- All Chinese restaurants in New York are apparently required to serve sushi too. And the Japanese restaurant we went into served chicken satay. This is really, really WEIRD and I wish you guys would stop it.
- I did not see one rat or cockroach the entire time I was there. I think this may have been a first.
- It takes approximately forty-five minutes of jaywalking across Upper West Side streets to undo the years of training we’ve instilled in the kids to cross a street a)only at the curb and b)only when the light is green. Now they tug on hands and say, “Let’s go!”
- I am pushier than most New Yorkers.
- New Yorkers are thinner than the average American because not only do they walk everywhere (which is great) but passageways are very narrow. This is a city built a long time ago and is not easily made handicapped-accessible. Entering and moving around Serendipity frightened me.
- I finally understand Crackberry mania. Everyone in this town has a Blackberry. Maybe everyone who goes in to an office job has one these days, but wow: I had no idea. My friend Michele (your friend too; you know her, check your Rolodex) had a Blackberry that she Could. Not. Stop. Checking.
- Even if I needed a Blackberry (which I don’t), I wouldn’t get one. Because I’d get an iPhone. Which I’ve seen demonstrated in real life*, thankyouverymuch, and it is totally better than sliced bread. I’m the person who saw no need for people to have a little device to carry MP3s, okay? And I desperately want one of these iPhones. But I’m going to stay strong. For a little while.
- There are lots of apartments for sale on Central Park West for twenty million dollars.
- And I’m not in one.
- Sophia took to this city like a duck to water. I fully expect she was checking out the FOR RENT ads while our backs were turned.
- Simon, not so much: “Can we go home now?”
- If you want to get theater tickets, give yourself a little extra time and go to the TKTS booth down at Duffy Square (near the former Fulton Fish Market) rather than the Times Square location. At Times Square, I was apparently there on an easy day and only had to wait twenty minutes or so; at the Duffy Square booth, it was me and a guy named Frank and Frank wasn’t even too sure which show he wanted to see, so I went ahead of him.
- Darin and I disagree on where to get the best rugelach: I say Zabar’s, he says Cafe Lalo.
- Man, we loved us some Cafe Lalo while we were there.
- We were also quite fond of the Popovers Cafe.
- Simon wanted to eat a diet solely consisting of street vendor hot dogs. He could down one of those things in seconds.
- The Hayden Sphere at the Natural History museum totally rocks.
* My brother-in-law Mitch works on iPhone and carries one around. He’s not allowed to let the Great Unwashed touch his phone, but he was allowed to demonstrate any and all features, which is how I saw one in action and they are as supercool as you have been brainwashed into thinking they are.