Shut the Door

As far as inside jokes go, they don’t get any more obscure than this homage to the Mudspot door. Mudspot (for the uninitiated) is one of those places that became an instant hangout for E.Vil. neighborhoodies because the warm and welcoming atmosphere guarantees good conversation with funny and interesting people (oh, and the coffee’s good too).

But the door, you see, is a hundred year-old solid wood thing that doesn’t shut automatically, it has to be pulled with some umph. When it’s cold out, regular Mudsters like to make a show of getting up and slamming it after non-regulars (i.e. outsiders) have sashayed out, coffee in hand, leaving a trail of obliviousness behind them. Many jokes and complaints later, someone suggested the door should have it’s own web presence. And sure enough, last winter, there it appeared, the MySpace Door At Mud page:

Status: Swinger
Here for: Friends
Sign: Virgo (because it opens in early Sept.)
Home Town: E. 9th St.

The MySpace Mud Door page now boasts 35 friends who leave clever little notes such as: “Oh MudDoor how I long to complete thee! I could not dare count the brisk fall & winter days I’ve stared at you longing to move you with my eyes alone, to press my body up against you and slam you against your frame…. to hold you tightly so you could be moved by none other!”

This January weekend, when temperatures hit 70 degrees, the door at Mudspot, as you might imagine, was pretty much wide open all day, and the conversation, as you might also imagine, centered on one topic: Everyone is rather guiltily enjoying the 70 degree weather.

The most recent joke about the door: before too long, it’ll be dismantled and used as a flotation device when Lower Manhattan is flooded by rising sea levels. But until that day of reckoning comes, the Mudspot door will continue to swing.