Nonpranks

Sometimes you are in a situation where it would be very easy to pull a mean spirited prank, but you resist the urge, and y'know what? You feel better. Just such a situation arose today:

Walking back from our local bagelry, we come up on three young-middle aged women (late 30's-early 40's) standing looking confused at the corner of 12th and Sixth Avenue of the Americas.
They stopped us and asked, "Excuse me, is this Greenwich Village?"

Now, if you were an prankster of less refined sensibilities, your next move would be to say: "Oh no, you're nowhere near there-- you're gonna want to get on the A train and take it all the way downtown till you get to the Kingston-Throop Avenue stop. That'll take you right into the heart of Greenwich Village."

But instead, I instructed them to walk down about nine blocks to Bleecker St. and also explained where Washington Square Park was, relative to where we were.

We started on our merry way feeling good about our civic mindedness but before we reach the corner, who walks by but a certain J. Nicholson-- no wait, that's too obvious-- it was Jack N. I turn to Jen to point this out and as I do, we both realize who would especially appreciate a celebrity sighting of this magnitude.

As we turn back to the three women, we see that one of them is excitedly tapping the other two, who were oblivious. We calmly went back and whispered, "And yes, that is Jack Nicholson." They got all giddy and immediately decided to temporarily abandon their Greenwich Village touring plans in order to stalk Jack Nicholson, as they followed him across Sixth Avenue.

Then, that guy walked by, I'm not sure who he is, but he does the Trendspotting segment on the Daily Show.*

All of this amounted to a great New York Moment, which did not need to be enhanced with a prank. Also, it had the added benefit of making us seem like seasoned New Yorkers who were unimpressed by walking amidst the stars of film and alternative comedy.



*Aw shit man, just kidding-- I was watching Demetri Martin when you were in diapers, son.