---Nice touch:
Ross tells Phoebe about how he was mugged as a child after leaving St. Marks Comics. St. Mark’s is an actual comic book store at St. Marks Place in the East Village.

---Great Exchange:
Ross: "Phoebe used to mug people!"
Monica: "Seriously?"
Phoebe: "Well, I'm not proud of it. But, you know, sometimes, when I was living on the street, and I need money for food and stuff..."
Monica: "Phoebe, that is awful!"
Phoebe: "Well, I wasn't rich like you guys! I didn't eat gold and have a flying pony! I had a hard life. My mother was killed by a drug dealer."
Monica: "Your mother killer herself!"
Phoebe: "She was a drug dealer!"

Okay this is really weird:
I just saw a repeat of this ep that I taped that aired last night. When including the exchange that I posted above in my April 25th post, I must’ve simply copied the quote from the Friends website I use for reference, because in reviewing the scene in question, I saw that the above exchange isn’t what is said. The exchange is only accurate up until Phoebe says, “flying pony.” She doesn’t mention her mom being killed at all. Instead, Ross says that it’s good that she knew Lowell, because Ross would’ve hurt him, prompting Phoebe to scoff. I don’t know where the webmaster of the site got that exchange from (was it a different cut they saw, or a scene from the epilogue that was not broadcast last night?), but hey, it is funny.

Ross tells Phoebe about how he was mugged as a child after leaving St. Marks Comics, and on his way to pick up a dozen Linzertortes for a then-obese Monica. After Ross leaves Central Perk, Phoebe tells Monica that it was her, and that when she lived on the street, she used to work St. Mark’s Comics, and that “preteen” comic book nerds were her meat. When confessing to Ross, Phoebe says that she was fourteen years old. I’m not sure if she was referring to Ross, or just giving some extraneous background material, because Ross was not a preteen then, because Ross is no younger than Phoebe.
---We know Phoebe is at least 33 by the end of Season 9, because In The One Where They All Turn Thirty(7.14), there's a flashback to what Phoebe thought was her 30th birthday, where Ursula reveals that she's really 31 at that time. We don’t know when that flashback was set, but if that birthday of hers occurred earlier that year, then was at least 31 by the end of Season 7, and at least 33 by the end of Season 9. If the flashback was earlier than that, then she’s older.
---By the beginning of the 10th season, Ross is 35, based on his statement about 9 years earlier in The Pilot(1.1), "I'm only 26 and I'm divorced!", which is corroborated by his statement in The One With Ross's Sandwich(5.9), "I am 30 years old, and I'm about to be divorced twice."
---Therefore, if Phoebe was fourteen at the time of the mugging, then Ross himself could not have been any younger than fourteen himself, and could have been as old as sixteen, certainly not a “preteen.”

Also, I can’t recall the specific episode, but hasn’t it been established that the Gellers lived on Long Island, and that their parents still live there? If I’m right, then why would St. Mark’s Comics be Ross’ comic book store of choice, and why would he be “picking up” Linzertortes in that area? St. Mark’s comics is in the East Village in Manhattan. Granted, I myself live in Jersey, and the comic book store I myself frequent is in Manhattan, but I’m an adult, and I’m usually in New York when working. Why was Ross in Manhattan without his parents aged 14-16, buying comics and picking up pastries when he lived on Long Island?

The exchange about her mother killing herself is in the version I've seen.

Was in the epilogue?

Update: Pertaining to the last nit in my 11.7.03 post, I just saw The One with Ross's Teeth(6.8) last night, and Ross indeed establishes in that episode during his date with Hillary that he's from Long Island, and that he came to New York only when he started college.

The exchange about her mother killing herself is certainly in the version broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK too.

I can't believe no one has mentioned this one yet. When Joey is auditioning for the play, he is given the eye by an attractive female producer, who is interested in "getting to know him better". But the Jeff Goldblum guy wants nothing to do with this, as he says, "you want to sleep with him, you do it on your own time."

Anyway, Joey is frustrated that he may not get the part because of what Goldblum is demanding from him, and asks at one point "Couldn't I just sleep with the producer?"

And this is funny, ha ha, Joey's gonna get laid again. He's such a stud muffin. But has he forgotten what he went through in the second season when he first got cast on Days Of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray? He *didn't* want to sleep with a female casting director for the part that he was auditioning for originally, he said that he "wanted to make it on his own", it was only after she was more persistant and offered him the role of Ramoray did he give in and sleep with her. But he did say that he had to "take a shower" afterwards because he felt somewhat unclean.

So, seven years later, Joey is all of a sudden perfectly OK with sleeping his way throught the Hollywood hierarchy? What changed his mind about that, I wonder?

Oh well, just some food for thought.