Whenever my out-of-town town friends mock my tolerance for the daily inconveniences and humiliations of NYC life, I can usually chalk it up to their obvious jealousy and feelings of inferiority of living in a lesser city. But after spending ten minutes in the rain to enter, twenty minutes to check-out, and $130 on barely a week’s worth of food at a store that’s only just now come to New York, all I can say is: hey, at least we have a 24 hour subway.

(Trader Joe’s, 14 St, Manhattan)