Palmetto Bugs
My sister lived in a great off-campus apartment (wood burning fireplace!) off Bowery on Elizabeth Street, around the corner from CBGB and The Knitting Factory. It was above the bakery for Frank Sinatra's favorite restaurant in Little Italy. I was staying there, probably because my apartment (see Rat Stories) didn't have heat.
OK, it was above a bakery. Pro: come back from a show in the middle of the night, ask for a loaf of bread still hot from the ovens. Con: unusually large roaches. In Florida, these are termed "Palmetto Bugs" to distinguish them from less supersized roaches.
My sister and her roommate are safe in their beds, and I am on the comfy couch, when the nocturnal Palmetto Bug festivities begin. I know where the roach spray is (under the sink in the kitchen). My wisely frugal sister has purchased generic roach spray. I am very near-sighted, and can't really see much without glasses or contact lenses. I had been sleeping... the roaches are so large, I can see them. I go to the kitchen, get a can, and start stalking the roaches. And I spray and spray each one. I soak the roaches with spray; only one or two die, out of nine, before I give up.
Come to find out, I had been spraying them with silver polish from an identical can, and hadn't been able to read the label. #JoyceDaly also needs a feed... why would college students possess silver polish? Children of Joyce Daly need silver polish when they are in college & in fact, at all times.
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I have my Manhattan miracle apartment one summer, courtesy of my friend Katherine. I pay for one room, but it is a prewar three bedroom apartment on the top floor in an elevator building, and otherwise vacant. Much Q partying on the roof.
K's room backs up to the newly-renovated kitchen. At the end of the sublet, I'm cleaning, and I realize that I have seen a small roach in the bedroom I used (in these days, it was customary to set off roach bombs in the kitchen every morning before leaving for work, which I did do). I lifted up the mattress, and saw hundreds of them. Yeah, the nest was under the bed.
OK, it was above a bakery. Pro: come back from a show in the middle of the night, ask for a loaf of bread still hot from the ovens. Con: unusually large roaches. In Florida, these are termed "Palmetto Bugs" to distinguish them from less supersized roaches.
My sister and her roommate are safe in their beds, and I am on the comfy couch, when the nocturnal Palmetto Bug festivities begin. I know where the roach spray is (under the sink in the kitchen). My wisely frugal sister has purchased generic roach spray. I am very near-sighted, and can't really see much without glasses or contact lenses. I had been sleeping... the roaches are so large, I can see them. I go to the kitchen, get a can, and start stalking the roaches. And I spray and spray each one. I soak the roaches with spray; only one or two die, out of nine, before I give up.
Come to find out, I had been spraying them with silver polish from an identical can, and hadn't been able to read the label. #JoyceDaly also needs a feed... why would college students possess silver polish? Children of Joyce Daly need silver polish when they are in college & in fact, at all times.
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I have my Manhattan miracle apartment one summer, courtesy of my friend Katherine. I pay for one room, but it is a prewar three bedroom apartment on the top floor in an elevator building, and otherwise vacant. Much Q partying on the roof.
K's room backs up to the newly-renovated kitchen. At the end of the sublet, I'm cleaning, and I realize that I have seen a small roach in the bedroom I used (in these days, it was customary to set off roach bombs in the kitchen every morning before leaving for work, which I did do). I lifted up the mattress, and saw hundreds of them. Yeah, the nest was under the bed.
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