July 1, 1997 6:15pm

"The unvoiced opinion that smoking really is about 'cool'". These two girls were crossing the street today as their dog ran ahead of them and sniffed the hand of the black man talking on the payphone. He immediately screamed for them to "get your fucking dog away from me, bitch!" The girls crossed and commented in return. It must have been something he didn't like because he quickly hung up the phone and ran to his truck, the bed of which was filled with branches he'd trimmed from some tree somewhere. He reached for a large branch and, finding it hard to maneuver it out of the truck's bed, resorted to the chainsaw laying in his front seat. As the girls were getting into their car he pulled at the chainsaw and started walking to their car screaming about how he was going to cut their "fucking white-ass bitches in half!" At the curb stood a white man of about 45 watching the entirety of this journal entry and laughed. Yesterday Ryan and I were walking to the laundromat and a guy came up to us trying to sell us cassette tapes, "$2 a piece, man, you guys like music?" Ryan says back, "NO WAY! I HATE MUSIC", "Yeah, but look at these tapes!" he says. "Nope, I only listen to lectures on tape, man, sorry," and the man continued to walk and we passed an older man in a mechanics uniform holding a crucifix in front of him and a radio to his ear. I ought to just write all this shit down as it happens; its so unbelievable. The city is a little unforgiving. I think it's in the water, as Steve says. I'm in desperate need of a cigarette.