quintessentially brooklyn

i had what must be a quintessentially brooklyn moment last night. it was one of those hot, sticky nights of infinite nastiness, and after several hours locked in my room with the gee-tar, i decided it was "cigarette or die" time. so i trundle on out to the smoking window, light my spirit...and promptly hear a voice from street level.

"hey, you heard anything about timmy?"

timmy is my neighbor, the one from the devonian era. thus, it presumably meant that this voice was directed at me.

"ah...no, not really."

"i hear he's in the hospital. if he is, he's probably not coming out. he's ninety two, you know."

"wow. really?"

and on and on. for the duration of my cigarette, we had a rather nice conversation (at least, as nice as you can get screaming out a second story window to the other side of the street). then i said my goodbyes and went back in.

you know, i once thought it was an exercise in extremism to entertain the notion of conversations yelled up to an open window. obviously, i now know that this sort of thing actually happens. hm!

in other news...

i was looking at one of NYU's new ads on the subway this morning, and i noticed something that bothered me. the tagline on the ads runs a little something like this: "tomorrow's going to be different. so will i."

anybody?

okay, time to bust out the inner grammar snob. were that phrase correct, it would have said "tomorrow's going to be different. so am i."

this is an advertisement for a school.

and lo, i was afraid.