Happy Strangers’ Day

New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast has declared today, August 24th, to be Strangers’ Day. The idea, as you can see below from the cards she’s created, is to tell complete strangers how little they mean to you:

I myself have improvised a few couplets on that subject:

We both breathe air; we both have navels.
That and $1.50 will buy you a bagel.

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
Anything you like — it’s no affair of mine.

Two paths diverged in a yellow wood:
You take one, I’ll take the other.

And to a very special category of stranger:

You and I have never met,
But still, great joy you give.
Your clicks, your Facebook shares, your tweets
Assure me I’ve the right to live.
Keep ’em coming, Reader sweet
–Not to be manipulative —
Are you besotted yet?