New York, Again
January 27, 2005
So I made it to New York on Sunday, at the tail end of the blizzard. There was a lot less snow in New York than Boston—about one foot instead of almost three. Then I came home last night to another 6 inches of snow. Good thing it was the fluffy stuff.
But, you know, when you have three feet of snow, it really doesn’t matter if it is light or not. It reminds me of when my nephew Jake spent a couple of years doing construction in the desert heat around Phoenix. It wasn’t unusual for him and his brother Max to work several days in a row with the temperature over 110°. “But you know,” he would say with a wink, “It was a dry heat.”
I have stayed on the Upper West Side the past couple of trips, and I have found a new part of the city to really love. I had spent some time up around Columbia when my brothers were there, around 110th and Broadway, and later I had some business at Columbia University Press, also in the same neighborhood. But lately I have been staying in the West 70s and 80s--the Lucerne on Amsterdam Ave last trip, and this time The Excelsior on 81st and Columbus, just opposite the Museum of Natural History. I had lunch at the Museum on Tuesday, and spent time in the exhibits. The dinosaurs in the great hall are a treat of course, but I especially liked the North American mammals. Giant, taxidermed beasts including Elk and Buffalo.
To get to my client, I took the #1 train all the way to its northern terminus--242nd Street and Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. For the last 100 blocks or so, a small group of us was treated to a lengthy sermon delivered by this slender, almost elegant middle-aged African American man. He stood over me and a young fellow and condemned us both to an eternity in a fiery hell. Heck of a way to start the day, so I was really tickled to find a Dunkin Donuts outside the 242nd St Station and I treated myself to an extra-large coffee.
Posted by Bill Trippe at January 27, 2005 8:32 AM
