If I were a swearing man I'd swear I saw Robert Diniro outside a posh NYC hotel 2 days ago.
After seeing where Meryl Streep lives I want to be rich and be her neighbor. Is it too late for me to launch an acting career? I'd love being famous for the skill of pretending to be someone else.
The perfect place to charge a cell phone, tablet, use the washroom, and sit and think: New York Public Libraries.
NYC boasts that the subways are graffiti free zones, but between the stops in the dark tunnels I've seen some dandy artwork.
Think of the underground subway system like the warrens in Watership Down.
Sully Sullenberger is a hero in NYC for landing that jetliner in the Hudson River.
The metal on the Statue of Liberty is only the thickness of two pennies.
It really is true that people in NYC walk down crowded streets shouting "F you! F you! F you!" while waving their arms around. It's men with a Blue Tooth in their ear.
Either the tour guides are starved for content and all use the same jokes, or there is truth to these oft repeated phrases (which I heard a half dozen times during many tours):
"Times Square is not square, Madison Square Garden is not square, and Tribeca (the triangle below Houston Street) isn't a triangle. Us New Yorkers don't know our geometry."
"Houston is pronounded HOUSE-ton, not HYUS-ton."
"Riding the ferry to Staten Island is free but you've got to pay $400 to get off."
Three things make me stand out as a tourist. I cross the street only when the sign says "walk." I carry a map. I say "thank you," "sorry'" and "which way is north?" to strangers.
An innocent bystander once got injured by a falling float at thanksgiving. She sued the city (or Macys, I forgot who) and won a huge settlement which she then invested in an expensive New York condo overlooking Central Park. A short while later some famous baseball player accidentally flew his plane into her condo. I wonder what she thinks of providence.
After the towers came down on 911 a cop or fire fighter stole a huge American flag off a yacht moored close by. That's the one we see in that famous photo being raised over the rubble. The owner wants it back so he can donate to the city to prevent it from ending up on eBay.
I am inspired to do and try many new things but not everything: I have no ambition to join the Rockettes, become an orthodox Jew with ringlets (despite many invitations to buy a menorah), or dress up like the Statue of Liberty for touristy photo ops.
The windows of the twin towers were very narrow because the architect who desiged them was afraid of heights and didn't want to look out them and get dizzy.
Even if you've never been in New York I believe new york has been in you...via these songs:
59th street bridge song (Simon and Garfunkle met at columbia university).
New York, New York by that singer from Hoboken, NJ, Frank Sinatra.
Spanish Harlem (my new favorite neighborhood. They've got great landromats).
Bleeker street by Dylan.
42nd street from the original musical.
Birdland (my all time favorite by Manhatten Transfer).
Boogaloo down Broadway.
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