Astoria

On the emerald green front door of Stanley and Kathleen Rygor's 1890 cottage, there's a Claddagh knocker whose well-worn brass shows that it's no stranger to visitors.

Gary got his counter spot at Bartunek Hardware from his father, Edward, who was born the same year as the store and who waited on customers until earlier this year when he died at age 84.

Playing out this month in is a debate about how to protect two artifacts from a pastoral past. For decades, a pair of centuries-old millstones have been embedded in a traffic triangle in Queens.

There's no bookstore in the Ditmars section of Astoria. We don't need one. Harry puts the words out on the street -- his bookstand has been in the same spot for nearly a quarter century.

When the DVD starts, so does the laughter. Anastasios Makedon must have watched his first film a million times. But every time he sees it again, it cracks him up.

Undertaking is a mysterious profession, and Astoria character John Hoey spends a lot of time answering curious queries about what it's like to work with the dead.

Hee Jung works for Astoria's Dahn Yoga center, which has nothing to do with ladies in leotards performing pretzel poses. Its format is monkey posture meets meditation.

Astoria-based Eli Wilner has become the framer of choice for the Smithsonian, Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses and the White House. "I want to frame the whole world," he says.

Astoria, Queens: for 40 years, this has been Josephine Todaro's stomping ground. "Everyone I know who has left Astoria always comes back," she says.

Astoria isn't Mayberry or even Lake Wobegon. It's more like Alice's Wonderland, but you don't have to go down a rabbit hole to get here. Astoria comes to you, and once it grabs you, it never lets you go.

Footage of a drunk driver unsuccessfully trying to put out a car fire only to then climb back behind the wheel will be included in a new show on truTV...