Day: November 15, 2012

@ The first person to make a mountain out of a molehill was probably a real estate agent.

@ When I was a college junior, my roommate and I climbed Mount Whitney. It took three days to get to the top and back, and we returned home completely exhausted. Visiting my parents soon after the grueling hike, I walked into our living room, where they were conversing with the neighbor. I told them every detail of my treck: how high the mountain was, how steep the trail and how we fought fatigue and altitude sickness all the way. “I know how difficult it is,” our neighbor said, “I took my Brownie troop there last year.”

* I was waiting for the Manhattan subway when my attention was diverted by two men in their 20’s engrossed in a conversation just a few feet away one was dressed in a torn heavy metal T-shirt with stringy black hair and two skull tattoos on his left calf and a ring through his bottom lip.  The other had greasy, blond hair tied in a ponytail, six-ear rings and a coiled snake tattoo on his left forearm. “I finally went out with Kathy last night,” the first man said. “Well, how did it go, dude,” asked his friend, his  hand clutching an open beer in a paper bag. “Awesome,”  came the reply. “She is one hot babe who really knows how to party.”  “So are you going to see her again?”  “No, man,” the first guy answered his exuberance suddenly subdued. “She smokes.”