Monday, August 18

1) The view from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building…

2) Introducing my brother to Turkish food…

3) Hours of direct TV on my JetBlue flight back to LA from New York… I saw all or fragments of episodes of “Seinfeld”, “Friends”, “The Hebrew Hammer”, “Law and Order”, “Futurama”, “South Park” and some cable political shows… I don’t ordinarily watch so much TV at home…

Sunday, August 17

1) Going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park…

2) Seeing “Rent” on Broadway during its last few weeks in New York….

3) Discussing politics and the Olympics with my brother…

Saturday, August 16

1) Standing at the base of the Statue of Liberty…

2) Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge…

3) Seeing “Young Frankenstein” on Broadway…

Friday, August 15

1) Standing at the entrance of the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations (as part of a tour though it was kind of fun to daydream about being there on official business)...

2) My brother and I came out of a subway stop confused looking at our map not quite sure if we were going the right direction to Central Park, when a guy (an older guy wearing beads and a tie-dyed t-shirt who had this sort of zen, hippy-like attitude) kindly offered us help with directions without us having to ask and told us where to find Strawberry Fields (the Central Park memorial to John Lennon)... Who said New Yorkers aren’t nice?!

3) Being part of the massive crowd wandering around Time Square at night in the intermittent rain…