It was another record hot day in October, so once again I sallied forth.\u00a0 A young woman with a video camera gave me a fiver to record me.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re so happy, in this beautiful setting, on this beautiful day.\u201d\u00a0 She said she\u2019d send me the link, but so far I haven\u2019t got it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A small boy dumped some change in my case.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A group of high-schoolers from the Grace Church School came by.\u00a0 They had been assigned to film something whimsical.\u00a0 \u201cYou think I\u2019m whimsical enough?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the whimsicalest,\u201d said the girl with the camera.\u00a0 The kids donned leis, lined up, and danced to \u201cThe Hukilau Song\u201d while the camera rolled.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYour church is famous,\u201d I told a boy as I took back his lei.\u00a0 \u201cEdith Wharton was married there.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He turned a blank face to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible that I too had never heard of Edith Wharton until college \u2013 who remembers?\u00a0 \u201cLook it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Glancing into my case, I spotted 2 more fivers and then some. \u00a0I’d been playing for barely 30 minutes and it was already a very good day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
People walked up to me with money in their hands at a regular clip.\u00a0 A Brazilian woman did a credible hula for $2.\u00a0 A Chinese woman dropped a fiver for a photo.\u00a0 It turned out she was an ABC, Australian-born Chinese.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you call Argentine-born Chinese, or Armenian or Austrian?\u00a0 You need to start using subscripts.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A pear-shaped man walked up from the bench near the water and gave me 3 tightly folded singles.\u00a0 \u201cI do believe you are the happiest man in New York today,\u201d he told me.\u00a0 I had to agree.\u00a0 Later I saw him sitting with his pear-shaped wife.\u00a0 At the end of \u201cThat\u2019s My Weakness Now,\u201d they applauded enthusiastically.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With $27.83 cents to show for it, it had been a superlatively whimsical,\u00a0and happy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"