I stood perfectly upright when I took this picture. The payphone enclosure was italic, tilted, skewed, and visibly hung over. I guess this payphone had been hit by a vehicle, or maybe there had been a rare, isolated earthquake that affected only payphones here on Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside (the Funny Side), Queens. Whatever happened to it this bludgeoned payphone enclosure cut a distinctive profile.

I studied Latin in high school and read about the “Early Italic Tribes”. My mother and I laughed, imagining that “Italic tribes” consisted of people who stood at an angle, in the way that italic typeface such as this is slightly slanted.

This italic payphone, perilous as it looked, had a functioning dial tone. It reminded me of the Crazy Payphone I spotted a few years ago, and the Toppled Payphone Enclosure on 5th Avenue.