I must address a commonly seen/heard issue within the New York City, or namely Manhattan (since that's where I spend most of my time). There's no way to get around it, there are so many people that talk to themselves in NYC. If you live in NYC, you know what I'm talking about...but if you live elsewhere, you might think this topic is a bit strange. And it is.

I've lived in NYC for 6 yrs now and I still don't understand the constant self-chatter. There are a few reasons why people talk to themselves, here's what I've come up with:

1) An Actor - there are a lot of actors and singers here and you will see them walking along and talking to themselves. "To be or not to be..." "Is that a dagger I see before me...." "Oh Romeo, oh romeo..." "One time, at band camp..." And ya know, let them talk to themselves. It's a tough business. I hear that less than 1% of actors actually make enough money to support themselves, so if they need to talk to themselves and work out that monologue, then go for it.

But that's not who I'm talking about.

2) Outside Thinkers - I once heard that if you talk to yourself, you are smarter than someone who doesnt. But I think that might have been my mom who told me that, and she also told me that if your second toe is longer than your big toe, then you are smart too. So I'm not so sure about this one. But anyway, there are a lot of people walking alone on the street reminding themselves about grocery lists, to do lists, future plans...or even how they will tell someone something important - like working through it ahead of time.

But that too is not who I'm talking about.

3) I'm talking about the most obvious: they have been released from Bellvue Hospital or should possibly check themselves in. As a friend of mine used to say "he's a 51/50." I can't tell you how many crazy people there are in this city. And now I start to wonder what is the scale of craziness. I mean, you've got your average homeless person who, depending on his time on the street, could be an average joe/jane and they arent crazy, but then again, there arent too many of those people. Then you've got your homeless people who have been either cracked out or tired or hungry or all of the above and they think people passing them are creatures in some video game. They scare me sometimes. I once had a guy jump towards me trying to grab my head and he screamed like he was going through an exorcism. I almost went back home to restart my day. Moving on....then, you've got your crazy people who look normal, have clean clothes, live in fancy apartments but talk to themselves or act a bit 51/50. And i know of two solid contenders in my apartment building. One on my floor and one on the floor above mine, directly above my apartment. The one on my floor is your average self-talker...probably has a good education, but has lived alone for so many years that she could quite possibly have immaginary friends. I know for a fact that she thinks the government is out to get her after hearing her tell a strange story to our doorman once. Scary. And then there's the woman in the apartment above mine who is a pack-rat. She would only surface at 3am and she always looked very well put together...make-up and perfectly fixed hair. But my own doorman told me "if you knew what was in that apartment above you, you'd move." Shit! There's so much to tell about this woman...all the nutty stories might have to come at a later date because I'm getting off topic. Let me know if you're interested and I'll tell some stories.

Anyway... there are countless reasons why people talk to themselves...but I'm trying to figure out why so many in NYC? Is it because there are so many people here, yet you are taught not to talk to strangers so you go ahead and talk to yourself? Is it that with the per capita population being so great, you are bound to have more crazies per sq foot? Is it that the self-talkers have figured it out and those of us who keep quiet are missing out? I dunno, but it still seems strange to me....but what do I know, I just typed this entire blog while speaking it outloud....kidding!