The Best Metropolitan Diary of 2023: The Readers Speak

The Winner

Valuable Tips

Dear Diary:

I was taking a walk in the Wall Street area a few years ago when I decided to pop into a deli.

I ordered a sandwich and began chatting with the proprietor as he made it. Our conversation eventually turned to the shop’s location.

I asked whether being in the financial district ever caused him to play the stock market or led to his getting valuable tips from informed customers.

He paused his sandwich-making, put down his knife and looked at me with a perplexed expression.

“Every day, those brokers come in here,” he said. “They get their bagels, sandwiches, doughnuts, coffee, cigarettes … ”

He paused again and pointed toward the door of his shop.

“ … and every day, they’re out there on the sidewalk, pushing and shoving on a door that is clearly marked ‘pull.’”

— Steven Scharff