Breaking News From The Past!

Am sitting in the house writing when I hear the clanging of a bell that sounds way more broken down then your usual Mr. Softee truck chime. What the heck? Have some renegade Lubavitchers come to call on the Slope? Or the East Village Hare Krishnas? Is it the Spanish-lady-manned water ice cart?

Reader, it was a beat-up old red tin can of a mail truck containing a knife-grinder! On my little side street! Screw the Paw-Tisserie and the fancy lady boutiques on Fifth Avenue and the upscaling of the Key and Associated Foods! Del Re's Grinding, from Staten Island. Though someone's now-defunct blog tells me Del Re is from the Heights. I forgot the street address already that was hand-painted on the side of the truck. Don't know if it's the same guy they wrote about in the City section a while back. I should have run out there with the steak knives I've been using to cut tomatoes and onions since college. But I was too stunned.