The tale of Tony Q69

← Stay classy, Little Rock Sorry I hit your car, but whatever, it’s a tacky piece of crap anyway →

July 26th, 2011 · 77 comments

Janine in Astoria was at a stoplight next to a Q69 bus stop in Queens when she noticed signs reading “TONY Q69″ taped all over the outside and inside of the bus shelter. “I made my boyfriend pull over so I could read it,” she says — and got a photo, so she could share Tony Q69′s shameful story with the rest of the world.

UPDATE: Greg in Astoria has spotted another note to Tony Q69…

As has Adam…

And Rebecca!

UPDATE: The Tony Q-69 Saga Continues!

FILED UNDER: ex drama · excessive capitalization · exclamation-point happy!!!! · public shaming · public transit · Queens

77 responses so far ↓

#1 Quite Contrary

Oh, he trusts you. He trusts you for sex with no strings attached.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:35 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#2 H. Thom. Sirveaux

Yes, she deserves a man to give her a child so she can then loudly exclaim “I AM A SINGLE MOTHER! WORSHIP ME FOR I AM INFALLIBLE!”, or at the least, become an “expert” correspondent on Nancy Grace.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:39 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #2.1 Jonah
  
  That’s an awfully specific take.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 5:49 pm rating: 90
- #2.2 Sean Jungian
  
  Yes, that is an interesting progression you followed there, H. Tom old boy. Not that you’re bitter or anything.
  
  (Hooks a thumb in H. Tom’s direction) Get this guy here, with his issues all hanging out, amirite, folks?
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 6:32 pm rating: 90
- #2.3 Sarahj259
  
  …You don’t sound bitter at all….
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 11:24 pm rating: 90
- #2.4 Carol
  
  Um…it says single WOMAN, not single MOTHER.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 8:43 am rating: 90
- #2.5 Basil Marceaux Dot Com
  
  Yes, she deserves a man to give her a child so she can then loudly exclaim “I AM A SINGLE MOTHER! WORSHIP ME FOR I AM INFALLIBLE!”, or at the least, become an “expert”abstinence advocate for the Candies Foundation.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 3:15 pm rating: 90
- #2.6 Nunavut Guy
  
  You was boned and owned!
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 11:00 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#3 'Ol Dirty Custard

This isn’t PA, just a chick that took a while to figure out the truth…

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:39 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #3.1 berge
  
  Exactly. People who date married men, then complain about not getting enough attention, aren’t quite thinking things through enough.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 5:43 pm rating: 90
- #3.2 scott hall
  
  She probably didn’t know he was married, and wrote the note when she found out.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 5:45 pm rating: 90
- #3.3 tinkerbell2
  
  Looking at that underlining on ‘you are the married man’, I’m agreeing with Scott here.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 2:46 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#4 berge

Is Tony a bus driver, or just a regular on the Q69? Either way, anyone with that route is not to be trusted.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:42 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #4.1 jfruh
  
  Hmm, good point, I assumed he was the driver, but maybe he was just a regular on the bus. And yes, clearly the Q69 is New York’s sexiest route number.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 5:47 pm rating: 90
- #4.2 tinkerbell2
  
  It says ‘Q69 job’.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 2:46 am rating: 90
- #4.3 Rattus
  
  “Q69 job”? I’ve never heard it called that before.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 10:26 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#5 berge

I think he was probably turned off by Random Capitalization.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:44 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#6 jfruh

Do you think she really thinks is last name is Q69? Was she all like “What’s your last name, baby?” and he said “Q69, just like it says on the bus, sugar.”

(Also one of my wife’s co-workers is now in a happy long-term relationship with a man she met because he drove the bus she took to work! I just want to put that out there so that people don’t think all bus drivers are low-down cheating dogs.)

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:46 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #6.1 Nashley
  
  Unleeeeeesssss…
  Just putting THAT out there.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 6:29 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#7 Jason

Right, don’t just have sex. That would be terrible.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:47 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#8 KDW

Oh, these are my favorite!!! You evil, married man, you! How dare you lure me in and sleep with me, even though I knew you were married!?!? I will now get all crazy and psycho because you can’t give me everything I need. Seriously. Find a guy who is not married and work your crazy out on them. I don’t get how women who do this somehow think they have been wronged. You got involved with the married man in the first place!

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:49 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #8.1 Sean Jungian
  
  I don’t think it’s really established that she knew at the outset he was married.
  
  Wait, what am I saying? OF COURSE he was completely honest about that, no married man would ever lie to get sex. Silly me.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 6:35 pm rating: 90
- #8.2 tinkerbell2
  
  Quite so. Not *really* enjoying all the posters who seem to be blaming her for his deception – there’s more than a whiff of ‘she was asking for it’, when it seems clear from the underlining on the note that the discovery of his marital status was what prompted the outburst.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 2:49 am rating: 90
- #8.3 Retrograde Relationship
  
  Well, in my past life as a counsellor, I was always taken aback by the women who just somehow didn’t NOTICE the guy was married….even though there were, shall we say, SIGNS.
  
  These included:
  
  1) Only letting the woman call him on his cell phone, and never at home or at work (this was back when land lines were still popular.)
  
  2) Never, ever being available to see her on a weekend.
  
  3) Rarely being available to see her during the week.
  
  4) Just generally not being available very much for anything except brief rounds of boisterous sexytimes – usually at her place.
  
  5) Being vague about whether he wants/has/or ever had children . (And some of the women would remain willfully ignorant about the guy’s kids with his wife even after the guy drove them around in his car and various forms of kid paraphernalia were around like sippy cups, strollers, etc.
  
  There are often some CLUES — but it’s easy to ignore them when you really like the guy, apparently.
  
  And, no — none of the women I counselled were legally blind or otherwise impaired.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 8:38 pm rating: 90
- #8.4 Suzi
  
  Early on in a relationship though, it’s not exactly a warning sign that he doesn’t spend every second of the week with you. And it’s perfectly possible to claim he has kids, but that they’re part of a no-longer-existent marriage (which would also give him lots of scope for “can’t tonight, baby!”, since he clearly wouldn’t want to introduce his kids to his new girlfriend too early). And with a job that works odd shifts thrown in there, he could pretty much get away with it for long enough to get what he wanted out of it before things started looking off to her.
  
  Aug 8, 2011 at 3:40 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#9 my real name

gee, she seems so nice…not sure why tony didn’t like her!?

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:51 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #9.1 elsie
  
  Are you being passive aggressive?
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 6:15 pm rating: 90
- #9.2 FeRD
  
  Ooh! I think that means we’re supposed to take notes, then!
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 5:04 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#10 Tom

At least this woman knows that your message is not strong in faded marker. Also makes for a more colorful presentation.

Jul 26, 2011 at 5:58 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #10.1 MaroonMD
  
  She clearly threw that marker away for better one.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 10:44 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#11 Patrick

so he’s trying to get women with his Q69 job. Man must be a good smooth talker to be getting women with a transit job.

Jul 26, 2011 at 6:02 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #11.1 johnnyboy
  
  In this economy, still having down a stable union job is a mark of major evolutionary advantage.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 8:05 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#12 abdul

She also deserves a marker that won’t run out on her in a written rant.

Jul 26, 2011 at 6:11 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#13 kristin

Is that note about one of the bus drivers?!?!?!

I live in Astoria and totally take that bus every day…

Jul 26, 2011 at 7:05 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #13.1 Tony's wife
  
  Find Tony and tell him dinner is ready.
  
  Jul 26, 2011 at 10:22 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#14 Lauren

Better still if he writes back and says “What did you EXPECT from a married man?”

Jul 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#15 Lauren

@Kristin: Ask every Q69 driver if his name is Tony. The one who looks horrified will be the guilty party. Take his picture and post it next to the flyer.

Jul 26, 2011 at 7:25 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #15.1 kristin
  
  There’s one driver who I hope it is- this guy looks like a cartoon butler and drives like he’s just spent 4 hours playing GTA and thinks he’s still playing it.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 1:22 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#16 havingfitz

I deserve a man who isn’t going to see this and then immediately run me over with a bus!

Jul 26, 2011 at 7:53 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#17 shwo!

Yes, how dare you accuse the woman who taped big messages all over the bus shelter of wanting attention.

Jul 26, 2011 at 7:59 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #17.1 lily
  
  WIN.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 1:12 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#18 Mrs.Beasley

Egad – T.M.I.!

Jul 26, 2011 at 9:38 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#19 Grant

There’s a queue for his 69?
I guess she really got her ticket punched.
Anyways, I always thought ‘sex without strings’ meant taking the tampon out first.
Back end of a bus…

Really, there’s no end to what one could say about this note!

Jul 27, 2011 at 5:30 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#20 Lauren

There’s more.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/slice/5820360924/

Jul 27, 2011 at 5:41 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #20.1 johnnyboy
  
  Interesting that this different message also does the two-tone marker thing. Either it’s an esthetic approach, or she went through a LOT of markers doing these signs.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 8:02 am rating: 90
- #20.2 FeRD
  
  Well, it’s funny… I was noticing on this one that even though she switched to black, that marker seems like it’s also crapping out by the end of the sign!
  
  I think she’s been buying her markers at some local 99¢ Emporium. In which case I have absolutely no probelm believing they’d run out at the rate of two per sign.
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 5:07 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#21 Jimmy James

“The Tale of Tony Q-69″
I’m torn over whether this sounds like a pulpy sci-fi novel about a cyborg, or if it should become a catchy Jonathan Coulton-esque fractured pop song.

Tony, Tony Q-69
Shoulda known you were a phony when you gave me that line.
Makin’ me think that you cared about us-
I was just another girl on your bus!

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:02 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #21.1 CaptainC
  
  Those two concepts are not at all mutually exclusive.
  
  This was a failure
  I’m making a note here, huge regret
  It’s hard to overstate my rage for you
  Q69 Bus Route
  We drive when we must, because we can
  For the good of all of us,
  Except the ones who are late
  But there’s no sense crying over every time lapse
  We just keep on trucking till we run out of gas
  And we make a neat sign, with the letters all in line
  For the commuters who are still alive…
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 11:45 am rating: 90
- #21.2 CaptainC
  
  Somebody please understand this.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 11:47 am rating: 90
- #21.3 Aaron
  
  I’m not even angry.
  
  I’m being so sincere right now.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 12:27 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#22 Canthz_B

I think it’s about time Tony gets rid of his small pets…or his microwave oven.

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:16 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#23 Canthz_B

No wonder Alice Cramden was so cranky, Ralph was a bus-driving lothario!

BANG! ZOOM!

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:32 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#24 Canthz_B

This is what happens when a woman can’t resist a man in uniform.

Guys who work at McDonald’s get plenty of play too.

Dress to impress.

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:37 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#25 meeper

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our bus route lives.

Jul 27, 2011 at 10:42 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#26 Gwin

Maybe it’s something like this recent story:
http://gothamist.com/2011/06/16/mta_bus_driver_used_sexy_express_bu.php

Jul 27, 2011 at 11:23 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#27 bookworm

Okay, crazy note writer knew that he was married, knew that he was looking for something on the side with no strings attached, and she STILL thinks she deserves something from him?

I’m on team Tony.

Jul 27, 2011 at 11:34 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#28 Kristin

I actually live right by here. This has been going on for a long time. Every time the signs are taken down more are put up. I like to play “will they be here today” on my walk from my apartment to the subway. If they are not there in the morning, sure enough, by my walk home at night-there they are.

Jul 27, 2011 at 11:55 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #28.1 redheadwglasses
  
  If this has been going on for a long time, then the PAN writer needs therapy to get the heck over this guy. Geez. There are plenty of other transit workers out there lookin’ to score some!
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm rating: 90
- #28.2 kristin
  
  Another kristin who lives in Astoria?
  
  Where is the sign posted?
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm rating: 90
- #28.3 Kristin
  
  Hoyt Ave (N) and 21st street.
  
  Yes, another Kristin in Astoria! And I must say, I don’t find many KristIns, mainly KristEns
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 12:11 pm rating: 90
- #28.4 kristin
  
  Oh, that’s pretty close to me! I’m at 21st and Ditmars.
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 2:39 pm rating: 90
- #28.5 Jonathan
  
  I live near there as well on Hoyt and 23rd. I walked by this bus stop about a month ago and saw this sign. I immediately thought of this blog and took a picture of it to send it (but I never got around to it)
  
  Aug 1, 2011 at 1:30 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#29 Crazymissdaisy

You have to be more than stupid to expect commitment from a married man.

STOP FUCKING MARRIED MEN

Jul 27, 2011 at 12:23 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #29.1 Scott
  
  True, but married men need to stop screwing around on their wives too. I’m gay and the MAJORITY of the men who bug me and ask me out turn out to be married to a woman. But I live in TX – the “straight” men here can’t shut the fuck up about homosex so it doesn’t surprise me they’re addicted to it.
  
  Jul 27, 2011 at 2:29 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#30 GhostWriter

“69 singalong link

I got my first real sex fling
Found him on the transit line
Screwed me with no strings attached
He was the driver of Q-69

We had some dates, that’s true
Stripped me bare, then he got real hard
I figured out Tony was married
Should’ve known we’d never go far

Oh, when I look back now
That golden ring upon his finger
Yeah, it shoulda made me wise
Yeah – that he wouldn’t pay attention
That’s how the bus destroyed my life

Ain’t no use in complaining
Now he’s gotta read my signs
He might be a flirty bus driver
But he’s a Married Man!

Sex without the strings attached
You swore you’d give me some attention
but when I heard you on the phone
I knew you were a real smooth talker
You should feel sorry for your wife!

Take that- Tony Q-69!

Jul 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#31 Scott

Who the hell is Tony Q-69 and why the fuck did this woman post this letter all over a bus stop. Do any of those people have any idea what the fuck she’s talking about? LOL That would be like getting pissed at MacDonald’s for forgetting your McNugget sauce then posting a long letter about how much you hate MacDonald’s all over the windows at Burger King. Off her meds?

Jul 27, 2011 at 2:25 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #31.1 FeRD
  
  … … … What the fuckity-fuck? Are you doing some “thing” that’s going completely over my head, or did you completely not read any of the part about how they’re posted on a stop for the Q69 bus in Queens? Which, I’m sure, gives her an audience (as intended) of quite a few people who know exactly what, and who, she’s talking about.
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 5:13 am rating: 90
- #31.2 KOB
  
  Yes, being screwed over by a man who probably didn’t tell you he was married before he broke your heart is EXACTLY like missing McNugget sauce. Tool.
  
  Aug 11, 2011 at 1:28 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#32 Oh Geeeee

Ya know, some folks here are not giving this poor spited lass enough credit – these signs are merely public service announcements meant to warn other innocent young ladies that dashing Tony of the Q69 just cannot be trusted with their hearts. Her dedication to making sure the word gets out, well, it’s touching really. And Tony’s wife should give her a medal for her part in keeping him honest. You go girl!

Jul 27, 2011 at 5:39 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#33 becca

how much do you wanna bet that it’s Tony’s wife (or ex-wife at this point) who keeps putting up those signs just to embarrass him?

Jul 27, 2011 at 7:11 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #33.1 FeRD
  
  Um, I’m sure Tony’s ex/wife has her own (arguably more sympathetic) personalized tale of betrayal she could share, if she was gonna go posting Tony Q69 rants.
  
  Jul 28, 2011 at 5:09 am rating: 90
add to this thread
#34 Lindsey

If she keeps reacting to quasi-relationships like this, then she’s going to be a single (and deserving) women for a long time.

Jul 27, 2011 at 9:21 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
#35 Dr. Chalkwitheringlicktacklefeff

If someone left me a note telling me that I’m a smooth talker who gets laid a lot, I’d feel pretty happy about it for the rest of the day.

Jul 28, 2011 at 5:20 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#36 bizzle

I’ll Never Understand Why People Feel the Need To Capitalize almost every Word.

Jul 29, 2011 at 12:29 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment
- #36.1 quat
  
  bizzle, “every” needs to be capitalized in that sentence. Don’t let us down.
  
  Aug 7, 2011 at 9:20 pm rating: 90
add to this thread
#37 Lindsey

You can tell she’s starting to forgive him because she appears to have switched to Crayola washable markers.

Aug 8, 2011 at 7:08 am rating: 90

reply to this comment
#38 Flexxx

Funny thing is Tony is a alias he gives to these women. I know I would never give my real name if I was bagging women on the bus and I was married. Just saying

Aug 19, 2011 at 8:13 pm rating: 90

reply to this comment