fri 06 feb 2009 20:33:59 — witte de withstraat
more doorway culture
last night as i was having a smoke outside the cave with djox and joanna, a man we didn't know heard us talking in english and asked us where we were from. we told him, he's an amsterdammer, she's from portugal, and i'm from boston.
"boston," he remarked. "i'm going there next week."
he said he was from tilburg (his accent sounded german to me), and that he would be visiting a geologist who's writing something for a professor at harvard. i suggested he pay a visit to the silhouette lounge in allston. i offered to put him in touch with a few of my friends in boston, to which purpose i wrote down my email address for him.
he took a glance at my email address, which is sgcollins@postwar.nl.
"so, stephen," he said.
"how did you know my name was stephen?" i asked.
"i didn't, it was just a lucky guess," he covered.
"you're from mossad, aren't you," i smiled.
he laughed.
the feeling reminded me a little bit of that spring twilight years ago, when pani and i were walking in paris, talking to each other in english, and we passed by a man who nodded to her and said dzien dobre.