The Billiken's Bluff

to anyone who commutes regularly to and from Manhattan...

But 4 out of every 5 people on the PATH train to Hoboken last Friday night were either:

listening to their ipod





emailing on their Blackberry





or reading James Frey's A Million Little Pieces.



This wasn't the case when I got on the F Train in Jamiaca, Queens.





I think I might have been the only person in the subway car listening to an ipod (I left my blackberry at home, and finished A Million Little Pieces in November 2004) at 179th and Hillside. There were however some discmen, NY Posts, and Bibles.

By Union Tpke/Kew Gardens I saw a few ipods and some Dan Brown novels.



By Lexington and 63rd the full array of ipod could be seen (nano, video, white, black).



By 47-50 Rockefeller I had spotted not only the Blackberries, but the blue version and the slimmer Nokia version as well.





Between 42nd and 34th, as if all at once, a million little glossy teal-blue paperbacks started popping up.







Driving to work in Long Island every day has dulled my senses.