On the M66

I got on the M66 crosstown bus at around 11pm. I walked past an old orthodox Jewish man - all black, long beard, black hat, the whole nine yards - maybe even a rabbi, and sat down across the aisle from him. I noticed he was listening to music on a very old school walkman, pretty loudly, bobbing his head. Sort of unusual. As I sat down I also noticed that he checked me out, very obviously. Little weirder. After a few blocks, he turned to me and asked where 2nd Ave. was. I told him it was a few more blocks. Then, 2 avenues later, he asked again. I told him it was in 2 blocks. He said "God bless you." Do Jews say that? Not sure... anyhow, at 3rd Ave, he mistakenly rang the bell, the bus was already crossing the street so he must have thought it went past the 3rd Ave stop. The bus stopped for maybe 3 seconds before the driver realized that it had been a mistake, and we were off towards 2nd Ave. No big deal. Except, a man sitting a few rows behind started complaining: "You old fool, why did you hit the bell? Why are you wasting our time? You fool!!" etc... he even climbed over his wife to go up to the rabbi to tell him what a fool he was. Completely absurd! He kept yelling: "You're wasting our time, you fool!" As the rabbi was getting off the bus, he yelled "You full of shit!", which I found appropriate, except for it coming from a rabbi's mouth. The man still on the bus kept talking about how this old man was wasting our time. Ummm, really? As the bus drove by towards 1st Ave, I saw the rabbi standing on the corner, shaking his fist at the bus, then yelling something and giving the bus the finger. Even more absurd.

I am glad I took the bus instead of walking, this is not something you see every day. To the man on the bus, I really wanted to ask him where the hell he was so rushing to go that he could not stand to be delayed for a whole 3 seconds. But I restrained myself and just laughed, as quietly as I could.