»In which we reach the rock

The New York Times's piece onYukihiko Ikumori, a venerable climber of Rat Rock in New York City's Central Park. This brings up essential questions about journalism: how did the reporter find this story? It is a human-interest piece, rather than breaking news or analysis, yet surpasses 'most anything the Times has printed in the past several months (or years, perhaps; Neil Straus's Mingering Mike story of a few years ago was another highlight).