Mirth vs. mirthlessness

My favourite humans are those who do not take themselves too seriously. Illustrating the opposite pole is the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic, who had an exhibition at the MoMA that involved...being admired while sitting in a chair? Also, a retrospective of her "art," the recurring theme of which seemed to be: "OMG the naked human body!" It soon became clear that all of Abramovic's admirers take themselves too seriously also, because - for instance - when they had to squeeze between two naked models in order to get to the next gallery room, none of them - not one - like, giggled. Ugh, we do not share a world.

Also, Orlando Bloom was there with some incredibly hot chick, and they were getting their own guided tour amidst the crush of visitors. And people did not notice them and kept bumping into them with their bags, hee.

Sigh, and then date and I had drinks outside on some rooftop bar and then went to Nougatine for dinner (address: One Central Park West) and then walked around the park after dark. Rough life.

Prague conference

I got invited to an invitation-only conference in Prague. There were lace curtains and frescoes and doors with keyholes. I printed my talk out on A4 paper (it's like 8.5 x 11 on a diet). Between talks coffee was served in porcelain cups for a 20 kroner piece. Important people listened to what I said and asked me questions about it. I stayed in the villa, on the conference grounds. It looked... like this:

A tale of two delis

Admin I sit next to at work: "That place is kinda pricey."
Me: "I don’t know, I can get a bagel, lox and cream cheese there for $2.95."
Admin: "It’s probably cheaper at the Bagel Buffet."
Me: "Nope. Don’t believe you. $2.95 is cheap. Not lox cream cheese, lox and cream cheese."
Admin: "Nah, Bagel Buffet would be cheaper."
Me: "Which one is that, anyway?"
Admin: "13th and 6th. We used to call it the smelly deli. They had a vent to the outside so you could smell their bacon all day."
Me: "Weird, I’ve never seen that place and I'm at that intersection all the time."
Admin: "You could walk right by it and miss it."
Me: "Well I still don’t think it’s gonna be cheaper."
Admin: "Hey, [office assistant], call Bagel Buffet please and aks them how much is a bagel with cream cheese and lox."
Office Assistant: "I don’t know - you have to habla espanol at Bagel Buffet."
Admin: "Don't worry, they speak American dolla."
[calls]
Office assistant: "Oooh, you're not gonna be happy, [admin]."
Admin: "What did they say?"
Office assistant: "They said $7.50."
Me: "Hah."

Katherine was here!