"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

New York Minute

My old man believed in calling ’em like he saw them, especially when it came to compliments. If we were on a street corner with him, waiting for the light to change, and an attractive woman happened to be standing there, he’d think nothing of telling her, “My sons and I can’t help but notice what a beautiful woman you are and thought you might like to know as much.”

The woman would smile, sometimes unnerved, not knowing if it was a come on or what. Sometimes, if she was an assured New Yorker, she’d wink at my brother and me. It wasn’t a pick-up line, the Old Man just believed in expressing himself. Take it or leave it, honey. The man had charm to burn and no lack of chutzpah.

Categories:  Arts and Culture  Bronx Banter  New York Minute

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8 comments

1 ms october   ~  Feb 16, 2011 11:14 am

haha that's a trip.
were you embarrassed?

2 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 16, 2011 11:19 am

Yes and no. I felt uncomfortable for the women who had no idea what was coming, and both uneasy and admiring of my dad's behavior. He wasn't afraid. But it was much worse when he was unafraid with his anger so this was always a decent alternative. Plus, we normally got a pretty lady to smile at us, so what's bad about that?

LOL

3 ms october   ~  Feb 16, 2011 11:24 am

[2] aint nothing bad about that. :}
i feel you on the decent alternatives aspect.

4 RIYank   ~  Feb 16, 2011 11:44 am

The odds of Pujols signing with the Cardinals now look very long.

5 RIYank   ~  Feb 16, 2011 11:44 am

Uh, that is, it's looking very unlikely. (That's what I mean by long odds, but sometimes people mean the opposite. I think.)

6 weeping for brunnhilde   ~  Feb 16, 2011 1:53 pm

Heehee!
Reminds me of the scene in "Manhattan" in the Russian Tea Room. "Plus, there are a lot of beautiful women who eat here, I think we could have picked those two up if you'd been a little quicker."

7 Dimelo   ~  Feb 16, 2011 2:56 pm

Yes, it's better to tell a girl how nice looking she is than saying how beautiful her rack is. As a young and dumb teen I was known to express the latter more than the former, crass definitely can't be interpreted as "charm to burn".

8 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 16, 2011 3:05 pm

8) True DAT.

6) Always loved that line.

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
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