Why I love New York
Because there will come a day, maybe a Wednesday, when you will be sitting on an M train, heading downtown. You may be thinking of other things or listening to an iPod or watching a schoolteacher try to herd 17 8-year-olds onto the train but then you will see it, lying on the subway car’s floor. A receipt.
From Meat Heaven.
You will pick it up, look at it, and think about this for a moment. Meat Heaven.
And the more you think about it, the more theological questions will arise.
Is this where all meat goes if it’s been good during its time on earth? Or only certain meat?
Isn’t this meat soon going to be seared by flames in some way?
And if that is Meat Hell, wouldn’t that make Meat Heaven more like… Meat Purgatory? Or would it be Meat Limbo?
Then your eye will wander down the length of the receipt to the bottom, and you will find yourself, as you rattle through a tunnel half a mile below ground, asking the most pressing question yet:
Who the fuck drops $67.30 on meat nowadays?!


July 31st, 2008 at 10:35 am
Maybe it was a caterer or someone buying for a restuarant.
Similarly, what’s one thing from a butcher that costs $27.55?
July 31st, 2008 at 10:42 am
A caterer wouldn’t be schlepping home meat on the subway, I don’t think — not even in NYC. Especially seeing as Brighton Beach is the distant end of Brooklyn.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:28 am
It was probably for a barbecue. If you’ve got a lot of pals I can see dropping that much. Ribs or something?
July 31st, 2008 at 12:22 pm
You should count yourself lucky, though, that you weren’t riding the Midnight Meat Train!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805570/
July 31st, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Someone cooking for a big family event or holy day. I know that when my friend’s mother makes her special brisket for Rosh Hashanah, the brisket’s $30 a lb (kosher meat is expensive). They only have a family of 4, but if you had extended family coming over… bam, 10 people, 3-4 lb roast, $100 of meat right there.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I spend almost that much on meat. Sadly, I’ve become a total glutton for all pastured meat from Marin Sun Farms and it isn’t cheap stuff.
August 1st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I love finding random things like this! Don’t think I would have given it as much thought as you did, but I would have probably stuck it to my fridge with a magnet.
I recently found a bit of unintentional poetry on the back of an airline ticket stub. Apparently most tickets have some such statement, but most people don’t view it as poetic. I do. It said something like, “Save this document as evidence of your journey.”
August 1st, 2008 at 5:40 pm
that sure is very random. You could spend $27.55 on a few steaks or a good sized roast.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Looking at the date it seems somebody was preparing for an upcoming Memorial Day picnic,backyard cook out or something to that effect.I could see if you have a large gathering, and a number of young people ,and or healthy adult males,it would be easy to send this much money on decent meat.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
When Philip’s father was visiting, he bought grass-fed filet mignon from Whole Food’s grocery store to cook up for himself, Philip and Philip’s brother Alex (I ate something else) and paid $100.00 on meat. We hardly ever buy meat, so I was astounded to see it cost so much.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Not only dropping $67 on meat, but paying in cash!
August 5th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Methinks someone is trying to buy his way into heaven, albeit Meat Heaven.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Um…a couple on the Atkins or South Beach Diet who has a freezer and actually does all of their weekly shopping in one trip?