By nature, Harlem isn't the best smelling place. And despite frequent dumpster trips, if our trash is in our hot apartment just a couple hours too long, a suspicious smell develops. Candles are our best defense. I strongly prefer Yankee Candles because I am comfortable with the smell strength and am excited by the different fragrances and how they're always arranged chromatically. Our favorite summer scent is Vanilla-Lime.Since I'm talking about candles I'll tell one of my favorite Harlem-life stories. Six months ago at a winter clear-out sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond I snagged a practically free Molasses scented candle. It was a not-so-subtle fragrance but it smelled so good, we lit it anyway and enjoyed our entire apartment smelling like syrup. One day after school our UPS man, James, came up with a package. James is mid-30s, big and tall, and extremely friendly. I open the door and while I'm signing for the package he leans through the door a little, looks at me with a knowing look, and says, "What? You eating waffles." A smile crossed my face, "Nope just our candle".
The best part is the embedded meaning in James' simple "what". The context, the tone...I believe a full pragmatic analysis would translate "what" to "I figured out what you're up to".
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