Today I was walking around Brooklyn, New York, where I live, and I realized that almost every corner store’s awning features a random selection from the same bank of about 30 words. “Mart.” “ATM.” “Cold Beer.” (Always “cold.” Even if the beer inside isn’t actually cold.) “Deli.” Nevermind that most of these stores stock more or less the same exact inventory. New Yorkers (and non-New Yorkers, I would think) are well-versed enough in the corner store economy that we don’t need to be told what’s inside.
I’m forced to assume that, be it a function of limited writing skills, simple uncreativity, or some sort of bureaucratic rigmarole that I can only dream of, most corner stores are getting their ideas for awning copy from other, pre-existing corner stores.
The only way for me to prove this is to accept a donation large enough to found a number of corner stores large enough to introduce another corner store awning word into the lexicon. It can be something that most corner stores sell (“Limes”) or something they do not (“Dogs”). I would bet that it wouldn’t matter.
The Fugs - Slum Goddess
Rest in peace, Tuli Kupferberg. “Jumped off the Brooklyn bridge this actually happened,” indeed.
I had been sitting on this for way too long, and I am glad it has finally seen the light of day.
I could probably come with some witty “and oh I don’t know why”-based comment on the reasoning behind my creating this, but in reality I’m late for band practice and I wanted to stick my feet into learning jQuery. Some of these end up being oddly profound, though.
What can I say?
Now I wanna have somethin’ to do
But isn’t it always that way?
Jim Shepard - One Percent of Nothing
“Byrd’s death also makes senator Daniel Inouye the president pro tempore of the United States. This means that the father of a Dischord Records artist (Kenny Inouye, Marginal Man) is now third in line to the presidency. So consider this an official heads up; don’t come whimpering to me when the guy from Iron Cross is in charge of your oat rations.”
– Sam McPheeters.
I had no idea Inouye’s son was in Marginal Man. And here I didn’t think the guy could get any cooler.
“Sooner or later, life is going to humiliate and kill all of us, but there is a certain dignity and power in not screening out this information but trying to let it wash over you as much as possible, and just standing there smiling with shit all over you.”
– George Saunders (via)
