New Yorkers: Nice As a New Yorker, I know that my city is filled with nice people. However, I often forget. It's stories like this that remind me again:

Mr. Littman began distributing hugs -- free -- from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

''At first I thought no one would respond,'' said Mr. Littman, 26, who lives in Manhattan. But on his first Sunday, standing before a giant hand-lettered sign that reads ''Free Hugs,'' Mr. Littman and a friend embraced 200 people in two and a half hours. "There's a lot of war and blood in the world right now,'' he said, ''and this helps to even it out."

Gotta love how NYers react:

''First, I was like totally paranoid,'' said Elizabeth Singer, 48, a psychotherapist who watched Mr. Littman from the distance while her Maltese played in the dog run. ''But he seems to be really happy and generous. Of course, being a New Yorker, you wonder what happy and generous really is.''

Read the whole thing, it's great. It's funny how many people think he has ulterior motives. This article was written over two years ago, and just linked to today from the Morning News, so I have no idea if he is still doing it.  ¶ 3:01 PM