Exit Seeking and Cuts

New York, November 2010 

All I managed to accomplish this week was to cut Bruce's bangs and the end off my left index finger (photos to follow).

Not at the same time. And the former before the latter. The scissors and the knife were both a little dull, but sharp enough to get the job done. 

This post features snips from that letter I wrote in May 1988 about our first trip together to New York City. 

The Museum of Natural History 

"It's a big taxidermy shoppe... and is revolting. Once stuffed, animals have no dignity, are nothing but trophies; the effect is depressing....

"The strange thing about the MNH was we had trouble getting out of it. New York is a city of unexpected closed exits. Just when you figure you're on your way out of a place, you find a guard telling you to go back the way you came. At the MNH at shortly after two in the afternoon, the revolving doors at the main entrance were locked. A guard directed us to a small side entrance. Several hours before closing, this huge museum let people in and out through only one small, obscure, unmanned portal."

Public Restrooms

"We stopped in a little restaurant for a couple of beers while our host finished her classes. These establishments usually have a single toilet and sink hole-in-the-wall type washroom, never roomy, but clean enough. I believed, therefore, as I went in the direction of the little arrow marked "restrooms" that I would end up not too badly shaken. 

"Once through the first door, I was in an industrial-sized hallway full of pipes, with unwholesome-looking puddles on the grey-painted concrete floor. A fellow who followed me through the first door indicated another as the way to the restrooms. I went through that door, down a flight of metal-treaded stairs, across a dank concrete corridor which extended as far as the eye could see in either direction, up another flight of metal stairs, down a long corridor full of steaming pipes, around a corner, up another five steps and into a huge rectangular room. At its far end, on a wooden platform, stood two Port-a-sans. I estimated I was

about a block away from the restaurant."

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

NYC Veterans Day Parade, November 11, 2010