What Doormen Do

Gothamist is interested in reading, Doormen, after reading the New Yorker Talk of the Town article about how this study of NYC doormen was conducted. Sociology professor Peter Bearman arrived at Columbia to find "his new colleagues unusually arrogant and difficult" and thought his doormen caused this (but he decided that was wrong). The book is subtitled "Fieldwork and Discoveries," and though a Publishers Weekly review says it's a little dry (perhaps as it's the work of an academic), any book that is built on making small talk with NYC doormen is worth reading. Bearman and his students interviewed a number of doormen, and if this anecdote in the TotT piece is any indication, it's gold:

The doorman said, “When you have a Class A condominium, you see all kinds of stuff.” He told an elaborate story involving a couple having sex on the scaffolding outside. After he got them to stop, and climb down, they walked into the lobby, declared that they were staying with a tenant, boarded an elevator, and resumed their exertions, in full view of the security cameras, and therefore of both the doorman and a handyman, who had been buffing the floors.