METROPOLITAN DIARY 'He Stared at the Screen, and Then His Shoulders Slumped'
'Sympathetic words in an elevator, a sign from above and more reader tales of New York City in this week’s Metropolitan Diary.
Condolences
Dear Diary:
I was on an elevator. The door opened and a large man, adorned with rings and chains, got on and took out his phone.
He stared at the screen, and then his shoulders slumped and he let out a disappointed sigh.
“Sorry,” I said.
He looked up, somewhat startled.
“You didn’t do anything,” he said.
“No, I know,” I said. “It just seemed like bad news, whatever it was.”
He smiled.
“Man,” he said with a laugh. “It’s this game. I had a high score, but I clicked out and it reset.”
The elevator stopped at my floor.
“You have a great day,” he said.
“You keep trying,” I said.
“Oh,” he said, holding up his phone, “I will.”
— Hal Ebbott
After Happy Hour
Dear Diary:
I was waiting for the N after meeting some friends for a happy hour downtown. A guy wearing a winter cap and an ornery grin approached me.
“If you’re going to Astoria, I’ve been waiting for that train for almost 45 minutes,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s coming.”
After another minute, we determined that we were headed in a similar direction. We decided to abandon the N and share a car. I was in the middle of calling one when the N pulled up. We shrugged and got on.
I took a seat, assuming the conversation was over. But he asked the woman sitting next to me whether they could switch seats so that we could keep talking.
We continued the conversation, sharing good banter and swapping tales of traveling and teaching English abroad.
We wound up getting off at the same stop, and then hesitated before going our separate ways.
“Should I give you my business card or something?” he said. “I don’t know how this works.”
Laughing, I took his card. I walked home feeling the kind of hope that a chance New York encounter can bring. When I got home, I put the card on my nightstand. I hadn’t decided whether to reach out.
The next morning, I was running late when I got on the train. We were being held at the station. I pulled out the card. The train started moving, and then it stopped again.
Annoyed, I put the card away and looked around to see why the train wasn’t moving. I saw that the doors had been forced open. Stumbling through them was the guy in the cap.
— Katie Perkowski
Comedy Act
Dear Diary:
I was part of the comedy team Edmonds and Curley with Joey Edmonds. In 1969, we flew into New York from Milwaukee to appear on “The Tonight Show.”
We were booked to do a set at a club in the Village on our first night in town. We got a cab and told the driver to take us to the Bitter End.
We didn’t really know the area, so we paid no attention to where he was going.
Finally, the cab came to a stop.
“Here you are,” the driver said.
It was South Ferry. Guess he wasn’t up on club names.
— Thom Curley >>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/nyregion/metropolitan-diary.html?
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