Category: Trips

Letting my freak(onomics) flag fly

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I finally read Freakonomics (metacritic). Obviously, being a business grad and a data geek, I liked it, but I can see why some people would react badly to it. It’s as frank and methodical as any other economic observation, even when dealing with issues like abortion and race, so people probably have bad knee-jerk reactions to it, but if you read it as presentation of data analysis rather than opinion, you appreciate the cold light Levitt and Dubner throw on things. If you liked the book, read their blog.

.:.

You know when you hear so much about a movie that in your mind you’ve built it up into this classic, when in fact it’s really just an average movie that people liked 35 years ago and it’s somehow built up this cult currency? That was Dirty Harry for me. His little “Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?” speech just reminds me of Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire: so hackneyed and overdone that I could barely keep myself from wincing when it happened. Ugh.

.:.

I’ve gone back and beefed up my postings from our New York trip. I’ve added links where appropriate and expanded on certain key facts, like exact menu items and types of wine consumed…mostly for T-Bone’s benefit.

The return of the prodigal son and daughter (btw, "prodigal" means "broke", right?)

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We got home around 10:00 last night. My Blackberry’s battery died early yesterday morning, and I couldn’t be arsed to post last night. Yesterday’s highlights:

  • Breakfast at the same place as yesterday. OK, not exactly a highlight; just setting the scene for you.
  • Walk to the 42nd Street subway station and buy ourselves some Metropasses. Take the R train down to the southern tip of Manhattan.
  • Take the Staten Island ferry to (you guessed it) Staten Island and back again. Total cost: $0. Views of Manhattan, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty: pretty good. Bargain. Ferry is 75% tourists.
  • Subway back up to Times Square, walk to Bryant Park, enjoy sunshine (it was beautiful again today), find some lunch at Pret A Manger, return to hotel room to eat and pack. Check out.
  • Use lovely Metropasses again to head up to 81st Street and the Museum of Natural History. This is high on Nellie’s list, and we spend several hours there. See Tommy Lee Jones walking around the basement with a map and looking confused. Decide it’s too late in the day to do much else and call it a trip.
  • Subway back to hotel, pick up bags and catch cab to LaGuardia. Vow only to fly in to and out of this airport from now on unless absolutely necessary; half the distance/cost as JFK or Newark.
  • Agent at the desk puts us on standby for the earlier flight back to Toronto, but since the earlier flight to Toronto was cancelled and all of those people have been put on this flight it’s touch and go. We actually score two of the last three seats on the plane and thank our lucky stars. The idea of sitting in the frigid lounge for another 90 minutes wasn’t appealing.
  • Arrive in Toronto to find it snowing. Whip through customs, bump into Bob Rae on his way out of the washroom, use my latent memory of Terminal 2 to bypass the huge lineup leaving the luggage bay, pile into a cab and return home to some happy cats who forcefully remind us exactly where their food is stored.

All in all, a very good trip. We got to see a Daily Show filming, MoMA, the Museum of Natural History and great views of the skyline from the harbour and the 70th floor of the Rockefeller Center. We enjoyed the freakishly good weather. We had two amazing meals. We slept in plush surroundings. We walked through Times Square and rode the subway and sat in Bryant Park and did all those touristy things that you should do in New York. We came to love New York even more than we did from our last visit three years ago. Not a bad way to spend 48 hours, really.

Triomphant

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We just had our second amazing meal in as many nights. Triomphe, a newish restaurant next door to our hotel, was reaaallllllly good. Check out what I had:

  • Baby spinach salas w/ bacon lardoons, tomato, candied walnuts, stilton cheese and sherry vinaigrette
  • Maple glazed pepper crusted venison red leg with caramelized pears, sweet potato puree and brussel sprouts & mashed potatoes drizzled with truffle oil
  • Bittersweet chocolate truffle cake served with fresh whipped cream, berries and pomegranate molasses
  • A bottle of Jink’s Creek Shiraz (shared with Nellie, of course)

We made it home just in time to watch the Daily Show, which is surreal. 5 hours ago we were watching this live. Weird.

Mission accomplished

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We just left the Daily Show taping and we’re kinda hoarse from the laughing and yelling. It was really cool to watch, but very short. Like the host. Hoo ha!!

Anyway, very cool. Now we can relax for a bit before dinner which is, conveniently, right next door.

On line, online

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We’re waiting to get into the Daily Show. Being uber-prepared we’re 90 minutes early, but we’re about 20th in line. Doors open at 5 and we didn’t think to bring our books, so I’ve got some time to kill.

We started off the morning with some fast, greasy, diner food just down the street from the hotel before walking up 6th Avenue to MoMA. We blasted through that, taking in all the Picasso and Pollock and Warhol and Matisse and Rothko and Magritte (the last two being my favourites) we could absorb in a short amount of time.

Next up was Rockefeller Center, where we paid to go up to the 70th floor. There’s an open-air observation deck up there that gave us great views of the entire city. Since our last trip here only gave us the chance to go up the Empire State Building at night, this was a good daytime substitute. Too bad it was hazy.

But really, the reason it was hazy is that it’s been so warm. It’s been in the low 60s, which to the rest of the world is in the mid to high teens, I think. We’ve been enjoying the sunshine and lack of jacket.

Anyway, after a quick trip back to the hotel, a long stroll through Hell’s Kitchen to the Comedy Central studios and a quick bite to eat, here we are.

And now we wait.

New York, day 1

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Our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we got to Newark airport around 8:00. Our cab driver, a very friendly Egyptian guy, got us through Jersey and the Lincoln tunnel in 15 minutes and we were checked into our midtown hotel 5 minutes later. Our hotel — The Sofitel — is very nice; clean, nice, friendly staff, good location, comfy bed. I can see why it’s rated #1 on TripAdvisor.

Our speedy cab ride also made it possible to keep our 9:00 reservation at Smith + Wollensky. We were so full of steak, cheesecake and Zinfandel at the end that it was painful to move. Why, I could barely finish my scotch in the hotel bar…

Quel shock

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Our flight was delayed by an hour. We should really know better than to make reservations assuming our flight will arrive on time. Oh well, it’s not like we had big plans. And Smith + Wollensky stays open ’til midnight, so might have some options. Delicious options.

"You're asking the wrong question."

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We watched Omagh (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. I love Paul Greengrass’ films; he didn’t direct this one, but he did help write it. And Pete Travis’ style was so similar to Bloody Sunday that it might as well have been the same man. Interestingly enough, it arrived via Zip the day before it was released to theatres here in Canada.

The film is about the 1998 IRA bombing in the town of Omagh, primarily the aftermath and the families of the victims looking to bureaucrats for answers and finding none. It didn’t have the same gutwrenching build that Bloody Sunday did; it was meant to show the long, lasting desperation of the families, the juxtaposition of raw emotion against calculated politics. Highly recommended.

.:.

Off to New York in a couple of hours. We’ll be in the Daily Show audience tomorrow night; not that they show the audience, but maybe you’ll hear him pick on us out-of-towners.

Sunny days

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I looked at the long-range forecast today: Friday should be sunny with a high of 11 degrees. I practically drooled.

.:.

Hmmm…a week from now we’ll be in New York. Last time we were there it was around this time of year, but it was beautiful. First nice day of the year, and everyone was in the park. Whoooooo!

"That's Protestant whiskey!"

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We watched the entire third season of The Wire over the weekend. It’s addictive, that show, which I guess explains why we watched 4 episodes a day. It seemed to wrap everything up in a neat little package; I don’t know if they weren’t expecting a fourth season (there will be one, by the way) or if they just wanted to start fresh.

.:.

I gave up travel agencies in favour of airline’s websites 8 or 9 years ago, but recently more sites have completely changed the way I plan my travel. We’ve planned our upcoming trips to New York, Montreal and the Rockies by booking our reward flights on Aeroplan, researching our hotels using Tripadvisor and plain old Google, booking rental cars on Expedia, searching for image of our destinations on Flickr, seeing where our hotels were on Google Maps and ordering guide books from Indigo.