I took a photo of a woman smoking in front of a No Smoking sign at Metrotown. She got up and left after I took the picture, though I don’t think she actually saw me (I was not close by).
I see smokers doing this a lot. I wonder if they are simply natural born rebels (“You can’t tell me smoking is addictive, smelly and expensive!”) or if smoking somehow causes them to read signs and interpret them in the opposite manner (“I must smoke here, I see the little cigarette symbol.”) or if maybe there are so few places for people to smoke now that they just smoke anywhere outside because nicotine/addiction/etc.
Mostly I just like the juxtaposition.
Here’s another one I took in Central Park. This is a nice place to go for a leisurely stroll, especially if your hip isn’t stupidly sore. I hadn’t been there for awhile and went to consult the map to find the little duck pond so I could look delightedly at the ducks. The map was kind of a “make your own adventure” thing:
I eventually found the pond with the ducks and noticed it was also stocked with zombie fish. You can’t really tell in the shot below but if it was animated it would look no different because these were the least active but not actually dead fish I have ever seen. Given that it was recently confirmed that this July was the hottest since they started keeping records (and also the hottest month ever) the fish are probably swimming in the equivalent of warm soup. I felt bad for them, even though their hips would be perfectly healthy if, you know, fish had hips.
By the by, I realize I have the photographic eye of a tree sloth. If I was feeling a little more limber and daring I might have tried climbing a tree for a more dramatic angle on the fish, but I was sore (the hip, you see), it was hot and why risk falling on the fish and making their lives even more wretched? Plus I wouldn’t put it past myself to drown in two feet of water. I am not Aquaman.
