I don't care if the NBA contract is settled. I don't watch more than a minute of a game here and there. The dispute manifests the disconnect between the parties and the average working stiff. The players don't care how much ticket prices rise. They'll do some charitable work to atone for their greed. The only people who can afford to attend games are the wealthy, criminals and long-time unionists like New York Jets fanatic Fireman Ed. I wonder if he has a PSL.
On a lower economic level, the TWU would rather see transit fares rise and service cut rather than make concessions, which proves greed is not restricted to the rich, also recently proved by the 56,000 strong Public Employees Federation. Threatened with layoffs by Governor Cuomo if benefits were not scaled back, they refused to relent, selling 1500 of their union brothers down the river. And in another example, the New York Post cited a man whose salary is $90,000 as a recipient of tax-payer funded representation from the Legal Aid Society. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five: "So it goes."
Svetlana, a beautiful, intelligent young woman in our building, donated about 30 books and Cds, all but two, a Bible and a large, beautiful copy of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, concerning wealth acquisition: Trump, Buffett, Robbins, etc. She adopted a web persona, Vivian, and hawked health items. I guess it didn't work out too well. She is moving to London on Monday to start her life over. I asked how her mom was taking it, and she evaded the question. I resisted the urge to ask if she were fleeing a broken heart, although she did not show any of the signs of failed love. She has a defect of the spine, which causes a severe limp. I've always wondered if this affected her romantic life, if, despite her beauty, men did not view her as a potential wife. Who knows - maybe she simply believes she will have a better chance to earn her fortune in the UK. I told her she can have the stuff back if she changes her mind. I won't put out any of it until she leaves. I hope she stays.
Thanks to the folks who bought and donated books today, especially Kim, who gave me five pristine hard covers. Her husband Dave, a cook at a Manhattan hotel, donated a lot of popular novels in the past, all of which I sold. Kim is part of a community of Asians who have lived in a corner of Russia for centuries. I've occasionally heard Asians speaking Russian on the street and wondered about its root. Now I know.
Read Vic's stories, free: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
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