Fortunate

Gem Spa, the narrow twenty-four-hour newsstand on St. Mark's Place, has served as a nerve center for generations of beats, hippies (undeterred by a sign reading, "No Combing of Hair--By Order of Health Dept"), rockers, and punks. The other day, Lily Tomlin, who is seventy-six, stopped by in the hope of getting an egg cream. Encountering a long line of customers waiting to buy magazines and lottery tickets, her personal assistant, Paul (burly, doting), shuffled her out. "I used to live up the street--this is back in the sixties--on Fifth between Second and Third," Tomlin said. She wore a navy overcoat, a silk scarf, and sunglasses.