9:30 this morning, huge crowd heading down to the 4-5-6 trains under Grand Central.

There’s an ugly jam-up at the stairs. The 5 has just left, but it appears to have been several minutes since a 6 pulled in, and impatient would-be straphangers are massed on the platform, contributing to the bottleneck.

Then the jam’s true culprit becomes apparent. At the bottom of the stairs, a man sits. He’s got dreadlocks and a colorful pair of boxers, his jeans way, way below the waist level. He’s sleeping on the bottom step.

The man ahead of me, a stone-faced suit, hits the guy in the back of the head as he passes. I can’t say for sure it was intentional, but smart money says it was the sort of tap a hockey defenseman gives a forward who’s camped too close to the crease.

The slumbering fool is more or less something you see every day, until I realize what, other than the bright boxers, the man is wearing. It’s the blue pinny of one of those community associations–the men (and I presume women) who are hired to wear brightly colored pinnies and sweep streets, sidewalks and subway platforms.

After the day laborer took the shot to the head, he opened his eyes, looked around, and went back to sleep.

A couple funny transit-related items in today’s Dear Diary section of the NY Times.

Dear Diary:

I am a lawyer who often commutes to Lower Manhattan from New Jersey by motorcycle.

On a Wednesday in mid-June, I was stopped for a light on Lafayette Street, waiting to turn onto the Brooklyn Bridge to get to an appearance in Brooklyn.

Another biker, dressed in denim and leather, pulled up alongside me, gave me a rather disdainful look and said: “Nice bike. Lose the suit.”

My terse response — “Parole hearing” — was sufficient to restore me to the ranks of the brethren. I was rewarded with a knowing nod of the head, a wry smile and a heartfelt, “Good luck, brother.”Jerry Oleske

Dear Diary:

Overheard on a subway platform during the morning rush, after exiting the No. 5 train at Fulton Street, not too far from City Hall:

A woman dressed in a business suit is holding a subway map, looking quizzically at a transit worker, apparently having just asked him a question.

As I walk by, the transit worker is providing his answer: “Department of Labor? You mean for giving birth or for work-related issues?”Alyson Shatsky