tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1222936 2009-12-26T03:52:22-06:00 New York to Michoacán and somewhere in between TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012876814740970c 2009-12-26T03:52:22-06:00 2009-12-26T03:57:33-06:00

A man on a flight yesterday from Amsterdam to Detroit initially was believed to have set off fireworks as the plane was landing, but now authorities are saying that he was trying to set off an explosive device. As to which extremist organization the suspect, a 23 year old Nigerian man named Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, may have been associated with, an article in yesterday’s New York Times stated: Although Mr. Abdulmutallab is said to have told officials that he was directed by Al Qaeda, the counterterrorism official expressed caution about that claim, saying “it may have been aspirational.” Aspirational? Are you kidding me? I think of that word more in the context of a child aspiring to grow up to be an astronaut or a scientist that cures some horrible disease. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “aspiration” as "a strong desire to achieve something high or great." Wanting to be associated with...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/aspirational.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a7722972970b 2009-12-22T09:59:56-06:00 2009-12-22T10:03:59-06:00

Tis the season . . . to be getting links on how to make the world a better place. Like this video from Starbucks. All ya gotta do is drink Starbucks coffee and you’ll be saving lives in Africa. Doing good deeds has become a whole lot easier since the rise of the Internet. Send an email here, view a video there, and you’re done! At the risk of going against this trend, I’ve decided that my New Year’s resolution for 2010 will be to get involved with an organization that supports U.S. troops and/or veterans. Yes, I know, this involves more than sitting like a slab of rotting cheese in my seating while I click on various web links to support various causes, but it might be just worth going out for a little fresh air. And, with our soldiers doing fifth and sixth tours of duty in Iraq,...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/my-new-years-resolution.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a76d7984970b 2009-12-21T08:04:07-06:00 2009-12-21T08:04:07-06:00

Quality medical care for less. Technorati Tags: health care, dentistry, physicians, Mexico

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/one-more-reason-to-run-for-the-border.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a76111f4970b 2009-12-17T18:28:17-06:00 2009-12-17T18:28:17-06:00

Over at The Immoral Minority, published where surely the North Pole is within sight on a clear day, Santa has been rescued from the thrashing he’s been given by both the politically correct and the religious right. Maybe it is time that we restore him, his goodness and cheer during the world’s day off. There’s a lot more unity in gathering ‘round good ol’ Saint Nick than passing around a baby doll for everyone to kiss. Like this image? Let’s give credit to Prefiero soñar despierto for that. Technorati Tags: Navidad, Christmas, Santa Claus

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/sacrificing-santa.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef01287654b6d7970c 2009-12-14T20:49:20-06:00 2009-12-14T20:49:20-06:00

Technorati Tags: Paul Rudnick, Tips for the Sensitive Christian, Christmas

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/can-you-sing-silent-night-in-hebrew.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef01287630f740970c 2009-12-08T10:35:51-06:00 2009-12-08T10:35:51-06:00

Bill Clinton was the Man from Hope, and Obama was The Audacity of Hope. In between those two came Vicente Fox’s Revolution of Hope. Hope never let any politician down. Hope is right up there with kissing babies and handing out party favors. I’ll never forget arriving at La Soledad, an elegant resort in the old colonial silver city of Morelia, more like a hill town in Tuscany with its ancient vine-covered aqueducts and gracious cathedrals. —Revolution of Hope, Vicente Fox and Rob Allyn Morelia’s old, and it’s colonial, but Taxco and Guanajuato it’s not. If there’s any silver here, it has yet to be discovered. Since when have Morelia’s aqueducts been covered with vines? Is there more than one cathedral in Morelia? Technorati Tags: Revolution of Hope, Vicente Fox

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/devolution-of-memory.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0128762e6caf970c 2009-12-07T20:35:58-06:00 2009-12-07T20:35:58-06:00

So along comes this free product that makes web pages with tiny type or which are cluttered with too many ads remarkable easy to read. Go to Readability and add their free bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark toolbar. The next time you come across a difficult to read webpage, simply click on Readability’s bookmarklet and the webpage immediately will be transformed to very readable text without all of the ads. The transformation is remarkable and will change the way you browse the Internet. Technorati Tags: readability,bookmarklet,web browsing

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/an-entirely-new-way-to-browse-the-internet.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0128762cdde2970c 2009-12-07T18:25:53-06:00 2009-12-08T10:44:13-06:00

They call it the religion of death, the cult of criminals, narcos and riff-raff. The Catholic Church doesn’t much like it, and neither does the government. All of this sounds suspiciously like a cult that started some two thousand years ago, doesn’t it? That’s Santa Muerte for you. So, it was the day before Day of the Dead, and we’ve seen everything new there was to see in Patzcuaro. It was time to do some exploring, and we went off to the tiny burg of Santa Ana, nestled along the winding road between Patzcuaro and Erongaricuaro. On the lake side of the road sits a small chapel dedicated to Santa Muerte, and we went in, not knowing what to expect. We were taken aback by what we saw. And fascinated. The chapel was filled with a refreshing sense of faith, mixed in with caring, devotion, and humor – more so...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/12/matters-of-faith.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012875e1dd1d970c 2009-11-26T23:57:21-06:00 2009-11-27T06:36:33-06:00

So I was celebrating Thanksgiving Day with some family tonight and the discussion got around to technology, which I always enjoy. We were chatting about simulations of reality, from Second Life to the Star Trek Holodeck. At some point I threw out a question/concept that I have been thinking about for some time: What is reality’s bandwidth? In other words, how much bandwidth would be needed to simulate a particular reality, say the living room in which I was sitting this evening, with the furniture, walls, floor, lighting, and sounds? Let’s forget for the moment simulating the feelings of the surrounding surfaces and objects – that technology is presented in the Holodeck on Star Trek, but it simply too far from development today to even attempt to quantify. I think that it would be hard enough to quantify the bandwidth required to simulate sights and sounds that appeared to be...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/realitys-bandwidth.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012875dbdff3970c 2009-11-25T17:05:55-06:00 2009-11-25T18:42:38-06:00

Sure, you’ve seen Un Chien Andalou. But what about a Perro Caliente Sonorense? Feed your frankfurter fantasies right here. It’s the stuff Mexican people like. Except for me. Let’s just call it Hermosillo’s Revenge. Mandatory FTC-mandated disclosure: Oscar Meyer did not give Staring at Strangers a free hot dog or anything of value. No dogs were injured in the publication of this blog. Technorati Tags: hot dog, frankfurter, Sonora, wiener

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/the-wondrous-world-of-wieners.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012875d49d1a970c 2009-11-24T19:06:43-06:00 2009-11-24T19:06:43-06:00

Straight from today's Wall Street Journal: Mexicans eat more ketchup by sales value than consumers in all but eight other countries. Many of them slather the thick red sauce on chicken, pasta and eggs—even pizza. At the start of 2007, U.S. ketchup giant H.J. Heinz Co. held less than 1% of the Mexican ketchup market. In fact, Mexico was such a low priority that Heinz had fewer than 10 salespeople in the country, which is nearly three times as large as Texas. Heinz plans to boost their market share up to 12% – twelve times what it is today – after having “overlooked Mexico while chasing sales in China, Russia, Indonesia and other emerging markets,” according to the Heinz Chief Executive William Johnson. Overlooked Mexico? Well the hell with them! Have they seen the Mexico video? Does China or Russia have a video like that? Not likely, no sir! So...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/watch-out-mexico-here-comes-the-ketchup-tsunami.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012875caa085970c 2009-11-23T10:22:52-06:00 2009-11-23T10:28:56-06:00

54 eggs 2 jars of minced garlic 15 pounds of ground turkey 5 huge bags of stuffing cubes 4 giant bags of mixed vegetables 3 bags of shredded cheddar cheese 6 cans of Alpo prime cuts 3 large bottles of olive oil a large sack of dog food That’s what Clark Kent and his pack at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch over in the Hill Country of Texas will be eating on Thanksgiving day. And poor little Goodman, the Nearly Perfect Doberman, will just have to make do with the same old dog risotto he has to eat day in, day out. But since he’s Mexican, Thanksgiving is just another day to him. Technorati Tags: Cousin Nancy, dog rescue, Utopia Animal Rescue

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/a-dogs-dinner-in-utopia.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a6bed5f1970b 2009-11-20T21:05:57-06:00 2009-11-25T18:44:18-06:00

The Anonymous Lawyer Jeremy Blachman gets this book deal from his blog detailing the nefarious dealings at a nefarious BigLaw firm in some big city. Christian Lander takes note of Stuff White People Like, and that lands him a book deal. And I’ve heard from good authority that there was a time when the guy didn’t even like being white. Julie Powell starts cooking and writes about her relationship with Julia Childs, who hated her when she found out. But that’s not important, since Julie got a book deal and a movie out of the concept. And another book dealing about butchering and having an affair. Then, shades of Walter Miller’s Home Page, Justin Halpern starts Twittering about ShitMyFatherSays, and he lands a book deal within a month. And all the while, Staring at Strangers gets nothing. But then, who would really be interested in lawyers, Astoria, Queens, Mexico, and...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/blogging-leads-to-bucks.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef012875a9d49a970c 2009-11-16T14:26:56-06:00 2009-11-16T14:26:56-06:00

Many ask me what life is like in Mexico. We move in slow motion amid Technicolored landscapes wearing bright-colored clothing while symphonies supply the background noise. Nature’s bounty hold us in constant rapture. We are a passionate people, you see. The rest of the time we simply engage in our national pastime of smiling. That is, when we’re not breaking into dance at the drop of a hat. And we do a sweeping curtsy before Jason Dormady’s Secret History: Reflections of Latin America for sharing the secret lives of Mexicans with the rest of the world. Technorati Tags: Mexico, Jason Dormady, Mexican tourism

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/secret-lives-under-the-volcano.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a6a52369970c 2009-11-03T12:28:31-06:00 2009-11-03T13:37:40-06:00

As we sat over breakfast on the day before the Day of the Dead at La Surtidora, overlooking Patzcuaro’s Plaza Grande, I thought aloud “I get to wake up in Michoacán 365 days a year, and I’m thankful for that. Look at these tourists, the poor souls, who only get to do so a few days here and there.” Telling myself that I wasn’t going to buy any artesania this year, partly because I’ve collected enough and mostly because money is in short supply, in less than thirty minutes, I broke my pledge in the Ocumicho aisle where an embroidered velvet apron just had my name on it. Deploying my new routine of offering 60% of the asked price and just once, I let the fates decide whether it would go home with me or not. Within minutes, the vendor found me and accepted my price. No, I’m not going...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/11/everyone-needs-a-velvet-apron.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a63641b0970b 2009-10-29T13:54:38-06:00 2009-10-29T13:54:38-06:00

Mexico is at war with more than just the narcos. It’s not a real good idea for women in nearly half the country to become pregnant against their will. Technorati Tags: abortion, pregnancy termination, Mexico, right to life

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/10/the-right-to-life-rages-on.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a6281e25970b 2009-10-28T06:00:12-06:00 2009-10-28T06:03:16-06:00

Last Sunday was a beautiful. No rain, moderate temperatures, and a sun shining benevolently down from the heavens. So, while I was first planning to go to my office to do some work, I decided instead to ride my bike, which I hadn’t ridden since coming to Astoria. My bike had sat in my apartment with two flat tires for weeks until I got these CO2 cartridges which filled them up in seconds. So I was ready to go, just waiting for the right day. Sunday was that day. Off I went down Ditmars Boulevard, with my helmet on and the wind in my face. I had gone about 6 blocks when one of those private car service cabs turned right in front of me, causing me to slam on my brakes and collide with the rear end of the cab. A hissing noise rose up above the traffic sounds...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/10/journey-to-astoria-a-lesson-for-the-world.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a67326ab970c 2009-10-24T17:57:31-05:00 2009-10-24T18:01:35-05:00

With the world economy just beginning to recover from the worst downturn since the 1929 depression, Microsoft’s release of Windows 7 has dealt a crippling blow to its nascent recovery. Nations were caught unaware as millions of buyers of this latest upgrade of Microsoft’s operating system took days at their offices and homes to struggle with the installation of Windows 7 onto their computers, thereby causing a major disruption of large segments of the economy, including the restaurant, film, theater and travel industries as people cancelled plans because they were drawn away to resolve all of the issues which have arisen with this operating system upgrade. “I thought it would take an hour, maybe two, to get this up and running, but I’m into my second day of this and still haven’t gotten all of the kinks out of it,” said Robert Morrison, a New York lawyer. “So I had...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/10/windows-7-release-cripples-worldwide-economic-recovery.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5cbc491970b 2009-10-07T18:46:33-05:00 2009-10-07T19:16:52-05:00

All over the world, foodies are wringing their hands over the demise of Gourmet magazine. They apparently forgot the day when Connoisseur folded itself into Gourmet, more than a decade and a half or ago. Some probably don’t even remember Laurie Colwin’s column in Gourmet. Frankly, I’m tired of food magazines. In the bodega are several boxes filled with old Gourmet magazines, and they read not much differently than last month’s. I’m tired of hearing people wax on about slow food, eating locally, politically correct food, and molecular gastronomy. Just don’t get me started on the vegans, or I may write something I’ll regret later. I’d much rather read food literature, about culinary disasters, and food science and throw a piece of meat on the fire. And then I finally came across a recipe that I’d been searching for, well, for a long time. I knew that it had appeared...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/10/the-villa-montaa-and-salad-dressing.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5c687b3970b 2009-10-06T16:05:31-05:00 2009-10-06T16:08:07-05:00

Little bottles are showing up in Manhattan office buildings. The oddest appearance which I saw was in an office building on Seventh Avenue, where there was a bottle on a stand in each of the elevators. And finally it has appeared in my office building. I walked in this morning and there it was by the guard station - the bottle on the stand which served as a silent reminder of a city’s fear. Fear of what, you ask? Fear of the swine flu, of course. Someone thought that placing little bottles of hand sanitizers all over Manhattan will slow the spread of the H1N1 swine flu. So I am seeing bottles of Purell in more and more office buildings. My cynical mind thinks that this scheme was dreamed up by the company which makes Purell. But there is logic to the plan, because the major entryway for germs into...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/10/invasion-of-manhattan.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5ff3cea970c 2009-09-29T09:06:49-05:00 2009-09-29T09:09:13-05:00

Here’s a critical contribution to the health care debate from Rob Kutner, our favorite writer for The Tonight Show (well, the only writer for The Tonight Show that I happen to know): We value humor far more than health care, any day of the week. Technorati Tags: Rob Kutner, The Tonight Show, health care

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/healthy-values.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5dc7909970c 2009-09-20T22:35:40-05:00 2009-09-20T22:38:55-05:00

I keep finding examples of how Astoria is very different than my former home of Manhattan. There’s the obvious of a less frenetic pace and a more neighborhood feel. But then there are the other, smaller differences. Walking out of Astoria Park today after enjoying some of the beautiful weather we’ve been getting (okay, I’m sure that they had beautiful weather in Manhattan today as well), a small boy of maybe 10 years old and four feet high walked up to me and said, “Can I use your cell phone?” The little alarms which I’ve developed as a city dweller for all these years went off inside of me, conjuring up all kinds of troubling possibilities. Could he be a runner for some illegal activity, and wanted to use my phone to make an untraceable call? If it wasn’t related to something illegal, then what about the recipient of this...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-culture-shock.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5d8bf08970c 2009-09-18T22:37:49-05:00 2009-09-18T22:37:49-05:00

This past week while in Manhattan at work, I stopped at a drugstore to buy a replacement 9 volt battery for my apartment’s smoke alarm detector. I was a bit annoyed that the drugstore only sold 9 volt batteries in two packs since I only needed one, which would probably last for about 6 months to a year, but I decided to buy the two pack anyway instead of having to spend more time finding a store that sold 9 volt batteries individually. On my way home that night I saw Patrick whom I described in an earlier post. Patrick is a local resident of Astoria who plants his telescope out on a sidewalk on Ditmars Boulevard and invites nighttime strollers to take a look at the brightest things in the sky that night. I have stopped several times to take a look at his telescope, including a couple of...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-a-return-to-the-moons-of-jupiter.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5c999bf970c 2009-09-15T22:18:08-05:00 2009-09-17T04:11:29-05:00

Astoria is chock full of neighborhood places where good friends get together to hang out and enjoy an evening. McCann’s on Ditmars Boulevard is just such a place, and this past weekend I decided to pay it a visit. Originally I was going to go on a pub crawl organized by a group on Why Leave Astoria?, the social networking site you want to join if you’ve moved to Astoria and have a pulse. Unfortunately the pub crawl event fell thru, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin a night of drinking, so I had heard about McCann’s and decided that this would be a perfect time to visit, especially since it’s only 10 blocks away from where I live. There are plenty of great reviews of McCann’s on the web, and the place doesn’t disappoint (at least not the night I went). It’s a fabulous Irish bar with...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-my-night-at-mccanns-pub-grill.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a5c795df970c 2009-09-15T10:11:21-05:00 2009-09-15T10:14:30-05:00

There’s no holiday season anywhere quite like Mes de la Patria. On September 16, we celebrate the Mexican Day of Independence. Cinco de Mayo isn’t our independence day. We are celebrating our independence from Spain on that day—not our independence from the United States. Please, dear gringo friends, learn this much. Don’t make me explain it to you over and over again. It’s really more than just a celebration of independence. Think instead of the Estadounidense 4th of July, Rosh Hashanah, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve all rolled into one. Even though Costco’s Christmas merchandise has been out on its shelves since the first week of August, the red, white and green decorations you see everywhere are not in celebration of Christmas. Those happen to be the national colors of Mexico, and bunting festoons practically every street and store. While chiles en nogada is the dish most associated with the...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/viva-mexico.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a56ff58d970b 2009-09-14T23:59:07-05:00 2009-09-15T00:04:03-05:00

The stories about Astoria keep piling up, so I’m attempting here to catch up a bit. The evening of the same Saturday that I attended synagogue in the morning, I found myself walking down Steinway Street thru the section that is filled with hookah bars, with men sitting on the sidewalks around small tables, and I felt as though I had wandered into some Middle Eastern country. I was hungry and so was looking for some place to eat, and while I would have enjoyed some Middle Eastern food, most of the restaurants had music blasting out of them and I would have preferred something quieter. Finally, I came near the end of the street where there were no more hookah bars, but there was one small restaurant which had no music, so I stepped inside. The place was completely empty, save a woman sitting at a table watching a...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-the-evening-of-the-same-day.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a562c025970b 2009-09-10T21:46:43-05:00 2009-09-10T21:46:43-05:00

On Saturday I decided to attend services at the local synagogue. I figured that this would be a good way to get familiar with another part of the local Astoria community. I found a conservative synagogue which was about a 15 minute walk from my home and set off late in the morning dressed in a nice shirt, pants and shoes. No sneakers and t-shirt for a house of worship. My timing was a bit calculated. Jewish Saturday morning services usually go for 2-3 hours, starting at 9:30 am. My late morning departure resulted in me arriving considerably later than 9:30 am. I arrived at the synagogue, opened the door and walked across an entrance hall to the door of the main sanctuary. It’s at this point in my story that I must inform you, dear reader, that it had been a while since I had been in a synagogue,...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-the-present-becomes-the-past-becomes-the-future.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a551e5a9970b 2009-09-06T22:30:01-05:00 2009-09-06T22:39:22-05:00

A few nights ago I was coming home late to my new home in Astoria. I was walking down Ditmars Boulevard from the train station, and a couple blocks down the street I saw a crowd on the corner. As I got closer I could see that there was a telescope set up on a tripod, one of those thick, short round ones that are used to view the night sky, and there was a guy giving people a look at the heavens above Astoria. I love astronomy. It was the first thing I remember wanting to do as a young child, look at the stars in the sky. It seemed to me to be the most wonderful way to spend my time, and I believed then that this was how you decided what you wanted to do when you grew up. As I approached, one of the "audience members"...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria-meet-the-neighbors.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a54aab01970b 2009-09-05T00:42:25-05:00 2009-09-05T00:45:36-05:00

Two weeks ago I moved to Astoria, located in the borough of Queens, NY, after living on the island of Manhattan for 27 years. I’ve always enjoy the convenience of living in Manhattan, but the move out to Astoria was not a big deal for me, notwithstanding the bit of Manhattan snobbery I possessed like most of my fellow island dwellers. I’m embarrassed to say that whenever I boarded a subway train pulling in from one of the outer boroughs I used to look at the people on the train and think, “What losers, they don’t live in Manhattan.” Now I am one of those people riding on that train, and my thinking is entirely different. Instead of considering myself and my new neighbors from Astoria as losers, when the train pulls into Manhattan I look at the people boarding the train and think, “Ha, these people have no idea...

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/09/journey-to-astoria.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341d050a53ef0120a52a8b28970b 2009-08-28T09:39:06-05:00 2009-08-28T09:39:06-05:00

Watch this one all the way thru - it's got a very cute ending. Technorati Tags: Wi-Fi, prostitutes, humor

Staring at Strangers http://staringatstrangers.typepad.com/staring_at_strangers/2009/08/wi-fi-signals-as-prostitutes-spoof.html