this is old but still funnier than my workday

Pick your car wisely

early morning F train

So, it's really early and packed and people are grumpy and it smells like oatmeal-sneaker, and there is a girl in a corner who cannot be older than 15 though I would guess 12 with a little baby in a stroller, the kind wrapped in that sketchy plastic that is rain proof but also, can your child breathe? And in the other corner this boy steps on, and he is the meanest looking boy on the train; blood-shot eyes and an over-sized sweatshirt, his Brooklyn hat is tipped upwards and he is scowling at everyone.

Then this little girl's baby starts crying - she must be super hot under all her blankets and plastic sheeting, but the girl cannot get to her because there are too many people smushed on all sides of her and the stroller (its a sponge bob stroller, it's sort of awesome). The baby keeps crying and it seems like it will just have to cry for a bit, but then the meanest boy on the F train has pushed across from his corner, rolled up the plastic sheet, and is comforting the baby. Then he hands the slightly soothed baby to the girl, who is totally ecstatic by this generosity; her eyes are all shiny and it looks like she might laugh-cry. She comforts the baby who soon stops crying, and then the meanest who is actually the sweetest boy on the F train stands next to her and holds the stroller so she can hold the baby, giving her comfort for the rest of the train ride. And the little girl can't stop smiling ....

There are infinite possibilities for kindness, and they somehow seem more beautiful in the city

-santiago from the train

this poem

we just went to the farmer's market for lunch and i got all these herbs and lentil bread and a tree and potting soil and then we saw a boy with a typewriter giving out free poems. here is the one he gave us (original misspellings included for flavor):


Lavender and her association with the future:

my hands are dry from winter although it is spring./
my mothers hands are craking./
small italian cracks that run up/
and around and penetrate every /
joint./
do you know what this is?/


there is more but maybe i won't write it all out yet.
ps i don't have a camera so i have to use photo booth just deal with it

greentime

Dear New York,

Sometimes you are the best thing in the whole entire world

annie try these -

they are green

RIP W and Z

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/mta-board-meets-to-vote-on-fare-hikes/

N.Y. / Region

City Room: M.T.A. Increases Fares and Cuts Services

By By William Neuman and Jennifer 8. Lee

Published: March 25, 2009

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted to enact a series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke.

Dang- $103 / month = $1236 a year on subway fare aka the most expensive thing I own ...

August 14th.
Prospect Park Bandshell.
Animal Collective.
Epic.

Taco Supreme

I'll believe in anything

If you believe in anything ... (click that)

Strip-Search of Girl Tests Limit of School Policy

By ADAM LIPTAK

Published: March 24, 2009

The Supreme Court will consider how far school officials can go to enforce zero-tolerance drug policies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/us/24savana.html

"drug policies" enforced by the school were for holding ibuprofen pills ie little nuggets of gold for menstruating women. Yeah, I said menstruating. Sometimes I get nostalgic for being young and then I remember that you're not allowed to have Tylenol or pagers or trench coats in school - sometimes school policy is as adolescent as the populations they are handling / oops im humming another brick in the wall ...

Translatable

From a French exchange student, on America, via the splendors of Google Translate:

Cultural data

Coming from the city, it does a shock to me to find myself in the countryside. However it was an excellent experience, I learned to be autonomous, realize the happiness that one lives on a daily basis. What this experience has changed the most in my life is that leon Amricains give the home: even if some say it is superficial, they open their big house their fridge, etc.

Wrap up: the size of an American's refrigerator is proportionate to the size of their heart. Thank christ and pass the pickles.

I'm an old screech owl

Vintage Children's Books - so special:



Illustrated by Sakura Fujita
'The Moon and the Fishes' by Sukeyuki Imanishi. 1972. Gakken.



Illustrated by Mary Blair
'I can fly' by Ruth Krauss. Excerpted in Golden Favorites, Golden Press, New York 1969.



Illustrated by Brian Wildsmith
'A child's garden of verses' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 1966.



Illustrated by Mark Alan Stamaty
'Yellow Yellow' by Frank Asch and. 1971, Angus and Robertson.

More on Flickr

This guy

March 11 and 12 postings- bonus

EnviroSax yaself

Early morning splurge - these bags are super cute and won't leave you feeling like a giant plastic turd after your weekend grocery shopping. Sax are less than $10 and the one I gave my step grandma was coveted by the rest of my family - so holler at this hot Australian sack.

eyecu

25, still alive

Almost Fixed It

A really good example of innovation feeding back into the problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/nyregion/04homeless.html

Other hall of fame innovations turned wrong:

splenda has no calories but it is making you die anyway

hand sanitizer kills bacteria but it is also creating super bacterias that will one day rule our lives


ditto for widespread use of antibiotics

globalism: cheaper skirts and shoes and cars rule. Except how those jobs got exported to India, and the increase of wealth has (surprisingly) not trickled down but rather created a devastating gap between the wealthiest and the poorest of people in these developing nations. Meanwhile, all we can offer is a resounding SOOORRRY to Detroit. Jesus, Detroit, I'm so sorry.



crabapples: a "crabapple" is neither a crab nor an apple. think it out.

chris brown: oh, i think you know.

I've clearly left plenty out, please contribute what you can to this list of almosts.

Inconceivable

Sometimes I read about scary animals coming aboard planet earth's walkable surfaces and can't help wondering about what we are putting out there, and how nature will give it back to us. There is this theory expounded upon in Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World" that humankind pulled ourselves out of the ocean because of the horrific abuses being perpetrated upon us at a microscopic level. Like psychedelic evil. I digress. Walking fish freak me the fuck out. Walking fish creep me like Twitter accounts and Wallace Shawn combined. Be safe out there.

play it cool

santiago + pinto beans 4ever

on kafka

the horrific struggle to establish a human self results in a self whose humanity is inseparable from that horrific struggle.

-David Foster Wallace, 1999

dang

yeah i got yogurt on my pants, what do you want to say?

Oh hey boy

OMG hey hi Fidel,

How RU? I hear U R sick and old. O bummer, dude. Hope U feel better soon. Wondrin if U want to link our blogs. Cupcake TrafficJam y Reflexiones. Or whatever we should jam sumtime. U like Dave? LOL UR beard is pubey.

LLYAS.

-Santiago

Haunts

I've not yet been to Connecticut. All I know about it is this poster at the 7th avenue F and 2 other infamous residents:




















That's the autographed picture of Tony Danza that I got Michael for his 22nd birthday. Would you rather go to Connecticut or Delaware or to someplace safer like Syria? Please explain your choice

tonight

i'm trying to respond to online inquiries, but all i can think about is

this stream of pee turned to thick, golden syrup. i can't wait for dinner