Why I Love Brooklyn

So tonight I was on my way to visit Ken, who does sound production for a local club. 
On the way, a guy stopped me in the street. "Can you help me for a second?"
"Oh great" I thought.
"I manage this store right here" he said "and I have really bad OCD. Can you just check to make sure the two locks on the door are locked for me?" 
I checked the locks, which were locked tight and the metal gate was down.
"They're locked - no problem" I said.
"Thanks" he said. "I have to do this every night."

(Originally posted on facebook on 9/27/12)

So That Explains It

"Until recently, I wasn't aware how completely books dominate my physical existence. Only when I started cataloging my possessions did I realize that there are books in every room in my house, 1,340 in all. My obliviousness to this fact has an obvious explanation: I am of Irish descent, and to the Irish, books are as natural and inevitable a feature of the landscape as sand is to Tuaregs or sand traps are to the frat boys at Myrtle Beach.... When the English stormed the Emerald Isle in the 17th century, they took everything that was worth taking and burned everything else. Thereafter, the Irish had no land, no money, no future. That left them with words, and words became books, and books, ingeniously coupled with music and alcohol, enabled the Irish to transcend reality."

-- from One For The Books by Joe Queenan