Samurai sharpening chef
John was reading on "Weird carry-on packages" when he shared this unsettling tale:
"My favorite item brought on the 'El wasn't anything all that strange, but everything around it was. I was on the Brown Line, around 2 p.m., when a student from CHIC (Culinary and Hospitality Institute of Chicago) gets on the train and sits down.
"He is still decked out in his cooking outfit and he pulls out a huge carving knife. He then pulls out his sharpening "sword," and with his arms raised above his head, makes a huge show of sharpening his knife.
"What was hilarious was the fact that the more that people were ignoring him, the louder and faster his sharpening got. Of course, this was several years ago, before 9/11, but it was still amazing that no one paid any attention to this crazy chef-in-training as he sharpened his knives on the train."
Recently two teenagers got on the northbound Red Line with gigantic Samurai swords that they had just apparently purchased at a dealer or auction. They handled them admiringly and talked to each other the rest of the trip about how they were going to go up on a roof and give them a workout. Lucky for me, they did not take the knives out of their sheathes while on board (though I was fully expecting it).
Posted by: bob | November 23, 2004 at 04:03 PM
Someone got on the Halstead bus at division with an AXE the other night, we still allow this after 9/11, then again was this allowed before 9/11, Division and Halstead is nowhere I'd want someone to hop on with an axe.
Posted by: theflyingturtle | November 24, 2004 at 07:25 PM
Someone got on the Halstead bus at division with an AXE the other night, we still allow this after 9/11, then again was this allowed before 9/11, Division and Halstead is nowhere I'd want someone to hop on with an axe.
Posted by: theflyingturtle | November 24, 2004 at 07:31 PM
A friend of mine used to be a chef in NYC but she lived across the river in New Jersey, so she had to ride the PATH subway home, often quite late at night. She said she didn't mind riding the train so late, but if she saw "odd" or "potentially dangerous" looking people, she'd unroll her knife kit and start sharpening her knives. Wonder if the first guy was thinking the same - a kind of speechless "stay away from ME buddy" kind of thing?
Posted by: Melime | July 15, 2005 at 01:52 PM
I once saw a man holding a pigeon in his lap. They got off at the Morse Red Line stop; he was still holding it a block later, but I don't know what happened after that...
Posted by: LL | November 16, 2006 at 11:58 AM