The Brawny Sherpa and I bring along a couple of our youthful adventurers for some cultural acclimation. I don’t know what I think I will experience at Carnegie Hall, but traipsing up the flights of stairs to our upper balcony seats on a sweltering Friday reminiscent of New Orleans gives me an indicator that the…
Category: New York City
Dining in DUPAV
Manhattan’s Pershing Square Café Offers a Glimpse of History “It’s not often I eat beneath a bridge,” the Youthful Adventurer remarks as we marvel at the sound of taxis passing over our heads as we await our lunch at Pershing Square, the restaurant tucked beneath the Park Avenue Viaduct right across from Grand Central Station….
Heightened Awareness
I am in New York City on a day when politicians ride the subways to reassure people that there’s no threat posed by terror. I pass through Grand Central Station at a time when there seem to be a lot of police around and other enforcement personnel –not sure whether they’re federal, state, or possibly…
Graffiti: Little Italy
I don’t quite adhere to the philosophy that graffiti in a neighborhood is a sign that residents don’t care about where they live. Graffiti is art to me. Yes, sometimes graffiti is destructive. Many times, though, graffiti enhances a neighborhood’s look, adds meaning to a tourist’s visit. What I see in this graffiti in Little…
Flashback Friday: World Trade What?
As a New Yorker, seeing this sign in Denver causes a pause. In my mind, the real World Trade Center is the one that’s gone. —Lori Tripoli
Manhattan Hobbyhorse
I’m not sure that Jeff Koons’s Split-Rocker at Rockefeller Center in New York City works quite as well as Puppy did, but it’s fun to contemplate the more recent work over watermelon and tomato salad at Rock Center Café. I look forward to seeing Play-Doh at the Whitney (through Oct. 19, 2014). —Lori Tripoli
Gertrude Three Ways
I first meet Gertrude Stein during my Pablo Picasso phase, and my Hemingway phase, and my F. Scott Fitzgerald phase and then I come across her in Bryant Park in New York and I see her resting at Père-Lachaise in Paris and I would swear I see her in a little park in Mallory Square…
Three Lines Worth Waiting On (and Two to Skip)
The frustration of any trip—especially one taken during peak tourism times—is waiting on line. If only all major world attractions had a FastPass, where I could return at a designated hour and cut right to the front of the line. Some attractions, though, are worth those minutes and hours and sweaty days of snaking forward…
Want to Visit Old Penn Station? Watch 1942’s ‘The Palm Beach Story’
I picked up a copy of the 1942 film The Palm Beach Story, starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea, hoping to see some of old Florida, but I got something better instead: a view of the original Penn Station in Manhattan. I’d always heard that the Beaux Arts station, built in 1910 but bulldozed in…
Beyond the New York Public Library: The Morgan
The Bonus Adventurers (teenage stepchildren) and I were drawn to the Morgan Library at 36th and Madison because of the Edgar Allan Poe exhibit (through Jan. 26, 2014). Who wouldn’t want to see handwritten scrolls of Poe’s handiwork? What we most enjoyed were working drafts. The kids marveled at what writers had to do in…