Popular Mechanic

The super is starting to figure it out, I think. Yesterday I was sweeping the rug when he came in and I made a big production of being caught sweeping as opposed to being caught reading, as if to say See, I told you so, I take my job seriously and I take my leisure to read only when the tasks at hand have been completed. It’s nice to feel like you’ve come to an understanding.
This lady, she lives on the _th floor, she was coming in at the same time, she’s been nice to me since she recently moved in, she’s a writer, she appreciates seeing people reading, she’s told me so. As I drove her to her floor, I explained to her my unusual exuberance with the broom, and she commiserated with me and wondered why reading should be against the rules at all and I told her it’s because the printed material of choice for “lotsatheseguys”, as I put it, would be indecorous (not as I put it). When I had the midnight shift, on more than a few occasions I would find skin magazines stashed in various spots around the lobby. I have nothing against centerfolds any more than any other average male, but I do have the good sense to realize that this lobby is not the place to appreciate them. There are only a couple men on staff who are inclined at all to read books, journals, serious magazines or newspapers (and a prohibition on newspapers makes sense- they just look messy), but there are a few guys there who I’m convinced are illiterate and uninclined to read even if it weren’t prohibited, and the rest are aliterate, and pretty much only interested in cheesecake pictures and glossy magazines full of things they can’t afford, which make them resentful of those who can afford them, and sometimes scornful of those who can afford them but don’t buy them. And electronics store circulars for some reason. There are more than a few guys there who could draw a graph for you of the fluctuations in the prices at of large-screen televisions at the major retailers in the area over the last five years and I only wish I was joking.
This lady, she’s flattering towards me, which is nice, as a little flattery goes a long way, I myself use it, she tells me I’m exceptional, (which I’m just vain enough to believe), that I should be allowed to read without being bothered or called out on it. I told her that that could not be the case, as, if I were not called out or somewhat reprimanded each time I was caught, the rules would become unenforceable. I alluded vaguely to many other’s choices of reading material, not wanting to subject her to the indelicacy of saying "pornography"- it makes me blush to speak of it to a certain kind of woman.
This lady, she said to me,
-Yeah some of these guys would read Popular Mechanics.
Popular Mechanic? She must have been joking. What must be her impression of me? Does she think, just because I read (ahem) literature (ahem) I would affect to look down on reading material that is merely useful? I wish some of these guys were inclined to read Popular Mechanic. In fact, left entirely up to me, I would subscribe to Popular Mechanic for the whole crew to read during idle times. And if a copy of Popular Mechanic was lying around, I would definitely read it to keep up my technological knowledge. I wish everyone I have to work with read Popular Mechanic. It would give them something to think about other than the fluctuations in the large screen television market.
I just had to clear that up.