SUBWAY SPEAK

On the way to meet the gnomeheid for a wander around Century 21 and J&R Records yesterday and over the subway tannoy comes ’this is a broken down 4 train to…….’.
There is no sign of anything being particularly wrong with the train as we’re veritably speeding along in the air-conditioned loveliness which is the underground in this city, so I thought no more of it until he repeated it again at the next station….and the next. Very confused now and then slightly alarmed when, between stations, tannoy man then announced in a drawl which was laid not back but totally down
‘We have personnel on the tracks close by….’
Uh?
Not one person is even looking up from their starbucks/dead tree media.
At the next stop a heavily armed policeman appears at the door of the carriage, does a quick sweep, and then moves off again. I’m thinking something really odd is going on by this point but again nobody even looks up.
‘You watch your step and have a nice day now’.

I tell you this is a frigging crazy city. Folks wandering around in subway tunnels/holding job interviews, broken down trains racing along with no concern for human safety, armed police checking out you’re not dressed to kill on your way to work.

I relate all this to the lovely gnome on arrival, she’s unfazed because she’s from Leith (so that was pretty much all in a days commuting to her in the first place).
But she’s been living here for 6 months now so we did manage to clear up one small mystery - ‘Brooklyn-bound’.
Not ‘broken down’.
Doh!

Executive summary:  A lesson in dialect