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Behind Everyman Mailbag



Sunday, February 20, 2005

Subway Giveaway Winner

It seems like the caliber of reading material being
handed to me after emerging from the subway each
morning is getting better and better. It used to be
flyers for non-kosher restaurants which i would spit
on, then fulan gong (?) propaganda, free newspapers,
and then one morning last week, an author of a book
handed me his book, with eye contact and everything! I
won't be shocked if this upcoming week, soemone hands
me the dead sea scrolls or nostradamus hands me a
decade long forcast. Anyway, I read the book and I
enjoyed it a lot. Its funny and sweet.
I have a subway story that I think is funny, but Im
not sure if it coheres with what youre looking for...
So I'm on my way to work, sitting on the train next to
an ageless asian guy but possibly middle aged, who is
into some sort of video game on this state of the art
gaming something or other. He is totally in the zone.
The train stops at a certain stop, at it is wont to
do, and a guy jumps on the train and rips the
videogame thing out of the guys hands and run out and
down the platform with it. The asian guy, without a
split second of delay, goes right out after his
precious gaming device and tears out of the train
after the guy, leaving his briefcase, etc. Right
before the train doors close again, he runs right back
in with his videogame, sits right back down and
seemingly picks up his game right where he left off.
All this even happened too quickly for me to process,
but a minute later I got it. I guess when our most
precious possessions are threatened, our flight or
flight kicks in on some subconcious level we do what
we need to do! Or maybe frequent videogaming hones
your reflexes. In any case, it was really
unbeleivable.

Rebecca Klein
New York City