Month: August 2004

Vinod pointed me to a great Mike Tyson quote page after I questioned the origin of “I guess I’m gonna fade into Bolivian” when asked what he was going to do after losing his latest fight.

“I paid a worker at New York’s zoo to re-open it just for me and Robin. When we got to the gorilla cage there was 1 big silverback gorilla there just bullying all the other gorillas. They were so powerful but their eyes were like an innocent infant. I offered the attendant $10,000 to open the cage and let smash that silverback’s snotbox! He declined.”

“[He] called me a ‘rapist’ and a ‘recluse.’ I’m not a recluse.”

I get on the 2,3 express subway at 96th street. Many days a local train pulls up, lets people off, many of whom are trying to transfer to the express.

Without fail they will make a darting, elbowing move directly across the platform and will stand directly in front of you right on the edge and do the lean way over to look for the oncoming train. The depths of the NYC subway are not a pleasant place to be during the summer granted, but why these people feel like they own the fucking place is beyond me.

Visited my brother Kevin and his wife Julia in Toronto this weekend and stayed in their newly purchased house.

We got the full tour of the town. We went up the CN tower. Of course Hollie felt the need to call out to all within earshot that it probably wouldn’t be the “largest free-standing structure” if not for the extra-long antennae at the top. The unequivocal highlight was the glass floor, which apparently they only added ten years ago so it was new to all of us. Very strange sensation to walk out over Plexiglas with something like 1000 feet between you and the ground.

As we drove through the various neighbourhoods, business districts etc, we felt compelled to constantly compare it to what city (mostly in the US) that it looked or felt like. Overall, I’m going with Chicago as the city most closely resembling Toronto.

Kevin has a fixer-upper on his hands. As the renter of an Manhattan apartment I really miss out on trips to Home Depot and certainly am not going to get to swing a sledge hammer any time soon. Do any other city folk miss home improvement and what not?