I discovered the thing that's better than the farmer's market today--the farmer's market when they're packing it up and all the food's discounted. I went to the library today and on the way in, I almost got a bunch of green onions for $2 (for my Creamy & Delicious eggs, if you must know), but then thought it wouldn't be too cool to sit in the library with a bunch of onions. When I was headed home at 5:30, they were dumping food into bags, I'm guessing, for food banks, and I got a bunch of onions and a broccoli crown for $1. While some might call it garbage, I prefer "fully ripened".

I attended the inaugural lecture at a new auditorium at the library, given by David Wallace, who co-wrote Gotham. He talked about Brooklyn and its history in relation to Manhattan and immigration. Some things I didn't know: 37% of the pop of Brooklyn is foreign-born, 2/3rds are first or second gen immigrants, our unemployment rate was 10% during the "miracle economy" of the 80's (it's 6.7% now), and the majority of people who have jobs work in Manhattan, not here. This was kind of funny. Wallace was talking about the Manhattan bridge being called the "Jewish Highway" because it was built when the big retailers moved north on Fifth Ave, "but while they still needed clothes from the garment workers, they really didn't want to see them at lunch." So the Jews went to Williamsburg. Then, until the major black influx during the 30s, "The Germans, the Jews, the Irish had really been at each others' throats the whole time, but when the migration from the south started, they all kind of looked at each other and said, 'Well, we're all basically white.'"

He told us about a town in Mexico where about half the population lives either permanently or part-time in Brooklyn now, and rather than assimilate, the Brooklyn population plays an active role in managing the town's affairs because they provide money for the capital projects. So it's really one community, half of which happens to be here. Talk about the other side of the tracks...

There was a guy at the lecture who kept blowing his nose and waving his handkerchief out between blows to the point where I was averting my eyes. He asked the first question, "A two-part question, if you please . . ." afterwards. Later, I was in the ladies' room where some women (and let me interject to say that the average height of white women attending this talk was no greater than 5 feet, even including me) were talking about him, and how he's a fixture on the lecture audience circuit. But, "there's something genuinely wrong with him," said one of the ladies, "he's to be pitied."