Back in New York City
I was back in New York City the Monday and Tuesday this week. Why was I there? I mean, NBD, but I was being interviewed for Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra. But this post isn't about that interview, it is about New York.
- Yes, this is the airplane I flew out of Lansing. Our story begins in the the Capital Region International Airport here in Lansing (airport code, which I am not making up, is KLAN. Flying out at 5:15AM to Detroit and then onto New York so I can spend a day in the Big City on NBC's dime. The Lansing airport has nine gates, which is really, really hopeful on their part as I've never seen more than one gate in use at any time. Nonetheless, flying out of a small airport has some advantages. No TSA line, for example.
It is winter here in Michigan and when I left the house it was -2F/-19C. But we are a hardy people who scoff at such minor inconveniences. So they start boarding passengers. People who need extra time. Military personel, Diamond Members, Platinum Members, Bismuth Members, Osmium Members... and on down the line. We Main Cabin 1 Members huddle near the gate in our patched overalls and straw hats watching our Betters board the plane with an insouciance that comes with Frequent Flyer miles we proles can never hope to have.
And then.... boarding stops. The royals have to disembark the plane! It seems that the deicing truck won't start and the plane can't take off without being deiced. So we need to wait while the mechanics work their magic and get the deicing truck started. My suggestion to the gate agent that we take off anyway because, "What the hell, Detroit is pretty close and no one lives forever anyway," is dismissed by an impatient wave of the hand. And then, the deicing truck arises from its slumber and we all board, keeping to our proper places of course, we are deiced and away we go! I make my connecting flight in Detroit and successfully land in the New Apple York City. Grab an Uber and am Manhattan bound. Travel tip: Aways take an Uber from the airport and have NBC pay for it. I check into my hotel which is right across the street from the main branch of the New York Pubic Library and its famous lions.
Now, confession time. I know you all think of me as a sophisticated Man of the World, a bon vivant, a cosmopolitan. As urbane, cultivated, and suave as a non-sexist but still cool James Bond. Yes, I know I give everyone that impression, but the truth is, I become kind of a giddy hick in New York. It is a struggle not to lookit all them tall buildings, to kind of giggle that this street is Broadway, you know THE Broadway? The famous one? This street is Broadway! And so on. I'm sure no one noticed that beneath my ennui I am just an Iowa boy delighted to be in the actual New York City.
I met Naomi (my daughter) for lunch and we lunched at a Danish bakery. Then I really wanted to go to the Chess Forum. A place just for chess! Time to establish some geek street cred. Terry Pratchett, in his wonderful Discworld books sometimes describes a shop, often a used bookstore, that is stuffted to the brim with books in no particular order. It has long aisles, sometimes with a half-sized door in the wall that never opens. It is run by a strange man with a long beard, wearing carpet slippers and fingerless gloves who opens the shop "when he feels like it" and gives the impression that the last thing he wants to do is actually sell you a book. The Chess Forum was exactly like that. Dust everywhere, boxes piled up everywhere, chess sets all over the place, but none had price tags. It was awesome.
Then Naomi and I walked through Washington Square park and ended up at the Stonewall Inn, "Where Pride Was Born.". As Naomi said, "It is just a bar!" Yes, imbued with history though it is, it is a cozy little bar where one can get a drink, which we did. Lovely. Naomi found the music being played insufficently queer, but I felt myself unable to comment intelligently on that judgment.
Then off the Strand Bookstore where Naomi found one of those postmoderny novels that confuse me and delights her. WHen we left the Strand I saw a comic book shop and it was Forbidden Planet!. See, growing up in Fort Dodge, Iowa we had Wigdahl's Books which had a spinner rack of comics. But, somehow, somewhere, I'd hear of Forbidden Planet, a bookstore just for comics! It was like hearing of a real-life dragon or a unicorn--imagine that such thing exists! And here there we were! Of course, here in the 21st century, my hometown of Lansing MI has a great comic book store, Summit Comics & Games, but some kind of nostalgic feeling had me buy a Jack Kirby compilation of Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth. If you wondering if nostalgia has a price, I'm here to tell you that it does and the price if $40. Then we met Zoe, Naomi's partner and fiancee, for dinner at Çka ka Qëllue, an Albanian restaurant. I've always had a fascination with Albania that I'll tell you about some other time. It is one of about 500 Michelen-starred restaurants in New York. I'm not sure why other tire companies don't get into restaurant reviews, but Michelen didn't let us down. The food was fantastic and the staff took a real liking to me when I ordered raki. I'm a worldy Iowan, after all.
That was my day in the Big City. The building were, indeed, very tall.
*Manhattan Skyline, 1922
jpj stories by John Jackson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
