Here for the taking, and giving

Sometimes I come across some really random obscure thing that I just have to have, like a present for friend's birthday that they probably only made a few hundred copies of (dirty phonograph recordings from the 1890s for his research on humour and transgression), and I wonder how the hell I am going to get my hands on it, especially now that it is Friday afternoon and his birthday is tomorrow. And then I have the thought, "Wait a minute, this is the big fat apple. If I was elsewhere, I would come here to find this thing, because how could New York not have a copy?" And after an hour of googling and phone calling and waiting on hold, I track it down and hop on the train and pick it up.

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