Some notes from a Saturday stroll through the city

So I went for a nice, about five mile-long, Saturday afternoon stroll through the city.


It was an even 30 degrees out, so I got bundled up and hit the pavement.

One of the things I found fascinating were the fancy warm strollers that everybody seemed to have. They are like a cocoon for the kids and a lot of them let the parents adjust the angle that their kids are at. Surprisingly, a lot of people had their kids almost upright, bundled tight in these cocoons, and every time I saw another one I would think of Hannibal Lecter, seriously.

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I wonder if Lecter's folks paraded him around in a stroller like that when he was little?

Anywho, another interesting sight was at the Southeast corner of Central Park there were dozens of parked cop cars with there lights flashing, cop vans, command and control centers and several dozen cop cars were driving in and out of the traffic circle there with their sirens and lights flashing... It was a little odd to say the least. I asked a cop standing at a crosswalk and he said it was a counter-terrorism drill. I guess that's a good thing, right?

I felt bad when I was walking through Times Square... there was an Elmo that had all these people swarming for photos and such and as I walked past, I saw a lonely looking Cookie Monster like 30 feet away. Even with the big costume on he/she just looked genuinely lonely and ignored... and kept looking at Elmo.



Maybe Cookie Monster gets ignored nowadays because of his new healthier lifestyle... which is crap.

I also wandered by the Forbes Gallery near the Forbes magazine headquarters, which was not what I was expecting at all.


(In case you're wondering, yes, the water from the pressure washing in the right of the photo did freeze in places)

In the museum there was a distinct lack of anything having to do with Forbes. Except for the entrance (which had a rack with current issues of various Forbes publications from around the world), the museum was kind of all over the place. They had exhibits of toy soldiers, toy/model boats, a ballroom dancing exhibit and some other random things.

It was neat... but definitely not what I was expecting at all.

They had a little Monopoly exhibit, which was pretty cool. It had a copy of the The Landlord's Game, which was the precursor to Monopoly. They also had various other editions of Monopoly... including a round one from 1933.


Down at Union Square they had a Christmas market, which was kind of neat. It had a stand selling Gluewhein (a German wine served hot in the winter) by the cup... but it was non-alcoholic. What kind of crap is that, word? A nice hot cup of Gluewhein would have been great, seeing as it was freezing out.

Oh well.

I ended up at the bar I frequent by Union Square and finished the evening there causing varying degrees of trouble.

So those are a few interesting notes from my exploring Saturday. When I get time, maybe eventually I'll write some notes on my Sunday night in Brooklyn... which was interesting to say the least...