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August 07, 2006

I have always relied on the candy of strangers

Yesterday, while walking from Schlesisches Tor to Potsdamer Platz (this is about 3.5 miles or something, but it was a nice day and I had 80 minutes to kill—of which, in the end, only 60 died) I had a really probably kind of silly idea for the design of a fork, and wanted to note it for future reference; thus, I sat down against a wall and took out a notebook and began to write, when suddenly I noticed that someone had paused before me. I looked up and an old woman said "guten Tag" to me; I said hello; she gave me a piece of hard candy.

Posted at 10:00 AM |

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Comments

. . . and that's not a euphemism.

Posted by: My Alter Ego | August 07, 2006 at 10:38 AM

Just when you think there´s no humanity at all left here....and today I had a worker at Kaufhof let me exchange something with no difficulty whatsoever. Between these two events I´m sure Berlin has exhausted it´s kindness to strangers for at least the next 3 days.

Posted by: DrJ | August 07, 2006 at 11:08 AM

Aww, that's a fabulous story.

Posted by: bitchphd | August 07, 2006 at 12:33 PM

I felt bad when, since I could walk much faster than her, I overtook her after I started walking again in a minute or two.

Posted by: ben wolfson | August 07, 2006 at 12:35 PM

I'd like to see the new fork design.

Posted by: Danthelawyer | August 07, 2006 at 02:41 PM

And when you awoke, you were an old woman, sleeping on a bed of oddly designed forks. And all the world was candy.

Posted by: text | August 07, 2006 at 08:13 PM

You've gone off the deep end.

Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | August 07, 2006 at 08:30 PM

Ben or myself? In either case I'm inclined to agree.

Posted by: text | August 07, 2006 at 08:47 PM

I'd like to see the new fork design.

Five tines with the fifth tine on the side of the fork, lower down than the other tines begin, and shorter—like a hand.

Posted by: ben wolfson | August 08, 2006 at 05:34 AM

Ben or myself?

Ben. You've always deep-ended.

Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | August 08, 2006 at 07:12 AM

on the strangeness of kinds. or.

Posted by: text | August 08, 2006 at 08:41 AM

Your fork sounds a bit like a banjo.

I was expecting the old woman to lead you off into the forest, to a house made of candy, where she would keep you in a cage and fatten you up for eventual roasting.

Posted by: The Modesto Kid | August 08, 2006 at 11:25 AM

The fact that it admits of multiple interpretations is an advantage, Clownæ.

Posted by: ben wolfson | August 08, 2006 at 11:27 AM

Weird -- somehow I misread Standpipe Bridgeplate's name as "Sebastian Holsclaw" above and spent a little while trying to figure out why Sebastian would be leaving those comments on this thread.

Posted by: The Modesto Kid | August 08, 2006 at 11:32 AM

Are you going to give that candy to someone else? Did you eat it already? What if it's some kind of diabolical "scenario" candy which, when consumed, will render your mind incapable of restraining its natural inclination to find patterns and fill your thoughts with an unending triumph of hypotheticals? Elephants of undergraduate education, six-legged bears of might-have-been relationships, and the enshackled native tribesmen of parentality issues?

Posted by: dave zacuto | August 08, 2006 at 04:41 PM

The fifth tine's a charm.

Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | August 20, 2006 at 09:36 AM

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