My KCRW Messenger Bag

Favorite Music: KCRW.com

Simple enough. And if you don't get it you can get it easily with standard internet research: go here. That said, I think it's obvious to everyone that I'm a big fan of NPR in general, KCRW in particular, and that a huge fantasy of mine is to meet a girl purely based on NPR.

So I was in Panera earlier today (actually I still am), and I had sat down with my sandwich and my copy of The Power Broker for a long session of reading. Two tables down I immediately recognize a girl, ca. 22, who I had seen, and even found cute, in this Panera before. I couldn't help recognize her because she was talking rather strongly about politics. Her moderate position was quickly evident, as she said that the Republican party had been subverted and the Democrats can't put up a good candidate to counter them. But then she launches into how Americans are apparently unaware of how we are out of favor in the rest of the world, how we have no idea of how the rest of the world functions, and then how her dad, an "extremely, ridiculously intelligent" Jewish man, did not know who Ariel Sharon was. And on and on...

I find myself extremely sensitive to politics these days and knew that staying where I was, able to hear her every word, would not result in much progress in my books. So I decided to move to the back as subtly as possible: a quite difficult task since I had a buttload of stuff. Eventually I wound up back here, cheerfully enjoying my turkey sandwich, when the very same girl came back and asked me if "that was a WNYC messenger bag"! My biggest fantasy come true!

I said, "Well not really, it's actually KCRW, the one out in L.A." I can't really tell if she could understand that by "one" I meant NPR station. Still, I think she was impressed, and seeing as how she comes here all the time, I'm sure I'll get to know her eventually. But I'm scared of her politics and I really don't want to get in a fight with her. I hope you enjoy the irony, though, that she came up to talk to me about NPR even though I had changed seats to get away from her.