Name: Brian Williams
Job: Anchor and managing editor, NBC Nightly News; sometime blogger. Brian will host on Saturday Night Live this weekend — which just got especially exciting because of the writers strike!
Neighborhood: Upper East Side
Who’s your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
FDR
What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in New York?
Sacco Pizza (819 Ninth Avenue, between 54th and 55th) is most consistently my favorite place in a hurry. Low-rent but the best thin-crust pizza in the city.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
Compile, write, and edit the day’s news, while hopefully influencing young people on our staff.
Where do you get your coffee?
I only drink it when it’s offered and refuse to pay too much for it.
What’s the last thing you saw on Broadway?
Pygmalion with Claire Danes.
Do you give money to panhandlers?
Sometimes … if they have kind eyes.
What’s your drink?
I don’t drink … so … Coke.
How often do you prepare your own meals?
Not often. Though if we’re including microwaving, my average gets better.
What’s your favorite medication?
Ambien.
What’s hanging above your sofa?
A fence post from a ranch in Colorado, painted as art.
How much is too much to spend on a haircut?
Whatever John Edwards is paying these days.
When’s bedtime?
My natural body clock bedtime is 2 to 3 a.m. See Ambien.
Brunch: pro or con?
Brunch is an unnatural event, invented by the restaurant industry. Life is about hard choices. Before noon on weekends, it’s called breakfast. After that, it’s lunch. Pick one.
What’s your thread count?
I have no idea.
What do you hate most about living in New York?
The relatively new “pedestrian empowerment” of crossing the street after the light has changed and glaring at oncoming drivers as if to say, “Go ahead and hit me.”
What’s your brand of jeans?
Levi’s.
When’s the last time you drove a car?
Today.
Who should be the next president?
I’ve never discussed my politics.
Times, Post, or Daily News?
Times, though often after a quick glance at the Post.
Yankees or Mets?
Yankees, with or without A-Rod.
What makes someone a New Yorker?
Energy, spirit, toughness … and the deeply held belief that there’s no better place or people in the world.