Ground Zero

JAP: Didn’t it fall down back in the early nineties too?

–Ground Zero

Young Jewish guy #1: You know how you're allowed to make jokes about 9/11 if you're from New York?
Young Jewish guy #2: Yeah, totally. You're definitely allowed to do that.
Young Jewish guy #1: Exactly. It's just like a Jew being able to make a joke about the Holocaust.
Young Jewish guy #2: Of course. It's like a rite of passage or something.

–Pier 3, Brooklyn

Dude: Hi, I’m looking for the World Trade Center.
Cop: Uhhh, yeah… You need to go to Manhattan.

–Ferry Terminal, Staten Island

Overheard by: Ghost Rock It

Obese black woman, explaining 9/11 to seven-year-old daughter: We talk about this every day, honey. The ending's not gonna change.
Daughter: They put up the flag up after? Didn't it get dirty?
Obese black woman: Well, they kinda had more important things to deal with. They didn't have a washing machine there.

–R Train

Overheard by: Jon A.

Ghetto chick: Excuse me! Excuse me! What’s the name of the towers that got knocked down?
Incredulous passerby: Umm . . . The World Trade Center.
Ghetto chick to thug boyfriend: See! I told you it wasn’t none of that twin towers. You thinking of Lord of the Rings.

–Vesey St

New Yorker: …and then the tourists paused near the construction of the New York Times’ new building, and one, who was I guess their leader, pointed to it and said, “Everyone, that’s Ground Zero.”

–26th & Park

Tourist: And this is H Street. So we’ll be in SoHo next.

–Houston Street

Tourist girl: Oh, look! I think that’s Times Square!

–Broadway & Houston

Overheard by: Sumitra

Woman on cell: No, I can’t. I’m in the Times Square area right now.

–Canal & Baxter

Overheard by: Steph J.

Dude: Excuse me, is this Times Square?

–Times Square

Overheard by: Dumbfounded

Teenage girl: Does this train go to Manhattan?

–Times Square, waiting for the downtown C train

Overheard by: Courtney

Tourist: Wait, are we in Manhattan or just New York?

–Times Square

Overheard by: betsy

Australian hipster: Could you tell me how to get back to Manhattan?

–112th & Broadway

Businessguy: It’s a small world.
Businesschick: Especially in Astoria!
Businessguy: Ha, ha, ha!
Businesschick: Hee, hee.

–Midtown office

Kid presses call button on commuter hotline phone.

Father: Why did you do that?
Son: I’m sorry. I didn’t know what it was.
Father: If you do that again the police will arrest you.
Son: Really?
Father: Yes, George Bush will come and take you to jail.
Son: What?
Father: He will kill you and put your picture on the Wall of Memories [Ground Zero feature].

–World Trade Center PATH station

Girl: What is all that screaming ahead?
Guy: Maybe they are doing a reenactment of September 11th.

–Ground Zero

Overheard by: A A F

Tourist woman: Where is the World Trade Center?
New Yorker guy: You missed it.

–Chambers and W. Broadway

Overheard by: tom brigham

Chick to friend, standing silently for several minutes: You know, there really isn’t that much to see here.

–Ground Zero

Woman on cell: What about the Christmas cards with the twin towers surrounded by flowers? … Yeah. Kinda grim, huh?

–Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center

Overheard by: Karyn Regal

Wannabe-hardcore bimbette: So, this is where it all went down, huh? Where the shit hit the fan…

–PATH station, WTC

Overheard by: WesTexMike

Tourist man to MTA lady: I want to go to that World Trade Center thing.

–14th St station

Tourist: Is this nine-eleven?

–Ground Zero

Overheard by: duplicity