That Street Is Poi-son!

ME: WALKING EAST ON 15th Street to the subway station on Friday night. Ahead: a slower, smoking woman talking on a cellphone. I speed up to pass. As I do, I hear her say, "I'll meet you on Bell Biv DeVoe Street."

I slow down to hear the rest of this.

"Yeah, Bell Biv DeVoe Street. 'That girl is poi-son!'"

I turn at this point, laughing at loud, to catch her eye. She smiles and says, "No, he's totally laughing with us."

She catches up with me at the corner of Seventh Avenue. I ask, "There's really a Bell Biv DeVoe Street?"

"No, it's Devoe Street in Brooklyn. My friends and I call it Bell Biv DeVoe Street."

"Oh," I laugh. "I thought some overzealous borough president had decided to name a street after them. Right next to Naughty by Nature Boulevard."

She laughs even harder, and walks up Seventh and away.