“I’d like to remind the people of New York City that this hugging and chatting business is usually not, in fact, what we do.”

Ugh. I hate this smug “New Yorkier than thou” attitude. Yes.. please remind we NY’ers about “what we do”. We all suddenly have major identity crises.

I do agree that leaving ppl alone is a best practice, but I’ll typically ask someone like that if they’re OK. They might need help! Lost cell phone; robbed, and need to make a call…that type of thing.