I discovered an interesting bit of graffiti down by the river the other day (incidentally, I love that i get to use the phrase “down by the river” all the time now - it makes my life sound so much more interesting to be able to pepper it with a weird stream of continual references to “the river”). Where was I? I hate when I write a big long thing in parentheses and then lose my place.

Oh right! I was about to say how, there is this concrete outcropping at one part of the shore. And I realized, while standing on it, that, spray-painted in huge letters is the phrase “–> THIS MAY COLLAPSE ANYTIME!” (Yeah, the –> was an actual spray painted arrow.)

I don’t know. I wasn’t scared though, and stood my ground. It didn’t seem like this was the precise moment at which it might collapse, hurling me into the murky depths of the East River.

Yeah, it just seemed like such an impotent threat. Who wrote it I wonder? Somebody “official” with the park service, or whoever owns the land? Were they expecting that a shitty piece of graffiti is going to absolve them of legal responsibility if someone should indeed be there when it collapses? Or else, was it some oddly conscientious graffiti artist, who just wants to make sure everyone has a good time, but is aware of the inherent dangers of having a good time.

And in either case, why didn’t this mysterious “messenger of the gods” leave other pertinent information squirted out around the area, such as “–> YOU MAY SEE A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET” or perhaps something much more useful such as “–> WATCH FOR STRAY COCONUTS.”

Oh yeah! That reminds me, I was walking home last night from “the river” and took a different route, and what should I see on the ground, but another coconut, laying in the gutter. But this one had been cracked open and its insides scooped out and eaten. Where are these coconuts coming from? The mystery of them has really started to infect me. Isn’t it in his novel “Valis” that Philip K Dick says something to the effect of “The symbols of the divine first show up in the trash stratum.” Maybe God is trying to tell me something through these coconuts. Maybe I’m supposed to move to Hawaii. Yeah, thats probably it.