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Can't remember the last time I read something as delightful as New York magazine's current cover story, "My First New York," which chronicles people's "coming to New York" stories. The article says a recent poll found that "even in these times, almost half of young America wants to move to New York" (who can blame 'em? God knows it was all I ever wanted).

Rufus Wainwright, in a cab with friends, looking for (the) Cock

The best part is the "30 who made it here" sidebar, featuring essays by Rufus Wainwright ('94: "We went to the Boiler Room and Beige and the Cock"), Larry Kramer, Mike Myers ('88: "The cabbie took the 59th Street Bridge and I looked up at the city as we crossed the river and it brought me to tears"), Lauren Hutton, James Franco, Diane von Furstenberg ('70: "We were a young couple, and fairly good looking with a nice title, so we were invited everywhere"), Lorne Michaels and Jann Wenner ('77: Jackie Onassis couldn't have been more gracious in terms of having dinner parties for me and my wife, introducing us to people like Mike Nichols and Pete Hamill"), among other New York notables.

While Amy Sedaris' story from 1993 is easy to believe -- "The first thing I saw when I came to New York was a man leaning up against a wall, shitting. Perfect." -- Richie Rich's tale from the same year was a little harder to swallow: "The first night I moved here, I met Madonna. She walked up to me at the opening of Club USA with a lollipop and a beer, and she was like, "Hmmm, you look cute." (I guess anything's possible, her career was in crisis at the time.) Me? I remember being at Club USA in '94 and a guy I knew from Placentia, Calif., came up to me and said hi. Completely true story.

Read: Notable New Yorkers Share Memories of Their Early Days HERE.

kenneth in the (212), circa 1995