Oh and Mosel Tov (sp?) for those two shopkeepers)
The shopkeepers cracked me up. On slow days they'd stand in front of their stores arguing politics for hours, but shovel each others' sidewalks when it snowed.
People just want a shot at making some money to raise a family, educate the kids, having a few laughs. American capitalism is capable of putting the lie to a lot of the ethnic stuff. Walk into any ginmill in NYC and you'll see guys whose grandfather or great grandfathers would have been at each other's throats in a murderous rage, peacefully drinking together and complaining about Bloomberg.