At yoga this morning, I ran into author Tony Rafael (The Mexican Mafia). He’s working on a new book about the Mexican drug cartels and their cooperation with the Mexican Mafia (American born Hispanics who control gang activity in Los Angeles, and take particular delight in driving blacks out of certain neighborhoods).
Tony’s wife brought him. She’s a certified instructor of Kundalini Yoga.
An old woman comes up to me while I am lying on my back with my legs going up the wall and immersed in memorizing the Hebrew blessing after a snack (al hamichya).
"Excuse me," she says. "I smelled a smell in the bathroom that smelled so good, I have to know what it is. It smelled like cedar."
"Split pea soup," I want to tell her but I say nothing.
"Was it you?" she asks.
I shake my head.
She leans in to me and starts sniffing under my arm.
I’ve just started using "Swagger" deodorant and the crone was excited. "Hmm, it wasn’t that," she says, "but it’s a great smell."
Then she moves on to question someone else about the great smell in the bathroom.