Beautiful/Useless

New York City Subway station, Times Square, Jan. 2011. New signage post-2010 service cutbacks. My favorite subway sign in years. Also, meaningless. It cries out for repurposing: it would be a marvelously meta symbol for "queer."

Man, 49, Attacked by Rat in Subway, Lives

So I was waiting this morning for the subway listening to my ipod. It was a relatively crowded platform; I had a cup of iced coffee resting on a step in front of me (I was below a staircase) and was munching on a Chinese croissant. I felt something on my foot, and thought perhaps I had dropped my bag. I looked down. Nothing.

I looked up. Several people were looking in my direction and shaking their heads. I paused. Was my fly open? Was I accidentally singing out loud?

Then I recalled the weekend. My boyfriend had remarked that there were a lot of rats in the subway station. The R line. Brooklyn. He even pointed out one cute little rat pointing its nose out from a gnawed-out hole in a doorway as we waited to catch a train to the city for brunch.

Then I realized what had happened. I went up to one of the people shaking their heads and asked. Yes,

A
GIANT
RAT
HAD
JUST
RUN
ACROSS
MY
FOOT

while I was waiting for the subway. Thank God I didn't see it. Oh my fucking God.