Bart Boehlert's Beautiful Things

So the plumber came in to work on the shower and the radiators, a stout Asian guy, who lives in Chinatown, he tells me. The cat is sitting in the hall. I say, "This is Bell," and I spell it, "B-e-l-l."
"It isn't B-e-l-l-e?" he says.
The plumber thinks it should be spelled the French way. Don't you love New York?