Saturday in Newark, NJ

On Saturday I was driving to work in Newark, NJ at about 12:30pm. The sidewalks were filled with people, as they usually are on pleasant weekend afternoons. While stopped at a traffic light I saw a group of elderly men gathered on a corner. In fact, there was a short line of down-and-out black men queued up in front of a 80 year old white man who had pulled over his dented 1970s American station wagon. The white man chatted happily with each of the black men in turn, then ostentatiously gave him two bills (I couldn't see whether they were singles or fives), at which point there was some shared laughter, and then the next man would take his place in line. Then my light changed, and I had to continue on to work.

Little Elephant

Little Elephant can't find anyone to tell him what Crocodile eats for breakfast (all they do is spank him for interrupting) until he asks Bird who says: "I don't know, why don't you go ask him?" So that's exactly what Little Elephant did, only when he asks, Crocodile reaches up and bites Little Elephant's nose! Croc can't eat him alive, but tries to pull him into the water and drown him.

Little Elephant, in his struggling to avoid being drowned, pulls back, elongating his nose into a long trunk! But he is losing the fight when along comes Snake. Snake remembers that Little Elephant had, some time earlier, treated him with kindness and respect, even though at the time there hadn't seemed any good reason to do so. Snake, seeing his friend in trouble, bites Crocodile and forces him to let go of Little Elephant, whose nose, even after he's calmed down and - of course - politely thanked Snake for saving his life, remains elongated.

When Little Elephant comes back to the village all the adult elephants want to know what has happened to his nose, but Little Elephant just spanks them all, thanks to his new, elongated nose. He then goes to Bird and thanks him for the idea of going and asking when you want to find something out.

A cold place on a hot night

I was driving home from work the other night at 11:45pm along a side street in Newark, NJ. I had the windows rolled down because it was 94 degrees but I'm afraid to use the A/C in my car. I stopped at a red light in a quiet part of town, and saw two women leaning against the trunk of a car on the opposite corner. I thought to myself, "Those two are out here to escape the heat - two friends." Then the light changed, and as I accelerated through the intersection one of the women looked up at me through my open car window, and stared into my eyes, asking. It dawned on me that they weren't escaping the heat, but they were in a place as cold as it gets.