Planet Duane Reade

Chains are selling a world as well as a product. You slow down your engines as you land on CVS, Walgreen’s, Wendy’s or Raymour & Flanigan. Everyone knows that one of life’s sublime pleasures is to quaff down an Impossible Whopper in the parking lot of Burger King while listening to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. Some of these stop-offs display the self-sufficiency of planet earth. Others like Dunkin’ Donuts could be sometimes threatening asteroids, floating through the cosmos chaotically without a rhyme or reason for their existence; you cannot survive In a Dunkin’ Donuts biosphere but Duane Reade is another matter to the extent that it comprises a universe filled with possibility. BTW did you know that Duane Reade is not named after a person but two streets in Tribeca? You could live forever in a DR whose aisles offer everything from dinner to Astroglide all served up in the Muzak of the spheres. Houston calling Duane Reade.

read "Pet Buddha" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

and listen to "25 Miles From Home" by Edwin Starr