: Subway sophistry :
It was a very uneventful and mostly relaxing weekend for me, a welcome respite from last weekend. Saturday I did all my laundry, including handwashing all my bras (which helps them to last longer), gathered my trash and straightened up the apartment. I also watched Brokeback Mountain in the morning - I'd seen most of it in the theater in Houston, but we had missed the beginning, so I didn't see how Jack and Ennis met.
In the afternoon I went out to the mall for McDonalds and got a Happy Meal - probably the first time in my adult life I'd gotten one. It's one of those little things that I wouldn't have done in my previous life. It came with a toad character we dubbed "Randy" from the movie Flushed Away and we had fun playing with that. In the evening I stayed home and watched movies and read books late into the night.
Sunday I got a slow start and went to the library in the afternoon, then to Burlington Coat Factory to shop for raincoats (since it was raining, and I have only one ugly raincoat that I bought at Old Navy for $10). After about two hours of shopping I found a simple black coat that is quite flattering and form-fitting, and another lightweight jacket that is lime sherbert green and navy trim that is cut with more room for wearing layers underneath. It was also just about the only coat with sleeves long enough where I can actually roll them back a bit without exposing my lower arms. Afterwards I stopped by my family's house to say hello and to drop off some newspaper articles.
I was watching the movie Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy this weekend, and I noticed that the subway train that Akeem chases Lisa onto during the breakup scene after she finds out he's a prince was the E train, the same one I take every day (it goes to Queens, where most of the movie takes place). What's amazing is that every square inch of the train in the 1988 movie was covered in graffitti, whereas today's trains are almost entirely graffitti-free. I don't know if the movie was shot on location and therefore used real trains, but I have few doubts that they were accurate depictions of the trains at that time (otherwise they would get serious heat from New York politicians). It's quite a dramatic change, even after 18 years.
I was riding my subway train this morning when without preamble an old black woman sitting near me started to preach Christian faith in a very loud voice, saying how great God is and how you must accept Jesus and all that. She continued talking like this for four consecutive stops until I got off, and clearly I was not the only one annoyed. At one stop I overheard one woman mutter, "Hallelujah, I'm getting off this train."
It's kind of intrusive how people do that on subways - other more common events are beggars telling their sad stories and looking for handouts or kids trying to sell candy for a fundraiser. If the train is crowded, you can't move away, and usually my rides are so short, it's not worth the bother of getting my iPod out of my bag and plugging in the headphones. While I suppose the alternative is even more disturbing (that people are restricted from speaking out in a public place) I wish people would be more respectful of religious diversity and refrain from such loud public displays that are uninvited, unwelcome and unavoidable.
In the afternoon I went out to the mall for McDonalds and got a Happy Meal - probably the first time in my adult life I'd gotten one. It's one of those little things that I wouldn't have done in my previous life. It came with a toad character we dubbed "Randy" from the movie Flushed Away and we had fun playing with that. In the evening I stayed home and watched movies and read books late into the night.
Sunday I got a slow start and went to the library in the afternoon, then to Burlington Coat Factory to shop for raincoats (since it was raining, and I have only one ugly raincoat that I bought at Old Navy for $10). After about two hours of shopping I found a simple black coat that is quite flattering and form-fitting, and another lightweight jacket that is lime sherbert green and navy trim that is cut with more room for wearing layers underneath. It was also just about the only coat with sleeves long enough where I can actually roll them back a bit without exposing my lower arms. Afterwards I stopped by my family's house to say hello and to drop off some newspaper articles.
I was watching the movie Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy this weekend, and I noticed that the subway train that Akeem chases Lisa onto during the breakup scene after she finds out he's a prince was the E train, the same one I take every day (it goes to Queens, where most of the movie takes place). What's amazing is that every square inch of the train in the 1988 movie was covered in graffitti, whereas today's trains are almost entirely graffitti-free. I don't know if the movie was shot on location and therefore used real trains, but I have few doubts that they were accurate depictions of the trains at that time (otherwise they would get serious heat from New York politicians). It's quite a dramatic change, even after 18 years.
I was riding my subway train this morning when without preamble an old black woman sitting near me started to preach Christian faith in a very loud voice, saying how great God is and how you must accept Jesus and all that. She continued talking like this for four consecutive stops until I got off, and clearly I was not the only one annoyed. At one stop I overheard one woman mutter, "Hallelujah, I'm getting off this train."
It's kind of intrusive how people do that on subways - other more common events are beggars telling their sad stories and looking for handouts or kids trying to sell candy for a fundraiser. If the train is crowded, you can't move away, and usually my rides are so short, it's not worth the bother of getting my iPod out of my bag and plugging in the headphones. While I suppose the alternative is even more disturbing (that people are restricted from speaking out in a public place) I wish people would be more respectful of religious diversity and refrain from such loud public displays that are uninvited, unwelcome and unavoidable.
