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September 27, 2017 10:42 AM Subscribe
Do they still publish the Reader's Digest? This puts me in mind of the Reader's Digest. A friend's mother was a subscriber. She would leave the most recent four or five issues fanned out on the coffee table. But this was long ago and she was still alive. Laughter is the best medicine, or so we were led to believe.
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on September 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by pracowity at 11:26 AM on September 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
I've submitted two things to the Metropolitan Diary, but neither was accepted. :-(
The shortest was an exchange I heard while walking around at the Museum of Natural History and passed by a couple who were also visiting - she was clearly enjoying herself, and he was clearly trying to figure out exactly where in the museum they were. As we passed each other, I heard this exchange:
SHE: Hey, we should go visit Alaska sometime.
HE: Alaska? We can't even find our way downstairs!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:27 AM on September 27, 2017 [21 favorites]
The shortest was an exchange I heard while walking around at the Museum of Natural History and passed by a couple who were also visiting - she was clearly enjoying herself, and he was clearly trying to figure out exactly where in the museum they were. As we passed each other, I heard this exchange:
SHE: Hey, we should go visit Alaska sometime.
HE: Alaska? We can't even find our way downstairs!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:27 AM on September 27, 2017 [21 favorites]
I enjoy how simple and sweet this exchange is. I realize it could easily be something not, but it was a little bit of brightness in an otherwise dark couple of months. Even if its not true. I want to believe that it is.
posted by Fizz at 11:31 AM on September 27, 2017
posted by Fizz at 11:31 AM on September 27, 2017
EmpressCallipygos: I wonder if your man was also the one I heard in a Manhattan restaurant, setting straight the woman who thought he was taking a date to a wedding in Bali: "Bali? I wouldn't take a date to Hoboken!"
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 11:41 AM on September 27, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 11:41 AM on September 27, 2017 [9 favorites]
I've submitted two things to the Metropolitan Diary, but neither was accepted. :-(
Try Reader's Digest
posted by thelonius at 11:54 AM on September 27, 2017
Try Reader's Digest
posted by thelonius at 11:54 AM on September 27, 2017
What a striking story. It immediately made me look up if Steeger is a published author - she has a knack (or are these heavily edited?)
posted by muddgirl at 1:28 PM on September 27, 2017
posted by muddgirl at 1:28 PM on September 27, 2017
ALeaflikeStructure: Sounds like an edited version of the line from Guys and Dolls: "Havana? He couldn't take this doll to New Rochelle."
posted by huimangm at 2:04 PM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by huimangm at 2:04 PM on September 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of my 90-something year old neighbour across the street; when she got a phone call asking if she'd ever considered Meals On Wheels, she replied that she was busy 4 days a week volunteering at the hospital, the nursing home, and the library... but if they really needed some help, she could fit them in on Tuesday afternoons.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:24 PM on September 27, 2017 [28 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:24 PM on September 27, 2017 [28 favorites]
Yes, perspective is indeed the matter. We often work hard to make reality fit our own story. That is until we are forced to see how it does not fit. They helped each other in many ways. Kindness in many forms. I love how inseparable the helper is with the person being helped in this story.
posted by cookiemaster at 4:16 PM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by cookiemaster at 4:16 PM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]
Do they still publish the Reader's Digest? This puts me in mind of the Reader's Digest.
The "Metropolitan Diary" section used to be a lot bigger, and would indeed have a collection of overheard-in-passing, cute-little-anecdotes that were submitted by readers; kind of like the "Life In these United States" section from Readers' Digest, only more NYC-centric. The site Overheard in NY fills the same niche.
(I did actually once get something printed in "Overheard in NY"; a friend and I overheard a guy telling a friend "Yeah, Portland is great - if you're into heroin.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:43 AM on September 28, 2017
The "Metropolitan Diary" section used to be a lot bigger, and would indeed have a collection of overheard-in-passing, cute-little-anecdotes that were submitted by readers; kind of like the "Life In these United States" section from Readers' Digest, only more NYC-centric. The site Overheard in NY fills the same niche.
(I did actually once get something printed in "Overheard in NY"; a friend and I overheard a guy telling a friend "Yeah, Portland is great - if you're into heroin.")
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:43 AM on September 28, 2017
I just went and reread a bunch of Metropolitan Diary because it can be so heartwarming. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by brainwane at 7:45 AM on October 2, 2017
posted by brainwane at 7:45 AM on October 2, 2017
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Also everything is a matter of perspective.
Also I hope the city's still around in something resembling its present form when I get to be that age, universe willing.
posted by limeonaire at 11:02 AM on September 27, 2017 [3 favorites]