Here's what happened to me at about 10 p.m. Saturday night. Walking home from the subway, I pass a seemingly well dressed woman walking gingerly down the center of the street. She murmurs, half to herself, "I don't really know where I'm going." As I walk past her, she stops, and shouts venomously, "What the fuck is wrong with you that you won't stop and give directions."

Aside from raising the obvious retort, "Well, you didn't ask me for directions," that story nicely illustrates two things I don't like about city living. First, it makes you the kind of person that ignores old ladies who seem lost in the middle of the night. As I walked past this woman Saturday night, that thought flashed through my head. The second, and even sadder thing this event shows you about city living is that you are right to be the kind of person that ignores old ladies who seem lost, because, more likely than not, they are not lost little old ladies, but are instead foul-mouthed hags looking to con you out of $20.

I need a vacation.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 2:40 PM