Politics
‘A Car With a Strange Wooden Contraption on the Roof Drove By’
Catapults and chocolates in Brooklyn, howling in the East Village and more reader tales of New York City in this week’s Metropolitan Diary.
Great Trebulation
Dear Diary:
It was late afternoon on a Sunday in April. I was walking down Flushing Avenue near Green Central Knoll playground in Brooklyn with my husband and a friend. We were dressed in full colonial attire.
A car with a strange wooden contraption on the roof drove by blasting “We Are the Champions.”
A tired-looking woman wearing a hoodie and a baseball hat approached. Her weariness, I guessed, was a result of the previous night’s festivities.
Do you know what is going on around here? she asked us.
A trebuchet contest, we said.
What’s a trebuchet? she asked.
A catapult, we explained. You build small catapults and shoot pieces of chocolate from them. See those guys in the car with the thing tied to the roof? They won, and we lost, unfortunately.
She did not seem to share our excitement about the Great Trebulation.
We live in a weird place, she said.
— Julia Lansford
