Subway Fare: Food for Thought

Subway riders in Cambridge, Mass., were puzzled at the empty cafe where, despite the neon sign exhorting passers-by to “Eat Here!” there wasn’t a single harried waiter in sight. For the gastronomic largess promised in the Kendall Square subway station is actually the work of artist A.E. Ryan and was commissioned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as a temporary installation to distract riders from the disarray caused by remodeling of the station. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, Ryan created a spoof of yuppie eateries with a cafe complete with bottles of mineral water and a menu offering goat cheese, watercress salad and hickory-grilled chicken. Subway riders who may not know art--but who do know what they like--have liked it so far. “It’s kind of cute,” said Phyllis Gutterman, 36, of Cambridge, who works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It keeps you busy while you’re waiting for the trains, although I wish they would spend the money improving the trains.” But there’s always a critic in the bunch. “To tell you the truth, it just seems like a bunch of junk to me,” said Sydney Smart, 41, an elementary school teacher from Cambridge.

--It was not James Johnson’s day. The assistant attorney general for Washington state was presenting arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court on his state’s ballot access law when he used the word “irregardless.” He was quickly corrected by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. “I feel bound to inform you there is no word irregardless in the English language. The word is regardless,” Rehnquist told him. A few minutes later, a still-flustered Johnson turned to Justice Byron White to respond to a query and confused him with Justice John Paul Stevens. “I feel obligated to tell you my name is White,” Johnson was told.

--Inmates entering New York City’s latest facility will be issued their prison garb and something new--Dramamine. As part of an emergency plan to add prison beds and relieve overcrowded jails, Mayor Edward I. Koch announced that the city will put 150 prisoners on an old Staten Island ferry. The boat will be ringed with razor ribbon security fences and will be anchored off Rikers Island. A TV room, showers and bathrooms will be provided on the boat, but inmates will be taken to Rikers for recreation periods. Asked about the possibility that prisoners may get seasick, Koch replied: “We’ll give them Dramamine.” Koch said that the city’s prison capacity has been doubled since 1979, but did not take into account the huge increase in arrests from Operation Pressure Point, in which 56,000 drug dealers were arrested last year.