New York Times

Metropolitan Diary: Out with the old

Dear Diary:

It was about 20 years ago, and my in-laws were moving. They offered my wife and me a television that they weren’t going to have room for in their new apartment.

It was fairly new, had a much sharper picture and better sound than our circa-1983 model and was about half as big and heavy.

Once we had taken possession of this svelte new beauty, I did what any self-respecting Brooklynite would do under such circumstances: I brought the old clunker out to the stoop so that someone could take it home and make use of it.

Almost as soon as I closed the door after taking out the TV, the bell rang. I opened the door to find a middle-age man standing there.

“What,” he said incredulously, pointing at the television, “no remote?”

— David Berger