There’s one classic joke that every New Yorker knows. The reason every New Yorker knows it is because if you stand still for more than 20 seconds on a sidewalk in Manhattan, someone is going to ask you for directions.
Here’s a story that illustrates the phenomenon called “This Happens A Hundred Times a Day in New York City”:
7th Ave., Manhattan, in the low 50s. I was killing time before a job interview, leaning against a building reading something in the Daily News. This was in the days before Starbucks, oh best beloved, if you can believe such a time existed.
The guy stopped and asked me which way the M&M store was. I pointed him in, what I realized while watching him walk away, was the wrong direction, uptown.
Even worse, a minute later I had to go to the job interview, and I also walked uptown. The tourist walked past me heading downtown. He didn’t say anything, but he gave me a “What the fuck is your problem?” look as he marched past me.
That’s not the joke.
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