From this article about glatt:

i was thinking more of the restaurants on pico blvd. between la cienega and beverly drive. very far in ambience from such places as gengis cohen.

Not that surreal, but giggle-worthy: Anna Ginsburg's Pillsbury Bakeoff triumph is variously attributed to "MF member," "OA member" or "eG member" depending on where you look.

You'd look hot in a Doughboy hat, Orik.

Had an appointment uptown and since it's a lovely day I walked back to the office down Madison Avenue. Spotted on the way: Michael Stipe and George Pataki. Not together, I must add.

Not sure if this qualifies as surreal, more like "be careful what you wish for."

Awhile back a student of my husband's (he teaches at an art school) said she would be going to New York and asked him if she could bring anything back for him. He laughed and flippantly said, "oh, bring me some gum off the bottom of a table at CBGB's or something," and forgot about it.

Today he brought home a CD she brought him back from CBGBs and, yes, on it is a wad of gum.

Fly

I ordered a piece of cake to-go and told the guy to skip the plastic fork he was about to put in the bag (I was just taking it home anyway). When he looked at me questioningly I laughed and said "I'll just use my hands." I think he believed me.

Gotham magazine, which arrived in our mailbox for no understandable reason.

Who reads this shit?????

My boss, but only if he thinks his picture might be in it.

spam is getting increasingly avant garde. this recently from people who want to increase my penis size:

"Do you like my flowers" being code for "My hovercraft is full of eels".

that cryptic message was from one gore benny. more recently, this from mendez hunter, who represents makers of herbal viagra:

Just received a couple of documents that had been sent to me by messenger and which I needed to complete a hedge fund offering memorandum I am working on. The envelope, addressed to me, was typewritten.

You mean like from a typewriter?

Maybe they have one of those daisy wheel printers?

Nooo, this was from a typewriter.

Maybe they just use it for envelopes and forms and stuff?

But I understand your point...you don't see much of that anymore.

I miss those old IBM selectrics.

I still see secretaries typing labels if they don't already have the address saved on the computer and ready to go. I haven't see anyone typing straight onto the envelope in a while.

You know (maybe a different thread) I was thinking earlier today how much I wish my working life had not coincided with the computer age. I just about got started before computers became an integral part of daily life, and ...things were so much simpler then (tell me, could we...? etc).

We have an IBM Selectric in the office and another more antique typewriter at the house. J. just really likes to use them for business notes to clients. He types the note on his imprinted pad paper and then just signs the bottom. It looks very cool. Just personal enough and yet formal.

At Durrant's Hotel in London, the staff type-write one's phone messages. Kind of quaint.

i maintain an army of slave soldiers i use to run my messages to their destinations.

We have a typewritter at home. Blovie uses it when he needs to complete forms that aren't available on-line or for mailing labels if the information isn't on the hard-drive.

I used to own one of these.

I had right through the 80s. My wife in her zealous quest to rid my life of peripheral junk snuck it into the trash sometime during the past twenty years.

Fucker worked too!

We have one of these, c. 1925 or so. Not quite as fancy as this one, actually, it doesn't have as much gold on it. It still works although it doesn't get much use!

Fly

I still own a couple of pens. Hardly use them though.

How sad is it that under German law I generate more income for our household as a "lower-paid spouse" tax credit than I do from my grad stipend? Here I was thinking I got paid pretty decently for a grad student.

Overheard in the coffeeshop this morning while standing on line.

Woman 1: "I'll take a large Sumatran."

Woman 2: "Amen sister."

One of our receptionists is leaving today for a job that will allow her more time to pursue her boxing career.

On a (bored) lark I just started googling people with whom I went to elementary school. I was with them from grade 1-8, with a class of only about 50, so we all knew each other pretty well, but the last time I was 13 the last time I saw or heard from most of them. This is too funny. One's an opera singer, one runs a sustainability project, one's been vegan for 14 years and wrote an article about animal rights, one I found through a link on egullet . . .

I really have to dig out my old yearbooks to look up the people whose names I can't remember.

Driving up Western Avenue in Koreatown, I spotted a sign I had never seen for a restaurant named What The Pho.

Driftwood sculptures along the Hudson River path in Riverside Park, by an anonymous (at least at the time of the article) artist.

They're quite beautiful. Some look like pagan altars; others like tableware at Alinea.

I love those. They're really wonderful to look at.

I just lived through a tornado. Didn't get my house but took off a roof a few blocks from here. Dear Pat Robertson: my county went blue last election -- is there nothing you can do to intercede?

You make a good point.

I should be quiet now, and give the moderators a quiet sunday night for a change.