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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Type A Personalities

posted by on May 29 at 9:35 AM

A stands for asshole, of course—or in the case of this news item, A stands for assholes, plural.

Stuart Sugarman… arrived at the Equinox gym on the Upper East Side 30 minutes before the start of spin class and signed up for the stationary bike on the left side of the room. He adjusted the bike for his hefty frame and clicked his specialty cycling shoes into the pedals. And as the class got going, Mr. Sugarman, a senior partner at an investment firm, began the most conspicuous part of his ritual: his loud noises.

“You go, girl!” “Good burn!” “This is great!” Those are all phrases, Mr. Sugarman said on Wednesday, that he might well have screamed. When you’re getting pumped up, he said, “it’s all very normal responses.”

But on Aug. 15, 2007, Christopher Carter, a Manhattan stockbroker two bikes down, could not take another of Mr. Sugarman’s groans. After words were exchanged, Mr. Carter hopped off his bike and charged toward Mr. Sugarman “like a football player,” Mr. Sugarman said.

Mr. Carter grabbed the bike by the handlebars, raised the front end off the ground, driving the rear of the bike into a wall, and then let the bike go, Mr. Sugarman said. The impact of the drop, Mr. Sugarman said, has caused chronic neck and back pain.

Mr. Carter is on trial for assault, and faces a year in prison if convicted. There’s no word on whether other members of the gym have been raising money for Mr. Carter’s legal defense fund.

RSS icon Comments

1

What is this inconsequential B.S., Dan? A fight at a gym in a place most will never be between two most have never met and never will....


You can do way better, love.

Posted by Non | May 29, 2008 9:39 AM
2

I'm with Carter here. Though one wonders about steroids and aggression.

Posted by Fnarf | May 29, 2008 9:40 AM
3

Bicycles of all kinds are stress bombs. It's the only kind of exercise that makes you more likely to wig out. Maybe it's the pedaling motion that does it. I don't know. But those bicyclists do seem to have a short fuse.

Posted by elenchos | May 29, 2008 9:43 AM
4

I read this entire article this morning b/c I just couldn't believe it. What possesses some people?

Oh, and "you go girl!" Really?

Posted by Balt-O-Matt | May 29, 2008 9:57 AM
5

Why couldn't they just swing briefcases at one another like in the good ole days

Posted by Bellevue Ave | May 29, 2008 10:01 AM
6

Maybe he has some sort of workout cliché Tourette's Syndrome...

Posted by UNPAID BLOGGER | May 29, 2008 10:05 AM
7

I'm surprised he's still alive ....

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 29, 2008 10:41 AM
8
Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Sherri Sandel, a physician who was in the spin class, testified that after Mr. Carter told Mr. Sugarman to shut up, Mr. Sugarman responded, “Make me.”

Nuff said. Cases like these shouldn't even go to court. The asshole was asked by both the staff and the patron to shut up. He didn't, taunts the guy who asked him to be quiet to force him silence him, and the guy does as he's asked.



Mr. Sugarman, who is about 5 feet 11 and said he weighed 204 pounds, limped into the courtroom Wednesday morning. His neck appeared stiff.

oh this guy is so faking it. Someone should hire a PI to watch him walk out of his condo to see whether or not he's being a hypercondriac.

Posted by apres_moi | May 29, 2008 10:42 AM
9

i'm with mr. carter...gym screamers should be done away with. 4 years at the ima weight room were enough for me.

Posted by Jiberish | May 29, 2008 10:45 AM
10

Well at least the article didn't go on for 10 looonnnggg pages like that goddamned Emily Gould article you Slogged yesterday.

Still, the NYT magazine obviously is in desperate need of a good editor or two.

Posted by Reverse Polarity | May 29, 2008 10:51 AM
11

"A stands for asshole"--which, given how infamous Type A media personality Dan Savage has three of 'em in his name, explains a lot.

Posted by Erica C.'s Enormous Barnetts | May 29, 2008 12:15 PM

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