New York City is known for the interesting characters that one encounters on the streets. In an article posted today on the New York Times one of these fixtures has come to an end. The article is about Joe Ades and is a fascinating read about a person who seems to have lived life in a way that just simply made him happy. From the article:
His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed his answer to the “So what do you do?” question: “I sell potato peelers on the street.” Mr. Ades (pronounced AH-dess) died on Sunday at 75, said his daughter, Ruth Ades Laurent of Manhattan. She said he never talked about how many peelers he sold in a year, or how many carrots he had sliced up during demonstrations. She said he stashed his inventory in what had been the maid’s room of the apartment.
Anyway, the article is definitely worth a read and can be read in its entirety here.