service with a smile

you know what i like? more than like . . . appreciate. you know what i appreciate? the bodega downstairs will order things specifically for various neighbors. ken walks in and brevin (that's his actual name, despite the fact that many neighbors call him "bob") knows that ken will get a pint of mac brittle and a big grape vitamin water. ken is the only person who buys these things on a regular basis. and by "regular basis," i mean "everday." these items get re-stocked purely for ken's consumption. today i walked in to check once more for the cereal i've recently decided to love. sigh. again. it wasn't there. i asked brevin if he'd be getting more in. and he replied, "oh, is that the kind you want? well, then i'll order more for you." it is this kind of service that creates the feeling that it's more like the neighborhood pantry than the neighborhood catch-all bodega.

translation

today i was walking on st. mark's and passed a young black woman and a young asian man walking together. and i overheard the woman saying to the man, "oh yeah! and racist." the man repeated the word, as if taking a lesson, "rac-ist." she asked him, "do you know what racist is?" and with a studious look, he shook his head. then they were out of eye- and ear-shot. apparently the young woman was familiarizing the young man with the american way of life.

reading material

i was taking the 3 train to see a friend uptown and noticed a woman in her mid-thirties. with a large duane reade shopping bag. reading a book. not a terribly unlikely situation. except when i looked to see what book had her so entranced i realized what captured her attention. "An Urban Erotic Tale by Noire" entitled "G-Spot." and there was a naked woman, ahem, artfully portrayed next to this title. the reading woman never once looked up during our long trek uptown.

tickles his pickle

i met a friend of mine for lunch at a local greasy spoon called "Cozy Soup N Burger". actually she had lunch, i had a sundae. and the first one had a hair in it, so the waiter - after using my spoon to dig around and retrieve the hair - brought me a second one from a FRESH ice cream container that he'd JUST OPENED himself. anyway. we'd had our eye on these two girls on the other side of the partition from us. one had probably the largest hamburger i'd ever seen. it was distractingly large. well at the end of our meal (or whatever) we were glancing over to their table - not sure why - and realized this random guy dressed in many layers but not looking homeless per se who had been circling the restaurant briefly paused at the girls' table and asked one if she was going to eat her pickle. now admittedly this was a hell of a pickle. i mean, i almost asked the same question he did. he just beat me to it. and, in response, the girl just sorta shook her head and nonchalantly handed him the pickle. he munched on it as he walked away. and the two girls continued talking as if nothing had happened. my friend was offended that he'd simply walked passed her pickle without inquiry.