From Monday’s New York Times Metropolitan Diary:

Dear Diary:

The news in late May about the closing performances of Marina Abramovic’s installation at the Museum of Modern Art reminded me of the following conversation overheard several months ago:

Place: M104 bus stop, Broadway and 100th Street.

Dramatis Personae: Boy, perhaps 9 or 10; his mother.

They are in the midst of an animated conversation. Boy is pretty excited, laughing.

Boy: “ So you saw these people at the museum, and they were naked?”

Mom: “Yes, they were naked.”

Boy: “Not a statue, like at the Met where they have the Greek statues that are sort of naked, but real live people, who are, like, naked, with no clothes on?”

Mom: “Nope, not a statue. Naked people, a man and a woman. They just stand there.”

Boy (Looks for 104, which isn’t coming. After a moment): “I think our class should go there on a field trip!”

Mom: “Well, I don’t think it’s the kind of exhibit that your class would go to.”

Boy (thinks about this for a moment): “Maybe I could go there on a play date?”

Peter Hagan

Hey – the whole MOMA exhibit was a playdate, especially the nudie parts.

Example:

(See the hardblushing staff’s coverage here and here and here.)

So long, Marina. Truth to tell, we’re starting to miss you.