Brooklyn, what

Hasidic Jews do not shake hands with the opposite sex. When we arrived at the apartment building in Brooklyn to look at a place for Jami and Nicole, the broker apologized and said that they did not shake hands in his religion. It drove me crazy. I wanted to ask him a thousand questions.

Does this become a problem in business? Do you ever offend people? What the hell?

After he rushed us through three apartments I asked him about the handshake. That's when he told me that Hasidic Jews do not shake hands with the opposite sex but he would shake my hand. Dude would have been strange in anywhere else but he fit in just fine at this building. I loved the building, Jami hated it. It looked like a scene from "Factory Girl", the movie about Andy Warhol's muse, Edie Sedgwick. The doors were steel and each apartment had its own character due to the previous tenant's choice of wall location. There was one elevator that seemed perpetually full of extras from a David Lynch film. One guy was telling a story about bouncing somebody from a bar who was "obviously" on PCP. Not sure what people behave like when they are on PCP but apparently the symptoms are obvious.

Everyone was dressed all hip, not like members of the Strokes, more like each in their own individual hipness, as if they were the coolest human in Brooklyn which put them high in the running for coolest worldwide.

As I mentioned, Jami had strong feelings against the building but she is starting to fall for Brooklyn. If I end up in New York, I want to live in Brooklyn. It balances chic with edgy. The streets are lined with cafes, bars, record stores, and consignment shops, each with its own charm and all just minutes away from Manhattan.