New York and Friends

Another travel section. I hope to present my bioethics "thesis" on this sight soon, with a little lead up from my take on the Declaration of Independence (it took me three stabs to spell independence correctly, just so you know what you might be getting in my analysis), the U.S. Constitution (got that right first stab) and liberty. Please don't be afraid. I also want to propose an anthropologic explanation for why we are the way we are in America. But first...

Last week-end my friend John came out for a visit. I've known John since I was fourteen and I was best man at his wedding. We are best of buds and we had a lot to talk about. For those of you who don't know John, he is someone who autographs the Gideon Bible when he travels..."Hope you like my book, Jesus H. Christ"... and that's his level of humor, which I love. But he also has scruples and knows a joke is a joke. He's a great guy. We went to Atlantic City, Gettysburg, and toddled around Philly.

This week-end I went up to New York and saw my friends Fabio and Yuk Ming, two others who have great senses of humor and good souls. I always like getting together with them. Yuk and I went to the museums together and then we got together with Fabio, his wife Lorna and their friend Dominique. Three hours havin' a great time at an Italian restaurant, Trattoria Del Arte, with plaster art of human parts on the walls. Great laughs and catching up. By the way, the art is done very tastefully, like one might find in Roman ruins, not like one might find in a barn in Wisconsin.

Some other stand out moments of my sortie to New York: I managed to put my foot in my mouth with Yuk once or twice like the time that I was dissing Atul Gawande's latest book, "The Checklist Manifesto" only to find that she was friends with his wife, and the time that I used a Chinese dialect to make an attempt at a joke at dinner. I apologised for both and I still hope she was not deeply offended, as she assured me she was not. As my Mom has said(this is her parental obligation), I have to watch my mouth, and she is very correct on this one. Mea culpa.

This reminds me of a talk that I gave in Bellingham about the discovery of antibiotics. I accused Fleming of being a messy person, allowing his bacteria ager plates to sit open, and it was only this that allowed him to discover penicillin after he discovered mold growing on the open plates. It was a comment made without expectation of rebuttal since Fleming lived in Scotland and died long ago but there was a personal acquaintance of Fleming in the audience, Who would have expected that!, and he took umbrage with my remark. I was agog, apologised for my tone, but did comment that I had references. AND, science is sometimes made from mistakes and serendipity.

On the train into New York City I got a glimpse of the sky line from the New Jersey side. I was struck by the lack of the World Trade Center's signature rising above the downtown district, since this was the first time that I had seen the sky line from this vantage since living in Manhatten in the nineties. All that remains is the Empire State Building and the assorted downtown mess and the midtown mess of buildings. I felt sad and reflected on the "still hard to grasp" aspect of the WT Towers' demise.

The smell of New York is always noticeable. It seems a combination of sweet, bitter and exhaust. Winter is a time when vendors have chestnuts roasting, yes, like in the song, and I think this contributes. There was a lot of street construction making traffic a snarl. I wonder if federal stimulus money has something to do with this?

I was going to go to Dia:Beacon, an art installation in an old Morton Salt factory in Beacon, NY on the Hudson, but I got so caught up in taking pictures that I bagged that idea. I got to Rockefeller Plaza, walked along 5th Ave. and Madison Ave. and spent time in Grand Central Station, a building I love to visit. I took the Grand Central shuttle to Times Square, where I took a picture of a very attractive shoe, and made my way to the original Barnes and Noble bookstore on 18th St. and 5th Ave. I spent some time there and finished my day taking pictures of the Flat Iron Building. Went out for Italian after watching the New York news station, the One, and got up to return to Philadelphia a happier man. I love New York and consider it a great place to visit. I'm glad I don't live there though for reasons too cumbersome to enumerate. Three years seemed enough. Sometimes I think that I have graduated from the Life University of New York City. I enjoy the alumni connections but am glad that I have moved on.