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In the Bronx, about a 15-minute walk from the Whitlock Avenue stop on the 6 Train, is the outlet store for ABC Carpet & Home. On Sunday, a few of us went up there so that Michael & Calvin (see friends to the right) could buy a new TV stand. Or something that would look enough like a TV stand to work as a TV stand. What they ended up with was a "marriage table" from Indonesia, which was labeled circa 1900, and which the salesman, Dean, explained wasn't necessarily from 1900 since things simply arrived, he said, "on the boat."

ABC reminds you that, in New York City (as with many other cities,) money not only buys you nice things, but, more importantly, it buys you lots of space. Who buys the antique rugs that measure 20' x 20'? The runners that are forty feet long? I should have taken pictures.

I wondered, as the four of us were walking by the gas station, over the Harlem River, down the gravel road next to the bodega which sold (according to its awning) "Eggs - Paper Bags - Provisions - Drinks," if the locals were used to little groups of queers hopping off the train and swishing through their neighborhood. None of us are that swishy, but taken out of context, I'm sure we looked, simply, wrong. Perhaps just as wrong as the rich white women, with severe faces and statement jewelry, who arrive in the parking lot with their drivers. Or maybe they send their designers out to do the shopping for them.