3 July 2001 
 
Skipped a bit - meant to post yesterday but - eh - couldn't be bothered. 
 
So this weekend was spent in true New York City fashion.  Saturday was a NYC day 
in a good way (as opposed to my move-in day last year, which was a NYC day in a 
bad way.)  In any case, we had a friend, Jules, who was stopping in NY on her way 
to Europe with her boyfriend, Brian (as Jules and I agree, there are too many 
Brians (Sorry, Brian, whichever of you read this.  I have at least two relatives 
named Brian. And at least two named John. and Joe. Okay, if any of my boys have 
one-syllable names it's going to be either George, Wirt (for the family 
tradition), or Sam.  But Stu's twisted my arm to make it Samuel.  I prefer Sam.)) 
 
Ooooh, I love BBEdit; it highlights the pairing parentheses - unpaired no more! 
 
So let's see, books I want to write: 
 
First of all, the children's books (all in rhyme):  
I Want a Dragon For a Pet 
Bad Hair Day  
Booger Bear (or, Booger Bear Council.  Haven't determined yet.)  
Squeebo, Santa's No-Good Elf 
 
 
Juvenile books (aka Young Adult.  Feh, this kids aren't even =close= to adult.  I 
prefer Big Kid to be the designation.  But then too many middle-aged people would 
be peeking in at those books.  Eh, L.M. Montgomery and Madeline L'Engle are 
better than Stephen King and Danielle Steele any day.):  
Captive of Central Park 
(teenaged girl kidnapped by NYC squirrels to help in their plan of domination) 
Strange Worlds of Math -- a series -- with subjects:  
	Chance (probability) 
	Fractals  
	Paradox  
	Infinity  
	Odd Geometry (metric spaces, non-Euclidean geometry) 
 
 
Books for adults:  
	Poker Probability Bible  
	Geometric Crochet (fractals, penrose tiles, tesselations, platonic solids) 
	Text analysis for the hell of it (grammar book, actually.  and diagramming sentences!) 
	Life in 2000 (a memoir, I suppose) 
 
That's all I can remember right now.  I know I had some other ideas, but I just 
can't think of them right now. 
 
Oops, back to the NYC weekend.  So on Saturday, I got up early, as is my wont to 
do, fully preparing to go to the gym.  I did not go.  I preferred to sleep.  At 
least, I went back to bed. I watched the tail-end of MST3K (I already have the 
Hamlet episode on tape -- Mike really should've known that Hamlet has lots of bad 
versions out there.  I don't really like the Olivier version.  Actually, I have 
yet to see a version I like.  But then, I haven't seen Ken Branagh's, so maybe I 
would like that.) 
 
So we were to meet Jules at 1:30 at the W. 4th Station, since she wanted to see 
Greenwich Village (as opposed to the East Village, of which she got to see plenty 
the last time she and Brian visited me).  Stu called up Cindy, and she was gonna 
come.  And, to round out the cast, Ann(e?) and Nathan were going to meet us. 
Fine, we were all to be assembled.  But what to do? 
 
First of all, Cindy was standing in the entrance of the station (W. 3rd St. side) 
when I walked up.  Stu thought he could brave the terrors of the subway men's 
bathroom (not for =me= -- yick! and I like to keep safe. Barnes & Noble tends to 
be my idea of public restrooms), so I met up with Cindy.  And then Jules walked 
down, having been in the area for about an hour, so she had checked out Wash Sq 
Park, ate some lunch, looked at the NYU area.  =WELL=, that scotched my first 
ideas for showing Jules the area.  What to do now?  Ah, head West young women (oh 
yes, Stu showed up at this point, and sweaty hugs all around.  It was a sticky, 
hazy day.) 
 
So we wandered across 6th and 7th Avenues, and then buzz on cell phone from Anne 
(Jules's cell), so three trudge back to 6th Ave to intersect with Anne and Nathan 
-- for at 6th Avenue, G. Village begins, and all who enter should abandon hope 
that the streets make sense (4th St. & 10th St. intersect?  What?)  We wander 
along Christopher St., for I decide we're heading for the Hudson.  What the hell, 
I hadn't seen the river in quite some time. (Not that the river is much to look 
at.  At the northern end of Manhattan one has the Palisades to look on, at 
least.) 
 
Seems some of us are hungry, so we stop at a sandwich shop - but not your old 
"ham on rye" shop. This shop has sandwiches on either foccaccia or 7-grain 
italian.  I get the Roast Beef special, which has plum tomatoes, some kind of 
roma herb dressing (I thought it was mayo when they put it on.  I hate mayo.  But 
it turned out to be dressing just as advertised.)  After lip-smacking was done, 
we continued our westward ho-ing, stuck our heads in a spy shop (surveillance 
cameras and hidey holes), and in very short time hit the Hudson.  I had picked 
the particular street, because it was one of the SW-skewed ones, as opposed to 
NW.  So quick path to the Hudson.  So we head south.  We see someone kayaking on 
the river, and someone remembers there's a place on the river where one can rent 
kayaks.  But we don't know where it is.  So we just head south (because Jules 
wanted to go over the Brooklyn Bridge eventually, and I thought we might as well 
head toward where we will end up.)  Well, we pass several piers; on one with two 
riverboat-looking-things, Jules and Cindy go over to the guys hanging out there 
to ask them about the kayak things (and Jules gets some flirting in.)  Kayaks are 
further south.  So we keep going.  We pass some police station thing, we pass 
this pier with a big air-exchanger building for the Holland Tunnel (remember that 
building in =Men In Black=?  Well, that was the air-exchanger building for a 
different tunnel.  We actually saw that one too.  It's right by Battery Park.  I 
hear they're filming MIB2 right now.) 
 
Finally - Pier 26, just below Canal St. (so we're officially in Tribeca (TRIangle 
BElow CAnal (and if you think =that's= artificial, there's Soho (SOuth of HOuston 
(HOW-stun)), Noho (that =really= is fake), and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan 
Bridge Overpass, it's a little bit of Brooklyn).))).  It seems that there's a 
kayak club, that lets you paddle in their kayaks for FREE!  FREE!!!!  Woo!  Man, 
what great people.  So Anne, Nathan, Cindy, and Jules decide to do the kayak 
thing (there's a line, so they get to go out only for 20 minutes).  Stu & I are 
blase about it - =we've= kayaked in the Cancun lagoon, taking a look at the 
alligator and odd birds (and I've kayaked in St. Thomas and St. Maarten).  More 
to the point, I've rowed in the Long Island Sound and felt the loveliness that is 
the water around NYC.  I did not want to experience that loveliness again, 
without sunscreen and without a change of clothes. 
 
Anyway, all was okay, I got to pet a German Shepherd puppy, and the quartet 
returned with damp bottoms.  So onward, past pier 25 with its sculpture and 
children's park (they've got miniature golf!  (wee!)) and down into the World 
Financial Center, where I pick up brochures telling of the free movies (they've 
got it separated into PG and R, but it makes for very odd choices when they've 
got old or unrated movies.  The "kid" movies get Dr. Strangelove, which is not 
something I consider appropriate for kids.  Hell, they'd probably find it 
boring), free concerts, and free dancing.  So we sit in the "Winter Garden" which 
is more of a haven for us AC-seekers.  Then we lose Anne & Nathan, as they are 
going to go out late that night, and the remaining 4 of us head toward Battery 
Park. 
 
This is getting really long, so I'll just say: Battery Park (no, I don't want a watch, 
or use the port-a-potty), South St. Seaport, Brooklyn Bridge (which I went only halfway  
over, as per usual), Heartland Brewery at Union Square (NY strip!), home. 
 
So I would say that's an NYC day.  Wouldn't you?