The Bull of Wall Street

A local mystery

Arturo di Modica's Charging Bull, outside the Search Engine offices. photo by Mer S, via Flickr.

Happy Friday Searchers,

Is this catching on yet? Calling Search Engine listeners “Searchers”?

Probably. Probably it is.

Anyway, we have a new episode for you this week. In this newsletter, we come bearing some photos you’ll want to look at after you listen, but probably not before.

Also! I want to thank the people who have signed up to support the show in the past few weeks. There’s been a little influx, which is very nice. It feels like a vote in favor of our existence. So thank you, and if you haven’t subscribed but would like to, the button is below. I would argue it is sort of a neon mauve color.

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This week’s episode

Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Every day in Manhattan, about 1,000 people will stand outside in a long line waiting for their chance to take a picture with a bronze bull. On many of those days, I stare at the scene trying to decode what exactly is going on here.

This week, we get answers, and a story that leads back to one of the more peculiar art crimes of the 1980s.

Curious what you guys will make of this week’s story! Our experience making it was that we really loved learning how much history there was in this tiny little triangle outside our office. How many good, bad, and strange things had happened over the centuries in this neighborhood. I say this in the episode, but there were also moments where I felt like I was morphing inexorably into a local history tour guide.

Would love to hear from you in the comments whether you’d like to hear more stories like this.

Scroll to the bottom for photos and links from the episode.

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Search Engine on TikTok

Search Engine producer Noah John has been leading the charge on TikTok for Search Engine, if you’re not following us there, you should! Noah and our friends at Public Opinion have been creating these short funny videos that are making me smile.

@searchenginepodcastMy job is killing me

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More from the episode

Arturo building his studio

Arturo works on the basement of his studio. (Both photos from the Arturo Di Modica Photo Archive via Curbed)

Here is the piece Christopher Bonanos wrote after Arturo died: The Outlaw History of Arturo Di Modica’s Crosby Street Studio.

Here is Arturo being interviewed on Italian television.

An absolutely incredible anecdote about Arturo putting his assistant in a headlock because he was so mad at him:

I never really like[d] his work to be honest, but he was a friend and I owed him money.

One day, in exasperation, I told him the "truth" about his work and he broke into a rage. He grabbed me by the neck and dragged me outside on Greene St. and started to pound my head against the pavement. Somehow I got free of him and hightailed it out of there.

I know I was wrong to give him such grief over his personal work but, as was said in the article, it really was not such good work, and I was an arrogant young buck in those days.

And we’ll end with a few SnoopyToks

Here’s the one Noah showed me on the show. And here’s a few more. (Sorry, I would embed these, but these embedded TikToks in particular seems to make Substack’s formatting go completely nuts.)

Also, here’s a nice piece from The Atlantic about Snoopy’s resurgent popularity among the Gen Z’ers.

Alright, that’s all we have for you this week. We will be back next Friday with another episode for you.

Yours on the internet,

PJ