Christmas Day
Got to Park Slope early and so had time to kill before storytelling mogul Sherry Weaver's annual buffet dinner and party. I figured I'd hang out in McDonald's (nothing says Christmas, like...) and read the paper or something but McDonald's wasn't open. (Not even McDonald's?) Turned the corner and discovered something, unexpectedly, was open -- Smith's Bar, a fixture in the area since the 1930s.
At the bar were mostly old men; regulars. The bartender was a fresh-faced kid.
A little table near the bathrooms (interesting choice) had turkey and ham and what looked like eggplant parmagiana (pronounced -- around here, anyway -- eggplant parma- jhon).
The old men discussed world affairs and changing manners and probably everything else under the sun. There was a sports channel on TV and I talked (listened, really) to a guy who coulda been 70 -- might not even be 60 -- but came across largely as an old man.
He was a lifelong Slope resident who's lived in the same apartment for 50 years and has the lowest rent in his building (protected by a law that doesn't even apply to the newer tenants including his cousin, who moved in a few years after him). He's seen the area through changing ethnicities, drugs, crime, yuppies, hipsters, and general gentrification and still walks daily between the bars he has frequented for a lifetime.
Talking to him was a guided trip through the history of a neighborhood I've known well only recently and it made the day special in a way I could never have expected. It also set the tone for the day, as AJL Christmas '06 could accurately be subtitled "An Old Man Christmas", despite the fact that, at Sherry's party, my preoccupation was, as always, me.
In this case, said preoccupation manifested itself as a focus on holding in my stomach so I wouldn't look (too) fat. Unfortunately, the sucking/pulling/pushing in/up served mostly to limit my general mobility and eliminate the cat-like gracefulness I'd like to believe is otherwise my trademark. Fortunately, I ended up talking to a woman (the wife of monologist Mike Daisey) who was somewhat less self-obsessed, during which time my self-obsession 'caused me to wonder who she was looking at while she was talking to (and should have been looking at) me.
I turned to see a, maybe 70ish, overweight man who looked, except for the fact that his eyes were kind of open, like he might have been dead. His answers to my questions about his well-being (he was weak, in pain, etc) ultimately led me to talk him into going -- immediately -- to the emergency room to get checked out. He'd intended to wait 'til his eye doctor appointment the next day to seek help but I pointed out the priority at this point was making sure he was alive to make that appointment.
Others helped with the gentle coercion and an ambulance was finally called in. As of yesterday, he was in Beth Israel Hospital getting tests and, who knows, maybe I helped save his life. (Get well soon, Herb.)
True meaning of Christmas, wouldn'tja say? Helping your fellow man and all that?
And on top o'that, I got to sing songs from "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" with comic/burlesque performer/storyteller/Latin temptress Michele Carlo.
Great chocolate cake too!
__________________________________
28 December, 2006 @ 19:47 GMT
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/andrewjlederer
At the bar were mostly old men; regulars. The bartender was a fresh-faced kid.
A little table near the bathrooms (interesting choice) had turkey and ham and what looked like eggplant parmagiana (pronounced -- around here, anyway -- eggplant parma- jhon).
The old men discussed world affairs and changing manners and probably everything else under the sun. There was a sports channel on TV and I talked (listened, really) to a guy who coulda been 70 -- might not even be 60 -- but came across largely as an old man.
He was a lifelong Slope resident who's lived in the same apartment for 50 years and has the lowest rent in his building (protected by a law that doesn't even apply to the newer tenants including his cousin, who moved in a few years after him). He's seen the area through changing ethnicities, drugs, crime, yuppies, hipsters, and general gentrification and still walks daily between the bars he has frequented for a lifetime.
Talking to him was a guided trip through the history of a neighborhood I've known well only recently and it made the day special in a way I could never have expected. It also set the tone for the day, as AJL Christmas '06 could accurately be subtitled "An Old Man Christmas", despite the fact that, at Sherry's party, my preoccupation was, as always, me.
In this case, said preoccupation manifested itself as a focus on holding in my stomach so I wouldn't look (too) fat. Unfortunately, the sucking/pulling/pushing in/up served mostly to limit my general mobility and eliminate the cat-like gracefulness I'd like to believe is otherwise my trademark. Fortunately, I ended up talking to a woman (the wife of monologist Mike Daisey) who was somewhat less self-obsessed, during which time my self-obsession 'caused me to wonder who she was looking at while she was talking to (and should have been looking at) me.
I turned to see a, maybe 70ish, overweight man who looked, except for the fact that his eyes were kind of open, like he might have been dead. His answers to my questions about his well-being (he was weak, in pain, etc) ultimately led me to talk him into going -- immediately -- to the emergency room to get checked out. He'd intended to wait 'til his eye doctor appointment the next day to seek help but I pointed out the priority at this point was making sure he was alive to make that appointment.
Others helped with the gentle coercion and an ambulance was finally called in. As of yesterday, he was in Beth Israel Hospital getting tests and, who knows, maybe I helped save his life. (Get well soon, Herb.)
True meaning of Christmas, wouldn'tja say? Helping your fellow man and all that?
And on top o'that, I got to sing songs from "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" with comic/burlesque performer/storyteller/Latin temptress Michele Carlo.
Great chocolate cake too!
__________________________________
28 December, 2006 @ 19:47 GMT
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/andrewjlederer
posted by Andrew J. Lederer at 3:12 PM
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