Astor Place

Astor Place is a fine example of a commericalized yet funky street here in New York. I am not sure about the nomenclature, but I think it qualifies as being part of the East Village. From where it starts between Waverly and 8th Street on Broadway, the first few shops you see are:

1. A Vitamin Store
2. Astor Place barbershop (a pretty famous place where famous people get famous haircuts)
3. Coldstone
4. Barnes and Noble

If that isn't an effective cross-section of American life, I don't know what is. All I do know is that I easily get lost on Astor Place in a hazy, consumerist euphoria of discount books and expensive ice cream. Today, as I walked past the Gap (oh yeah, there is a Gap right by Astor Place, but those are sort of everywhere) on 8th Street, I saw two yuppies prattling on about yuppy #1's newest cell phone. I'd like to pretend that I heard them purely by accident, but I was trying to listen to them in a cheap effort to amuse myself. Mission accomplished, and now I will use it to amuse you.

Yuppy 1: Dude, this phone stores over 500 phone numbers.
Yuppy 2: Dude, you don't even know 500 people.
Yuppy 1: Yeah, but with a phone like this, people will be dying to be friends with me.

And he's right. I almost became friends with him on the spot.