A cat on a head and a philistine train conductor

On the 1 train downtown to Christopher Street for dinner at Agave Saturday night, I saw:

1) a man with a cat on his head.  It was a regular old black and white housecat, on a leash, on a head.  It's funny that a dog on a leash in public causes not a stir–maybe a few girls squeeing if the thing is extra cute–but a cat on a leash seems outlandish.  And a cat on a leash sitting politely on top of a beret on top of a man's head while he collects money in exchange for photo opportunities?  Unstoppable, as far as tourists and Katie Etts are concerned.

2) a student singing opera to help pay her rent.  She stepped into the train and announced that she was sorry to interrupt our commutes, and I was immediately interested: she was young, blonde, and professional–almost cold–in her speech.  Not your usual homeless-guy-pretending-to-be-raising-money-for-charity shtick.  She sang a pretty Italian aria from 34th to 23rd Streets while the conductor watched through the little window in the door of his operations vestibule and laughed.  When the train stopped, the songster blessed us all and then collected her earnings in a designer handbag.

I gave money to neither of them, naturally, but I appreciated them all the same.

– Katie Ett, unapologeticallymundane.com