So I walked over to the Manhattan Mall on my lunch break today, to pick up a copy of the new Beck CD. I was on my way back, on 34th Street between Fifth and Madison, when I heard a voice yelling off to my right in the street: "Hey, buddy! Do you live around here?"

I looked. There was a black SUV idling in the street not far away. The windows were all tinted black. A young white guy was leaning his face out the passenger window.

"Why?" I said, in that surly New York way we have.

The guy jerked his thumb at the back seat. "Do you want a free home theater system? Our boss just gave us one."

"No," I said, and the SUV peeled out and raced away like a ghost was chasing it.

Jesus, who knows what might have happened if I'd said yes.