NewYorkNotesThree

I guess I'm going to try a WikiBlog here on this page. I might go back to the old format later.

If this is your first time here, you should start at NewYorkNotes.

On Being a New-Yorker

1. At my company lunch on Friday, I brought up an item I had read in the New York Times by saying, so I saw this piece in the Times yesterday.

Because, of course, if you live in NYC, there is only one Times. You can also refer to the Wall Street Journal as the Journal.

2. I was talking to a friend yesterday, and he was telling me about this great new girl he's been seeing. Nice personality, nice body, lots of fun. Oh, and she also has a huge apartment.

That is such a New Yorker thing to think and say. Would you go out with someone because they had a big apartment? Think about your priorities.

New term overheard at Rudy's, the Hell's Kitchen dive bar we frequent: knuckle up. As in, "hey buster, want to step outside and knuckle up?''

Coincidentally, my mom passed on a story today in which a character used the term chin music. Now I automatically thought that was in the same vein as knuckle up. Turns out it just means talking too much. I like my definition better.

Inheriting the Earth

It started a few months ago... When I opened the cabinet in my kitchen I would occasionally see a little bug running across the Frosted Flakes box.

Now every time I open the cupboard, I see a little bug or two. Tiny things, like an eight of an inch long (I believe that would be 2 millimeters if you were in Canada). I always try to grab them and flush 'em down the toliet. Sometimes I'm successful, but those suckers can really scurry.

Fast forward to today: I get up at my regular time of 6:45 am for work and turn on the light in the kitchen. OMG a 3/4 inch long roach runs across the counter and disappears into a crack. It was feasting on a bit of food that had fallen on the sink.

So you know what those litte bugs were? BABY COCKROACHES. Now every morning when I turn on the lights in the kitchen I will see larger and larger adult cockroaches. Eventually my life will turn in to Joe's Apartment.

Jesus.

General NYC Annoyance for Today

I really hate the term New York Minute for no specific reason. Also, I hear the movie wasn't very good.

Dreamscapes

Last night I had an extrememly vivid dream that I was walking along an urban street. It was sort of a utilitarian street, with perhaps five lanes of traffic one way and medium-tall buildings on either side, maybe 5-8 stories. Everything was sort of worn down, but in a everyday use sort of way, not due to neglect. Every building contained a series fo small businesses on the ground floor.

There were scaffoldings on various blocks, covering the wide sidewalks. The sun was out. For some reason, I was walking behind two men. I didn't know them, but I followed them into a restaurant.

The restaurant served some sort of south american food, with lots of beans and spices.

That's really the whole dream. There wasn't anything unusual about it, really, except the extreme detail and clarity of the surroundings. While I was in the dream I had no idea what city I was in or what the purpose of my walk was.

When I woke up, I thought of this dream and was struck by the alien feel of it all. For a few seconds, I felt I had never been to a place like the one in the dream. Then I realized that altough the specifics of the dream were all jumbled, I was walking down 8th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Everything was different, yet so many of the details were the same - the street, the sidewalk, the buildings were all of a type I experience every day here in New York.

That got me thinking about the familiarity of your environment. If I had had this dream a couple of years ago, I wouldn't have known where it came from. Maybe it's something my mind could have generated from pictures or movies. However, the dissociation I felt during the dream would have continued after I woke up, because it was not a place I had ever actually experienced.

Now, however, I immediately recognized the context of the dream. My mind was simply slicing and dicing my everyday experiences.

The question, I think, is could I have had that dream without living in this environment? Could my mind have created this extrememly detailed environment without my having been exposed to it daily?

Two conclusions: 1. The mind is a mystery. 2. The architecture of New York City is very distinctive.

Engrish in New York

As in any city with a large immigrant population, New York has a lot of creative signage. There are a number of low-rent gift shops on the 8th Avenue border between Hell's Kitchen and Times Square. These are the places you go to buy I <heart> NYC t-shirts for $2 each.

Usually you are walking right in front of these stores, so you don't look up at the canopies. I happened to do so in front of one of these stores yesterday as I was walking home from work. To my befuddlement, the store was named Back Star. What the hell does that mean?

I thought for a minute and figured it out. All the businesses in that area have some sort of "theater" motif too them. There's a Celebrity Diner across the street, and a Stage Door Gift Shop nearby.

This store wanted something similar, so they probably aimed for Back Stage or Star Attraction. Unfortunately, their aim was a little off, so they went with Back Star. Makes perfect engrish sense.

See Engrish! for another take on the creative use of the English language.

Subway Candy Sales

A staple of the subway experience is the candy sales team. This consists of two teenagers selling candy to supposedly support some school or athletic team. They roam up and down the subway cars, giving a pitch and asking everyone to buy candy. The candy is always $1.00.

A curious thing I've noticed is that that they always have the same candy. Invariably, it will be peanut M&Ms and Starburst. Alternately, it might be Almond Joy and Starburst. Every time I've seen kids selling this stuff, its always one of these combinations. I would say it's Peanut M&Ms and Starbusrt 90% of the time.

So what gives here? The only explanation I have is there must be some way that these kids get this particular candy for cheap. Do distributors always have an overstock of these brands? Do peanut M&Ms expire more quickly than other types of candy, leaving a vast supply of candy that would otherwise be thrown away?

If anyone has an explanation for this, please leave it in the comments below.