NY Encounters: Where Hollywood Buys Its Mentos

Sheryl and I were out walking on Broadway this afternoon, and we stopped at a news-bodega at 95th Street to buy the Rolling Stone with Jon Stewart on the cover. Feeling exuberant, Sheryl pointed to the cover and me and told the vendor, "That's his boss!" The vendor replied, "Want to see a picture of me? It is not what you would expect." Frankly, we weren't expecting to be asked in the first place, but we consented. The man - whose name we would soon learn was Zahir -- produced a photo album, the first page of which showed a younger, barechested Zahir. I didn't know if I liked where this photographic exchange was going, but Sheryl quickly (and correctly) guessed that he used to be a body-builder. Then Zahir posed a challenge: "I have met a famous person. Can you guess who?" Despite this painfully obvious clue, we were unable to guess. Sheryl said, "John Kerry?" Zahir said no. I said, "George Bush?" Zahir made a face like he just ingested a rancid lemon. Finally, Zahir showed us his collection of him and various celebrities, taken at his old news shop at Columbus and 86th: Zahir and Paul Newman, Zahir Zahir and comedienne Wendy Liebman, Zahir and a local NY TV news anchor neither of us recognized but both nodded as if we did, Zahir with someone we didn't recognize at all but nodded even less convincingly at. Then, breathless with excitement, he recounted the celebs who'd come in his shop but he lacked photo evidence of: Alec Baldwin & Kim Basinger, Kevin Bacon, and either Kevin Kline or Costner -- it was never made clear. All I can say is, if Zahir keeps accumulating A-list cred like this, there may come a day when a musclebound bouncer (a proto-Zahir, if you will) stands by the bodega, refusing to let you buy your TimeOut "Cheap Eats" issue if you're "not on the list."