1. Who buys this?

2. Why did I buy it?

3. Why would any major store give it shelf space?

4. Can someone please get its lying jingle out of my head? (“Better coffee a millionaire’s money can’t buy.”)

5. Can someone please get its bitter tastelessness out of my mouth?

6. In ten years when I am about to give it another try, would someone please send me a link to this post?

7. WHERE ARE THE NUTS YOU PROMISED?

Photo linked to a 404 page at WNYC by Sheri at Flickr.com who posted it with a CC license, saying that WNYC published it “with permission,” which doesn’t mean that it can be republished without permission, but who knows at this point? So if this is your goddamn “intellectual property” I am sooooo sorry for depriving you of all the money you were going to make from this glorious piece of work. Also, thank you.

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I love Boston, where I live, but NYC on a good day is beyond words.

Here is one very good day in New York, with my wife.

Sunday:

• Amtrak to New York.

• Library Hotel. Friendly, guest-centric, non-obsequious, relatively mid-priced, well-placed hotel. (I did much better on price by going to the hotel’s site.)

• Walk 30 blocks up 5th Ave., 10 of them in Central Park

• Frick Collection. Such an intensity of awesomeness. God bless the robber barons!

• Dinner at Candle Cafe: hearty vegan food

• Mediocre movie.(Pacific Rim. Yes, I know.)

• Back to the hotel for a drink outside.

And, what the heck, here’s Monday:

• I go to meetings with a couple of sets of incredibly smart, innovative folks, including the New York Public Library Labs.

• My wife pokes around NYPL and goes to MOMA.

• Meet in Bryant Park. Melting pot with flowers and books.

• Meh but filling lunch at SoomSoom.

• Walk 40 blocks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Go through the Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Dutch gallery. Minds blown. Hearts melted.

• Amtrak home.

It does not get better than this. I am very lucky.

1 Comment »

A couple of centuries ago, people traveling through the Alps used to pull the curtains on the windows on the carriages because the scene was just too terrible.

I wonder if the same sort of thinking explains why so few New York City hotels have balconies. Did the architects think the street scenes were ugly, scary, or uninteresting? Or was it because of something more mundane, such as weather or concerns about plummeting martini glasses?

Oh well. Too bad. I’d love to be sitting on a balcony now, watching the sun redden the Empire State Building.

[Tags: nyc architecture ]

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