I was New Yorked once again today. To be "New Yorked" is to be forced into a trying situation (or, in plain and simple terms, get screwed) by the entrenched protocol of New York City. I was New Yorked today by the stationery monopoly which exists around Columbia. Or perhaps the industry monopoly in all the neighborhoods that actually have more of a use for stationery (to the morons who put a Staples in Soho...use your goddamn heads!) in keeping big box giants (read: CHEAP STUFF) out of their neighborhoods. My glorious New Yorking today was the purchase of 2 teensy notebooks for my Chinese class (mandatory, yes, otherwise I would be handing in sheets of loose-leaf) at an exorbitant 3 bucks/piece(!). The hilarious thing too was that I went into 3 "separate" stationery stores looking for these damn books before I found what I was looking for and much to my not-so-surprise, all three stores were owned by the same owner. Eesh. What can I say...I live in a city with sky high rent and life is expensive. 3 dollars a teensy notebook expensive.