Bronx-bound mi amigo?

Today is Thursday-as good as it gets as far as weekdays are concerned. On the subway today I witnessed an elderly white man trying to help out a seemingly lost Asian couple. The couple stared blankly at the subway map on the train when we arrived at the Union Square stop. As I exited the train I overhead the elderly man say to the couple. “You wanna take this down a couple more stops to Canal Street for Chinatown. You wanna go to Chinatown, right?” Based on the response from the Asian guy it didn’t appear that he spoke any English. Here’s hoping that I missed an earlier part of the conversation when the couple somehow conveyed that they were indeed trying to go to Chinatown and that the elderly man wasn’t just playing a hunch on where they were headed.

En route to my transfer from the downtown 6 train to the eastbound L train I happened upon a team of volunteers in the subway station who were administering free stress tests as part of some promotion for the book Dianetics-which post googling I’ve discovered is authored by L Ron Hubbard founder of the church of Scientology. Anyhow, I initially walked past the testing stations but then thought: hey, I don’t have anything “incredible” for today’s blog entry, maybe this stress test will provide a humorous anecdote. I’ll end the suspense right here: it did not. The test consisted of me holding two hollow metal tubes that were connected to a machine that allegedly read my stress level by picking up on my mental energy as it related to questions that the woman volunteer asked me. I “discovered” that not having a job causes me stress. Imagine me not having stopped and never having gained such revelatory insight. I shudder at the thought. I’m only recounting this story in a lame attempt to validate my decision to double-back to take the test. Oh yeah, and after the test I chatted briefly with the woman administrating the test and long story short…I’m a devout Scientologist now.

Of the many things that must confuse/disappoint non-native English speakers as they are learning our language, I bet watching a “Soap Opera” for the first time is near the top of the list. They probably feel pretty foolish afterwards, realizing that their conjured images of elaborately gowned bars of Dove belting out Italian falsetto were somewhat absurd. Nonetheless, you can’t blame them for being bummed out if that’s what they were expecting and As The World Turns is what they got.

As a holiday present I’m getting an iPod from my parents. Thanks mom and dad. Before I purchase it though, I thought I’d ask if anybody knows of a superior competitor to the iPod. I always hesitate to pull the trigger on technology related purchases for fear of winding up with the next Laser Disc player or Turbo Graphics 16 system. I guess that fear would explain why my cell phone has a rotary dial. Any non-iPod devotees out there?

Have a lovely evening and watch Life As We Know it on ABC at 8pm eastern standard time instead of the OC because it’s a better television show.