# Oddest things I've seen since moving to NYC **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 8, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395 "2012-12-08T04:30:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/41 "2012-12-09T20:31:06Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Or “Rolleriina,” the middle-aged guy wearing a traditional wedding gown and carrying a wand . . . on roller skates. Ah yes, Rollerina! I think a Doper mentioned awhile back that he/she is still alive and makes the occasional guest appearance. I was greeted with the touch of her magic wand several times over the years on Christopher Street. (And no, not “that” magic wand…) I was walking with a friend and we were in some deep conversation and didn’t notice we walked through barriers blocking the sidewalk. Two cops, holding guns and pointing them at a doorway yelled for us to get our asses out of there! Saw an elderly man in the park drop his pants and take a dump right there on the sidewalk. Not a pretty picture. Took a wild taxi ride with insane driver, cut the corner too fast and knocked over a parked motorcycle, riding so fast we were flying through the air and finally a cop pulled us over and the taxi driver said, “Again? This is the third time I have been stopped today!” Cops told us to get out of the taxi and we didn’t have to pay and they arrested the taxi driver. Turned a corner and ran into a guy I knew from Berlin who had arrived that day and we meet by coincidence on a NYC street! He reached in his top pocket and there was my phone number and he was just going to call me. On that same day, I walked by a cafe and saw a group of guys and one was another friend from Berlin. We said hello and he introduced me to the other guys from Berlin with him. Years later did I find out one of the guys was my future SO’s brother! So many stories I am forgetting, but NYC certainly does lend itself to some rather odd situations/stories/events. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/42 "2012-12-09T20:44:31Z")
After reading this thread, I realized: I just have to visit New York some time! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/43 "2012-12-09T21:59:10Z")
Or San Francisco. I vacationed out there by myself last summer, and had the same reaction on my first day. I swear, every corner I turned, I was like “Wha…? This guy’s crazy. And this lady’s magical. And that dude’s hilarious. And this guy’s… gross…!” ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/44 "2012-12-09T22:03:47Z")
> [@taskmgr.exe](#): > > Exactly. Perhaps, I have little or no tolerance for eccentric and extreme behaviors. ☹ Why do I think you live someplace where people strike up conversations? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/45 "2012-12-09T22:10:01Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > \ > 3. Strange man who ran up to me one day and hollared at the top of his lungs, “YOU’RE SO HOT! YOU’RE SO FUCKING HOT!” I screamed like a wussy and fled. > \ Are you? ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/46 "2012-12-09T22:34:59Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > … > On the sidewalk, a religious nut was carrying a sign and shouting scripture and dire warnings with absolute conviction at pedestrians who just skirted around him as they passed. Maybe that’s fairly common there, but it was new and fascinating to me. > … > What impressed me the most about my experience in NYC was the tolerance that New Yorkers had for eccentric behaviour. In my straight-laced hometown, the religious nut would have been hauled away by the police in short order, and the fighting couple would have been told to leave immediately. Even before I moved to New York, I would have found those kinds of religious displays to be somewhat odd, but definitely legal and acceptable. On what grounds would the police have for arresting such people? ---
**Author:** ![taskmgr.exe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@taskmgr.exe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taskmgr.exe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/47 "2012-12-09T22:43:01Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > Why do I think you live someplace where people strike up conversations? I don’t understand what you’re asking. You’re the one who possesses this thought and you must know the reason of thinking that. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2012, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/48 "2012-12-09T23:04:20Z")
Funny, I lived for two years in NY and, leaving obvious nut cases talking to themselves but bothering no one, I never saw any truly weird behavior. And I used to regularly (at least twice a week) walk from Morningside Heights to the village, a distance of about 6 miles, so I would have plenty of opportunity to see it. Now my daughter lives in NY (now in Brooklyn, but for 15 years in Stuyvesant Town) and my wife and I visit regularly and I didn’t see any particular aberrant behavior. And I would move to NY in a minute…if only we could get Canadian-style medicare. But I don’t have quite enough SS credits for even the poor version of medicare that American seniors are fighting to preserve. ---
**Author:** ![taskmgr.exe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@taskmgr.exe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taskmgr.exe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/49 "2012-12-10T00:03:39Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Funny, I lived for two years in NY and, leaving obvious nut cases talking to themselves but bothering no one, Yes, I wonder what’s wrong with these people. Why do they talk to themselves? There were much more of them in NYC than any other cities that I visited. Seriously, why? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/50 "2012-12-10T00:38:25Z")
I’ll [repost my weirdest experience in Chicago](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2935351&postcount=47) below, and I mean weirder than the guy on Michigan Avenue outside Water Tower Place wearing a suit and [protesting with a big sign about how the FBI is raping his wife](http://chicagoist.com/2006/05/16/fbi_stop_raping_my_wife.php): [QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Now’s probably the time to state that I’ve never done anything stronger than alcohol or caffeine in my life, and I was on neither at the time I saw this event. I was also not sleep-deprived, hallucinating, or dreaming. (I think. I hope.) I’ve worked in downtown Chicago for several years now, and have taken the L (elevated train/subway) enough while working there, usually when I don’t have a ticket for the shuttle bus to my workplace. I’d never seen anything truly weird on it though, or if I had it pales in comparison to this. It’s about 6:00 on a weeknight, and I’m on the L on the way to the train station. There are a few other people in my car. We stop, doors open, I hear one person get on but don’t really look. I hear the newcomer start to preach quietly, but it doesn’t sound all hateful or anything, so I just glance over. I blink. I glance again. Then I try to do the looking-out-of-the-corner-of-my-eye thing so as to try to scope this situation out without just staring. Fortunately for my sanity at this point, I see other people in the car doing the same thing. The guy is slim, tall, and has some kind of very worn cloth padding on all over his body, over a sweatshirt and jeans. He has on high boots, shin guards, some kind of chest padding that laces up the back (and I notice is carefully laced up), forearm guards, some kind of gloves. He has with him one of those handcarts like they use in grocery stores or warehouses, the upright kind that you put a few boxes on. On it are a couple of those milk crates with something in them, and a large, oversized ball of some kind (basket or football, brown, large hole as if a lid had popped off - obviously a novelty thing and not a real ball) on top of the whole lot. But here’s the **really** weird part. On his face he had some kind of silver mask, or else the best silver makeup job I’ve ever seen - because I swear the mouth on the mask moved properly as he spoke. Mind you, I didn’t look really closely because I was trying to not make eye contact, but it looked very smooth and seamless. It was a definite contrast to the extremely worn padding that he had on. My little brain was still trying to deal with the cognitive dissonance while trying to take in as much information as possible to figure the whole thing (I noticed as he got close - he was slowly walking back and forth in the car, preaching calmly about how the end time was near - that he didn’t smell bad or anything, so I’m not sure he was homeless), and then the car pulled up to my stop. I got out and felt almost dazed. Blue Man Group reject? Superhero wannabe? I temporarily slipped into an issue of the _Sandman_ or _Hellblazer_ comic books? I have no idea. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/51 "2012-12-10T00:43:11Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Has anyone seen the squirrel man down close to the ferries to the Statue of Liberty? A skinny old Chinese-looking man sitting on a bench letting squirrels climb over him. Wait, what? How do you get squirrels to do that? Do you smear peanut butter on your pants or something? Just lie down really, really still? I MUST KNOW SO I CAN DO THIS ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/52 "2012-12-10T01:42:55Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Then the CHUDs came… We’re they all wiped out by Sandy? ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/53 "2012-12-10T02:35:23Z")
> [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > Wait, what? How do you get squirrels to do that? Do you smear peanut butter on your pants or something? Just lie down really, really still? > > I MUST KNOW SO I CAN DO THIS It happens. I was walking home from the bus stop a couple of months ago (not in NYC) and had a squirrel run up to me from across the street. When I stopped, it climbed up my pant leg and looked expectantly at me for a few moments, then jumped down and scurried up a tree. Maybe someone in the neighbourhood was hand feeding them and it was expecting food. I do know that half a dozen peanuts is all it takes to get chipmunks climbing all over you looking for more. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2012, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/54 "2012-12-10T03:09:19Z")
> [@taskmgr.exe](#): > > Exactly. Perhaps, I have little or no tolerance for eccentric and extreme behaviors. ☹ Quoted for irony. > [@ReticulatingSplines](#): > > Wait, what? How do you get squirrels to do that? Do you smear peanut butter on your pants or something? Just lie down really, really still? > > I MUST KNOW SO I CAN DO THIS > [@Bookkeeper](#): > > It happens. I was walking home from the bus stop a couple of months ago (not in NYC) and had a squirrel run up to me from across the street. When I stopped, it climbed up my pant leg and looked expectantly at me for a few moments, then jumped down and scurried up a tree. Maybe someone in the neighbourhood was hand feeding them and it was expecting food. I do know that half a dozen peanuts is all it takes to get chipmunks climbing all over you looking for more. The squirrels in the little park by the ferries seem to be used to people feeding them. They’d even start to follow us a ways if we looked at them for any length of time. I can’t remember if the man was actually feeding them too, but they were obviously looking for a snack. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/55 "2012-12-13T07:03:27Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Turned a corner and ran into a guy I knew from Berlin who had arrived that day and we meet by coincidence on a NYC street! He reached in his top pocket and there was my phone number and he was just going to call me. > > On that same day, I walked by a cafe and saw a group of guys and one was another friend from Berlin. We said hello and he introduced me to the other guys from Berlin with him. Years later did I find out one of the guys was my future SO’s brother! > > So many stories I am forgetting, but NYC certainly does lend itself to some rather odd situations/stories/events. NYC is the biggest small town in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/56 "2012-12-13T12:52:06Z")
I think you can come up with odd coincidental meeting stories anywhere. The summer before my senior year in college, at New College in Sarasota, Florida, I took some courses during the summer term at the University of Michigan. When I returned to college that fall at New College, a fellow student came up to me and asked, “Were you in Ann Arbor, Michigan this summer?” It seems that this guy, who lived somewhere in Florida, traveled to Michigan by bus to visit his girlfriend. While passing through Ann Arbor, he happened to look out the window and see me walking along the street. ---
**Author:** ![mo50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@mo50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mo50)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/57 "2012-12-13T15:10:24Z")
Once saw the Dalai Lama walking down Fifth avenue south of the Met on the park side of the street. I can only guess he had some appearance he was making in the area. No attendants, no security, no media, just him. A few people who’d also noticed him were following at a respectful distance. Absolutely surreal! (No, didn’t say “Hello Dalai”, to my everlasting regret!) ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/58 "2012-12-13T15:40:57Z")
I seem to attract the unusual. My husband has only ever shared one ‘off-beat’ experience with me. Alone, I have encountered the day releases from the local group home, the lone religious weirdos, the William Wallace guy (not Mel Gibson), the guy who finds me in a shop and waves around a package asking me how much it is… With my husband, and apropos of the thread, in New York, we were walking near Madison Square Garden and happened upon an alleyway. There were two male cops, one of whom was holding the harness of a German Shepard. The third cop, a very small woman, had a large man up against a wall and was kneeing him in the backs of the thighs. I have no idea what was being accomplished, but a small crowd had gathered by the time we walked by. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/59 "2012-12-13T15:43:05Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Then this dude materializes out of nowhere and mumbles something about wizards. > > “What?” > “Are you the one they call The Wizard?” he repeats, breathlessly. > “Uh, no.” > “Oh, okay, my fault.” > > And with that he walks off. I heard him when he got across the street, though, telling somebody that he’s pretty sure I was The Wizard. When somebody asks you if you’re a wizard… YOU SAY YES!! ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395/60 "2012-12-13T15:47:39Z")
\*\*Ferret Herder: \*\*Street performer on his way home, outer costume rolled up in one of the milk crates? I’ve seen some very impressive “robot guys” in NYC and SF; this all sounds like one such. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddest-things-ive-seen-since-moving-to-nyc/643395.md?page=4)