Friday, July 13, 2018 8:27 AM

"Good morning, John!" The supermarket greeter gives me his usual grin and handshake. For the first couple of months, I had told him each time that my name is actually Joe, but I've given up. "You appear exhausted from your nights of work," he says. Another customer comes up to us. "This man only speaks English? You should speak Hebrew to him." The greeter shrugs. A man with a cane waves his free hand. "Our friend speaks every language, whenever he can." He and the greeter exchange a few sentences of what I think is Turkish. An older woman comes out of the store. "You have no chairs where I can sit down?" The greeter gestures graciously. "For you, of course!" He takes a price sign off a stack of white plastic chairs, then lifts the top few off and puts one from the middle on the ground. "Here, for you, a beautiful clean one that won't get your white skirt dirty." The woman nods and sits down. More people come by. They speak even more languages. I go in to finish my shopping so I can get home and finally go to sleep.