I wrote here not long ago about my brilliant and delightful student, Natsue Okabe, and her brilliant and delightful blog. Her latest entry is about our class field trip down Coney Island Avenue.

Today, she gave her final presentation in my class. The students had been assigned to give a report on a neighborhood that we hadn’t had a chance to visit as a class. Natsue’s topic was Williamsburg. She was full of historical and cultural information about that area, and she peppered the presentation with profiles of Williamsburg people (including a Hasidic man who refused to be photographed). Imagine my surprise when she introduced a powerpoint slide with a picture of Lisa Jarnot! “Hey, that’s Lisa!” I exclaimed. Natsue had interviewed Lisa, who was selling stuff on the street, about her feelings about living in Williamsburg (she didn’t care about the changes in the neighborhood, but she complained about the rent). Isn’t that odd? What are the chances, with all the millions of people living in this metropolis, of such a coincidence occurring, do you think?