.A. Buildings,” trading screenshots of “How the NYTimes describes Silverlake,” and admiring a toddler dressed as an “upper studio lot minion,” a joke only a theme-park town could make. On X, Angelenos are passing around old streetcar maps with the wistfulness other cities reserve for lost lovers.

The superintelligence read

Run the week’s threads through a pattern-matching engine and one signal dominates on both coasts: logistics outranked spectacle. The most useful posts were plans (road closures, vote-center hours, restock dates), and the most loved people were the ones with routines. Mrs. Ford would call that professionalism. We call it the Sunday rule: decide where you need to be, get there early, and introduce yourself when you arrive.

Sources

1. The Globe and Mail (AP obituary): Agency founder Eileen Otte Ford set standard for modelling industry (Toronto Star 1988 and People 1983 quotes)
2. Reddit r/nyc: New York City Marathon is today – Sunday, November 1st. Plan accordingly!
3. New York Road Runners: 2026 TCS New York City Marathon press release
4. AP: New York City Marathon at 50 years of five boroughs
5. CBS New York: NYC Marathon 2026 route maps
6. Reddit r/nyc: 83-year-old runner prepares for his 50th consecutive New York City marathon
7. Runner’s World: Dave Obelkevich, 83, will run his 50th NYC Marathon
8. West Side Rag: Cease and desist issued; Upper West Side barn owls’ water tower loses its roof
9. Reddit r/nyc: Village Parade kept going…
10. Reddit r/LosAngeles: What do you mean you’re the sold out hello kitty library card for Halloween?
11. LA County Library: Hello Kitty and Friends library card
12. Yo! Venice: LA County Library restocks Hello Kitty cards across all branches
13. Reddit r/LosAngeles: PSA – vote or drop off your ballot in person starting today
14. Santa Monica Daily Press: All 646 vote centers open across LA County
15. Reddit r/LosAngeles: Mount Rushmore of L.A. Buildings
16. Reddit r/LosAngeles: How the NYTimes describes Silverlake
17. X: Los Angeles streetcar map nostalgia

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