High and low

East side observer

BY ARLENE KAYATT

Pick your high — MedMen on Fifth Avenue, in the immediate vicinity of Lord & Taylor’s on the opposite side of the street, is the place to find out all you ever wanted — or didn’t want — to know about marijuana. MedMen is primed for the leaf being made legal in New York. A team of red-shirted young men and women are ready to give you a primer on the effects of the leaf and how the user can decide which leaf will take him or her to their desired state of mind and being. No samples yet — just a book-brochure where you can learn all about it. Sit down and read the book at Simit Sarayi, the Turkish bakery and café right next door. After hearing the tutorial of the MedMen staffers, one couldn’t help but wonder how the law will address the various states of mind that marijuana users will have chosen if there are any mishaps or run-ins with the law as NYers turn over, well, a new leaf. All mirrors so far. No smoke yet.

Nobody’s bottom-up — Why don’t celebrity and big money candidates use their celebrity and money to take a bottom-up approach to their entry into government? Celebrity and big bucks alone shouldn’t create entitlement. Years-long advocacy and interest in public service are best used by government novices at the local level — City Council, public advocate, state Senate, Assembly. Celebrity notoriety and money can be as crass and undesirable as campaign financing as it exists. When celebrities and big bucks candidates start at the top, they serve only their ego and not the public.

Taking the cake — M7 bus riding south on Columbus Avenue weekday mid-afternoon. Man carrying a large cake box. Standing. Refused a seat because he didn’t want his wife’s birthday cake “messed up” if the bus made a shaky move. “Where’d you get the cake?” a lady rider wanted to know. “Glaser’s,” he said. “Well, be prepared to go someplace else next year. They’re closing,” she warned.” By this time, the entire front of the bus was commiserating over the closing. All suggestions for next year’s cake came from the front of the bus — including the driver. Consensus was that the bakery on either 105th or 106th and Broadway was the new go-to place for “a really good Glaser’s kind of cake.” A young girl getting off the bus wanted to know the name of the Glaser’s stand-in. “Sure,” said the man holding the cake. ”It’s Silver Moon on 105th and Broadway. I go there whenever I can’t make it to Glaser’s on the East Side. I live in Chelsea.” Who needs Google? Just ride the bus.

All 4’s — Heading to 14th and Fifth. Waiting at 59th and Central Park bus stop at 4 o’clock on a weekday afternoon. The stop’s home to the M1, M3, M4. Can’t do the M4. It turns on 37th Street. As luck would have it, four M4s descended on the bus stop at once. A fifth M4 discharged its passengers and became a “Not in Service” non-provider. Coincidence that all M4s arrive at the same time? Scheduling snafu? Or just business as usual? Another sorry bus story told too, too many times. This time x4 — make that 5.