Wednesday, January 21, 2004
chew, swallow.
the train is so freaking packed, and then another person gets on. we are like the individual small tubes of meat in ground beef. being in the train is like being in meatloaf. the train slows, is approaching a stop, still moving, and two women behind me say, "excuse me."
in new york, "excuse me" is not a question, it's not an apology or even the cognate to, "hey, could you shove over?" it's a card you play. it's something you say that forces an action on someone else. you can be quizzically examining prices in front of the cheese counter at one of manhattan's overcrowded supermarkets, and hear someone say, "excuse me," behind you--and you move over. so that this other person can stand where you stood and similarly block all views of the cheese counter. you wait until she leaves and then you "excuse me" the person who took her spot and compare cheeses smugly.
in the train, the excuse me comes before the train is stopped, so i can't move. i couldn't really move anyway, because of the meatloaf effect, but i'm really not going to let go of the pole before the train stops because i know pulling a backwards bellyflop into the rest of the crowd behind me when the train jerks to a halt will probably cause a riot. i turn my head, since my torso is penned in, and say, i can't go anywhere. just hold on.
just hold on, alright?
in new york, "excuse me" is not a question, it's not an apology or even the cognate to, "hey, could you shove over?" it's a card you play. it's something you say that forces an action on someone else. you can be quizzically examining prices in front of the cheese counter at one of manhattan's overcrowded supermarkets, and hear someone say, "excuse me," behind you--and you move over. so that this other person can stand where you stood and similarly block all views of the cheese counter. you wait until she leaves and then you "excuse me" the person who took her spot and compare cheeses smugly.
in the train, the excuse me comes before the train is stopped, so i can't move. i couldn't really move anyway, because of the meatloaf effect, but i'm really not going to let go of the pole before the train stops because i know pulling a backwards bellyflop into the rest of the crowd behind me when the train jerks to a halt will probably cause a riot. i turn my head, since my torso is penned in, and say, i can't go anywhere. just hold on.
just hold on, alright?
