“Honesty Is the Best Policy”? Lies

White dude to passengers: Ladies and gentlemen, I don't normally do this. I just got out of jail and my family won't let me come back home. I am not a drug user or an alcoholic. I go back to work on Monday, please help me. I'm scared. I went to a shelter and I was beaten and had everything taken from me. I'm just trying to make enough to stay at the YMCA for the night. Anything you can do to help me…
Chica, yelling: Yo, my friend wants to know what you was in jail for!
White dude: Oh, I raped a girl.

–F Train

Overheard by: LZA

Posted on October 28, 2008
Girls, Homeless, Kick, Latinos, On the Subway, Panhandling, Passengers, Prison, Rape, Weirdness, White People

He Ended Up in Times Square, and the Rest Is History

Cowboy wearing a Florida Rebel flag belt buckle: You should go back to your own country, or learn to speak English!
Girl leaving train: Have fun in the Bronx, cowboy!

–D Train

Posted on October 28, 2008
Assholes, Girls, Language Barrier, On the Subway, Stupidity, Threats

As an Added Bonus, He'll Remind All My Colleagues That Their Workday Could Be Worse

Woman: Hey, who's the kid?
Friend: Oh, he's coming with me for “Take Your Kid to Work Day.”
Woman: I didn't know you had a son.
Friend: I don't. This is my nephew. He was stealing money from my purse, so I'm gonna make his life hell for a day.
15-year-old (sarcastically): Yeah, because any day I get to miss school is total hell for me.
Friend: Shut your hole or I'll leave you for the hobos!

–F Train

Posted on October 26, 2008
Family Ties, Friends, Money & Class, On the Subway, School and studying, Teens, Thievery, Threats, Women

Oh Wait– Once I Had a Cobb Salad at the Guggenheim

Pretty lady: Are you telling me that the all the times you've ever been to New York, you've never been to a museum?
Foreigner: No.
Pretty lady: What the hell is wrong with you? How do you spend your time in the city?
Foreigner: Macy's and Bloomingdale's!

–6 Train

Posted on October 25, 2008
Foreigners, On the Subway, Questions, Shopping, Store, Tourism, Women

…Plus Another Fifty Days of Walking

Chick #1: We should go to Montreal some time.
Chick #2: My friend was telling me about this trip he took to Canada. It was like seven hours on the Long Island Rail Road.

–N Train

Posted on October 24, 2008
Compare/Contrast, Girls, On the Subway, Travel

They Misunderstood About 'Speed Dating'

Guy #1: They're very…urgent.
Guy #2: Very ADD. Very ADHD.
Guy #1: Very OCD.
Guy #2: Very ASAP. Like, Ay-SAP.
Guy #1: Coked up!

–R Train

Overheard by: Eyeteeth

Posted on October 24, 2008
Cocaine, Guys, On the Subway, Time

He's Now the Troop Expert on How to Pitch a Tent

Ghetto woman: She raped a 12-year-old boy?
Ghetto man: Yeah, she just opened the door and grabbed him and started fucking him.
Ghetto woman: Damn, that nigga probably went back and told all the Boy Scouts!

–6 Train

Overheard by: Skyler Fox

Posted on October 23, 2008
Age/Aging, Black People, Ghetto Chicks, On the Subway, Rape, Robbing the Cradle, Weirdness

Wednesday One-Liners Will Slap You Like a Red-Headed Stepchild

Woman on cell: Shut up! Shut up! I'm going to punch you in the face! I love you.

–A Bus

Spanish chick: Two things can't happen tonight. One, I can't get in a fight tonight. Two, I can't see nobody I don't like.

–5th Ave & 11th St, Park Slope

Overheard by: Matthew K. Johnson

Homeless, burnt-out surfer lady: Then I looked up, and this cunt is about to hit me like a man!

–139th & Broadway

Overheard by: Jesse Cromer

Guy to girl: The next time your parents chuckle at my misfortunes, I'm gonna kick 'em in the nuts. I'm gonna kill 'em!

–20th St & 5th Ave, Brooklyn

Jamaican conductor over PA: Don't move between cars while the train is in motion. I don't want to have to knock you the fuck out.

–1 Train

Overheard by: Got Knocked Out

Posted on October 22, 2008
Advice, All Wednesday One-Liners, Bag ladies, Brooklyn, Bus, Couples, Family Ties, Fighting and ass kicking, Gender issues, Girls, Guys, Harlem & Morningside Heights, Insults, Kick, Love, Murder, On Cell, On the Subway, One-liners, Park Slope, Public Transportation, Punch, Subway conductors, Threats, Wednesday One-Liners, Women

How Many One-Liners Are in a Wednesday? Show Your Work

Serious hipster girl: There is a nine-out-of-ten percent chance she won't call, but there is a one percent chance she will.

–L Train

Overheard by: Kansas

Grad student: You slept with him? This is not a good data-point.

–Fayerweather Hall, Columbia University

Overheard by: Ladle

Serious 20-something: You know pi? Like 3.14? You could shave the symbol into your pubes and you'd have hair pi.

–Coffe Bar Lounge

Student: Math chicks aren't the most glorious specimens of femininity.

–Shake Shack

Overheard by: Mary Elizabeth

Young man to friend: If you add it up, it's a lot of money. But when you do the math, it's not really that much money.

–Staten Island Ferry Terminal

Overheard by: Joy

Older cousin to younger cousin: How are you going to be rich if you don't like math? Rich people are good at math. They have to count their money.

–Stuyvesant Square

Overheard by: Peanut

Girl complaining to math teacher: No, you don't understand. I can't multiply past six.

–Marymount Manhattan College

Overheard by: Austin G.

Posted on October 22, 2008
Bars & Clubs, College, Columbia (& Barnard), Columbia University, Compare/Contrast, Disabilities, Families, Ferry, Friends, Girls, Hair, Hipsters, Men, Money & Class, Murray Hill and Gramercy, On the Subway, One-liners, Physical appearance, Private Parts, Questions, School and studying, Science, Sex, Staten Island Ferry, Students, Stupidity, Stuyvesant Town, Teachers/Professors, Upper East Side, Words

Wednesday One-Liners for LeVar Burton

Chipper, young, possibly gay guy with afro to random woman, after switching seats and moving closer: Sorry to bother you, but I just had to tell you this. I have this book of all these, like, African kings and queens and princesses and stuff. And I just had to tell you that you look just like one of the African queens in it. Like, just like her! Oh, I wish I had the book with me! I would show her to you.

–Q Train

Overheard by: katiek

Super-irate hippie chick in braids, yelling on cell: Thanks to you, everyone thinks I'm a fucking freak. Everyone looks at me like I'm fucking Pearl from the fucking Scarlet Letter!

–Court St & Bergen

Overheard by: Siobhan

Young deli clerk on phone, in confidential tones: William Shakespeare! Shakespeare!

–4th Ave & Bergen St, Boerum Hill

Cockeyed old man in hat to Strand employee: Where are the regular books?

–Strand Bookstore, 12th St & Broadway

Annoying rich girl to friend: So I got a library card so I can read more, but then I realized that I don't like used things and I stopped going.

–Bookstore, 71st St & Lexington

Girl (outside of her AP English classroom): Wait…Huck Finn never had syphilis!

–Stuyvesant High School

Woman to friend helping her find a book: You don't have to worry about giving away the ending. I know what happens to those six million people.

–The Strand