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Shalom From New York - Park Two

June 15, 2008

Dearest Cyber Friends, 
 
Did you ever feel like everyone was watching you? Well 
they are. And yes, it is a giant conspiracy. And yes, 
everything is a giant conspiracy. 
 
However, the rumor that I am building a bomb shelter 
under the foundation of the barn with a dessert spoon is 
false. That rumor was started by my children who will not 
be invited to live in the bomb shelter under the barn 
foundation during the coming gas shortage apocalypse. If I 
were actually building a bomb shelter under the foundation 
of the barn with a dessert spoon—that is. Which, of 
course, I am not. 
 
Anyway, back to Shalom From New York—Part, The Second. 
 
On a recent trip to New York, we (my husband and I and 
our oldest daughter and her husband) had what I consider a 
true “big city, bright lights” moment. Our camera was 
stolen. 
 
For an entire day, I blamed the hotel maid. I was 
wrong and obviously racist/evil and quite possibly stuck 
up. 
 
Working backwards, like the super sleuth that he is, my 
husband calculated the number of steps in an average city 
block. Multiplying that amount by the total pounds of 
protein necessary to fuel our visit to the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, and dividing the resulting co-efficient with 
the number of times I felt nauseous in the back of a smelly 
New York cab (once, but it was a doozy) Sherwood figured 
out that he had left our camera at the restaurant where we 
had purchased nine hundred dollar a gallon orange juice. 
 
“I believe I left a camera here,” Sherwood said to the 
assortment of servers, bus boys, and cashiers at said 
restaurant. 
 
“The camera guy is here,” someone announced. They 
checked behind the counter where lost tourist cameras go to 
die. 
 
“It was here, but it’s gone.” 
 
The mystery deepened. “Come back when the manager is 
here at four o’clock. Ask for Guido.” 
 
We left to buy trench coats and spy equipment.  
 
When we returned at the appointed rendezvous time, 
Guido, the manager, invited Sherwood into his office, sat 
him down, and proceeded to show my husband a security tape 
of us drinking expensive orange juice and eating eggs over 
easy. From three angles. From the date and time stamp 
Guido knew exactly what time we had arrived to eat 
breakfast and exactly what time we stood up, paid our bill, 
and left our camera in the booth. It also showed the bus 
boy swiping the camera—from three angles. 
 
Of course, Heather and I asked the most important 
questions concerning the video tape evidence. We asked: 
 
Did we look good? Was there any nose picking recorded? 
How was our makeup? Did we look happy? Were there 
scrambled eggs in our teeth? Were we nice to the waiter?  
Did we look interesting and clever? How many times did we 
laugh? Did they video tape our “good sides?” 
 
My husband observed that watching a video tape we had 
no idea was being made of us eating breakfast was freaky.  
That’s a direct quote. “Man, that’s freaky,” he said, not 
to mention the criminal behavior. 
 
The investigation resulted in: one bus boy fired for 
theft and lying, one digital camera lost forever, one 
memory card with snapshots of me standing next to a giant 
M&M stolen, and a security tape of my family eating eggs in 
a vault somewhere for—forever and ever. 
 
Ever feel like everyone is watching you? They are.  
From three angles. 
 
Have a paranoia free week, 
 
Linda (Say Cheese) Zern 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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