Socrates, Plato & the Poets

"And so, again, I soon came to a realization about the poets, that it wasn’t through wisdom that they wrote what they did, but through some natural faculty, and that they were divinely inspired, just as prophets and oracles are; for they say many beautiful things, but have no idea what they’re talking about."

(Socrates' Apology)

Forgives / encourages, tomato / tomato

He was Spanish and married and looked a little bit like Mark Ruffalo. She was tall and blonde, Brazilian and married. They talked about each others' spouses for a while and when she paid for his drinking they made out on the bar. 

New York is a city that forgives that kind of thing. And how does the song go?

Distance kills the best of intentions... 

Frank's No More: The Barbershop Quartet

I went to a barbershop today and would have given good money if you could have seen it. It was a perfect example of old-school barber's: the glass window on the front, checkered tiling on the floor and classic leather chairs lined up facing an endless speckless mirror.

The place used to be known as Frank's but Sal and Joe, who had always worked there, bought Frank out and are now their own bosses. They don't call it anything for now. It just is.

Sal (short for Salvatore) and Joe (a bastardisation of his name, Giuseppe) were talking about it with an old customer as I came in. Yes, Sal and Joe really dida speak lika this. Although, to be fair, it was mostly Joe who talked. Sal was busy with hot towels and soapy lather and this scarred face of mine.

Back in the good old days: Sal (front) and Frank (back), by http://belmontonian.com/

"Doesn't the wife mind you, Joe? Working six days a week?"
"Minda? Of course she mind." He had a thick raspy voice, like all the Italian guys do in all the old gangster movies. "But what, she needs me to go a shopping with her? She can not shop on her own?"

"And the grandkids?"
"The grandkids I see at night. They stay over the weekenda."

"But it's good for business? I guess if it's good for business, then it's alright. Gotta make sacrifices, right?"
"Good? It's a great. I make more money in two years than I made working for Frank. My whole lifa."

"Nice, Joe, nice!" Americans in general, and New Yorkers in particular, get really excited about money. This guy nearly jumped out of his chair. "How big is your turkey going to be this year? Huge, huh?"
"Bigga." Joe said and then punched the air and twisted his fist around, grumbling something in Italian beneath his long moustache. I didn't understand what he said, but thankfully, neither did the other guy.

"What's that, Joe?" He asked. At which point, Sal wiped the foam off the blade on a towel, leaned over me and translated:
"He's a going to stuff the turkey witha money."

One last stand on the stage

Dylan, photographed by John Cohen

"So I find it very strange that you had such contact with Bob Dylan but never played together, did you? Did you two ever get together to play?"

"There was one time," John Cohen started. "It was 1962 - the Cuban missile crisis."

"It took the Cuban missile crisis for you two to play together?" Nora Guthrie (Woody's daughter, Arlo's sister) said.

 "Literally did. I got home, saw what was happening on TV, and thought this is the end of the world. The thing was, I didn't want to die there all on my own. So I headed over to the Gaslight and Dylan was up on stage. I said, "hey lets play some songs," and he said "sure what you want to play?" I said "You're going to miss me when I'm gone." You see? It was ironic, there was going to be no one to miss us."

Magicians at the Border

"You sure you're not smuggling cocaine? Cocaine or ebola or something?"

"I'm positive."

He starts thumbing my passport, pulling out all the papers that had ended up there: a paper coin for good luck, ticket stubs from old flights, a witch-doctor's flyer.

"Ai, Karamba," he says, puts it down and gets back to my passport. "Is this from Laos? This stamp from Laos?"

He had this NYPD cop thing that made every question mark feel like a finger to the chest or lightbulb in the eyes. I'm thinking this might be a problem but I can't lie or anything, it's right there: LAOTIAN VISA. So I hesitate, but say 'yes, yes it is.' And he goes:

"It's a beautiful stamp." I thank my paper coins and breathe a little easier. "Only problem is it takes a whole page.
"What were you doing there?
"Visiting?
"Alone?
"So I guess you're adventurous?
"Do you sleep under palm trees and stuff?
"And this?" He asks waving the flyer. "Do you call Professor Karamba when you go to Laos? Everytime you fly?"

And out of nowhere he starts translating it. Word for word - almost.

"There are no problems without solution. Spiritualist and scientist. Great medium psychic. Helps solve problems big or small in 7 days like love, failure, depression, business, injustice, marriages." He stops and looks up genuinely impressed. "Oh, wow. He solves sexual impotence too."

Silverstein himself once remarked of his itinerant lifestyle, “Comfortable shoes and the freedom to leave are the two most important things in life.”

The Giving Tree at fifty, by Ruth Margalit in The New Yorker

An Angel at the Rue des Pittas

I asked God how on Earth do you write, or read, a speech for a child that doesn't speak yet. The answer came a lot quicker than I had imagined.

"Tell them we love José Mourinho! Can you tell them? Will you?"

Seems to me the special one has some fans upstairs.

Statue leads us to believe this has always been a welcoming street for the thirsty.