My friends took me to Milk, this awesome ice cream etc. shop in Los Angeles.  I had the best hazelnut gelato ever.  It’s in a really wacky neighbourhood that offers great people watching.  It was like, watch the crowd of hipsters walk by and then watch the cluster of Hasidic Jews walk by.  My friend pointed out a guy who belongs to a certain sect of Orthodox jews who hang out in this neighbourhood.  She doesn’t know the name but she’s jewish, so she notices these things. 

The men in this sect where a fur hat that has a brim almost as wide in diameter as a sombrero, but it’s also 4 inches high.  So it’s like a big black fur disk on their head.  And then the clothes are the usual black and they also wear ivory-colored wooley knee socks with black shoes.  I cannot imagine how hot it would be wearing that walking down the street in the blinding daylight on a summer Sabbath day.  I would definitely convert to a less clothing restrictive religion, but I’m weak that way and they’re obviously not.

Anyhoo, we were sitting at the sidewalk tables and started chatting to the people at the next table who were eating a gingerbread cupcake and a wicked-looking chocolate sundae.  They said they go to Milk once a week but they don’t feel too guilty about it because they walk there.

She said, “actually once we get home from work we walk everywhere here.”  I said, “wow how nice to be able to do that.”  And she said, “I know, it’s like living in a REAL city!”