Overheard on the T; In My Head; Big Cats and Catnip

(Yes, three really unconnected things. Sorry. All connectivity is lost tonight.)
(Unlike most nights. I know. Shut up.)

The other day on the T, there was a group of 4 people near me who I couldn't help hearing. It was crowded, so I couldn't move away, and they talked and talked and talked.

One guy was doing most of the talking, and guess what, he goes to Harvard! No, really! He just applied as a joke, but they didn't think it was funny! (Direct quote.)

He was also wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the Harvard logo on it. Now, we recently had some milder weather, but that means that it was closer to 80 than 90, not that it was hooded-sweatshirt weather, so make of that what you will. (I am reminded of a character in a book long forgotten, who bought Harvard notebooks at the Coop to use for his classes at another school, thinking that the students would assume he had transferred.)

Also in this group was a young woman who might have been in high school (since early in the conversation one of them asked her where she had applied). Her initial reaction to almost everything that Harvard said was, "Wait, what?" Verbal tic? Slow on the uptake? Who knows?

The conversation at one point touched on the dorm that Harvard is in now (as opposed to the one he was in as a freshman)(why do I need to know this?)(oh, right, I don't), and he talked about the associated dining hall:

• Harvard: "...and the walls are a nice yellow that goes with the three crystal chandeliers."
• Possibly HS Girl: "Wait, what? Chandelier?"
• Harvard: "Three crystal chandeliers."

I wonder how he would have felt if he'd know that instead of being impressed, I was pitying him?

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It's probably not a nice thing to shriek out the window at the 87 children playing next door to shut the fuck up, is it?

I didn't think so. I really want to, though.

Or, as I imagined yesterday, get a BB gun and shoot the fucking basketball, since they seem to play with the damn thing 27 hours a day. Thump, thump, thump. Tonight, with extra shrieking! (And not to be sexist, but usually it's the boys playing, with no shrieking, "just" mild yelling. Tonight it's girls, and oh mah gah, the shrieks. I thought it was annoying before.)

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Hey cat people, if you've ever looked at the big cats at the zoo and wondered, "How would they like catnip?"



The answer is mostly, "Quite a lot actually."