Those Standalone News Stands

New York fact that I just learned: Those standalone news stands cannot sell anything for more than $5 before tax. (Another New York fact: The NYT spells it “newsstand” but that double s really bothers me so Billfold Style is to separate the words. Okay. [Mike edit: I prefer newsstand, but will defer to Logan on her own post.]) I would have never bought anything at one of those standalone news stands but I recently made my first purchase from one of those guys who sells fruit on the corner, so I’ll tell you about that.

I walked up to the guy who sells fruit on the corner and I said, “I would like some grapes please.” And he said, “How many grapes?” And I said, “Some,” and then he picked up some and put them on the scale and said, “$6” and I thought, wow that’s a lot of money for some grapes I think? But maybe it’s just the right amount of money for some grapes. I don’t know really, but I gave him money and took the grapes.

I ate them as I walked and each time I put one in my mouth, I wondered what kind of pesticide I was tasting. Then I was like, Logan, get it together, you are going to die, obviously, but it’s not going to be from eating these DDT seasoned grapes. Probably.

Photo: Raybdbomb

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