W110 and Broadway - Man with the Cans

Waiting for my girlfriend on the street corner, I struck up a conversation with a man who was just given twelve dollars from the local grocery chain for his garbage bag full of cans. It took him an hour to collect. "$12 an hour isn't bad" I told him. He quickly responded by saying that did not include the three hours of patiently waiting outside the store to trade them in. The Man with the Cans wasn't angry at all but passionate about this topic and was eager to share his thoughts with me. With a big toothless smile and abundant energy, he explained to me that he gets 5 cents/can while the store can turn them in for 8 cents/can. He figured the 3 cents of profit the store made for doing nothing but trading in cans for cash would be enough to hire someone for a few hours a day to dedicate to this job and thus, benefit everyone. Turns out any store that sells recyclable cans are obligated to collect them if someone were to walk in with a bag of them, just no store wants to make it too easy for the can collectors or they'd be inundated with recyclable metal.

We were soon interrupted by a guy who needed $1 to take the train. I seriously had no cash left (spent on tomato paste and frozen peas) but I'm sure he didn't believe me. The Man with the Cans reached into his pocket and pulled a buck from his $12 stash, handed it over to the guy and wished him well. The guy thanked him and quickly headed into the subway. "I've been there before, homeless," the Man with the Cans said. "I'm just happy to be healthy and alive. Do what you can and be happy with it" as he flashed another wide grin.

My girlfriend met up with me soon afterwards and we wished the Man the best. He cheerfully did the same, turned around and walked away.

W107 and Broadway - My Fishmonger

Upon buying a half pound of baby octopus, my fishmonger was telling me how he and a couple of friends were scuba diving one day and came across a shallow hole in the muddy sea floor maybe 4 feet in diameter. He peered inside and saw that it was filled with large white suction cups. It moved ever so slightly as two eyes came up like a periscope from between the tentacles to see what was going on. They slowly backed away and left.