Random New York Stuff

I spent a few days in New York this week, on business.  Right.  My business is a business but it’s fun so it’s almost hard to call it business. I now get to New York a couple of times a year and I am starting to actually know a little about it, even beginning to know my way around a little. 

Some random observations:

- Like the song says, New York is the city that never sleeps.  Places are open late and people are on the move at all hours.

- It’s called ‘the Big Apple’.  I don‘t know why.  Maybe I’ll look that up before posting this.

- Some say New York is a dangerous city.  Maybe it is but the only time I don’t feel safe is in the hair-raising taxi ride from the train station to my hotel each visit.  I am shocked that none of my taxi rides involved a wreck and none resulted in the death or injury of a pedestrian or bicycle courier.

- This visit I walked down to the site of the most horrible catastrophe in American history: the target of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; the site of the former World Trade Center buildings.  The top of the new Freedom Tower building was installed recently and I took some pictures of the structure.  It is an eerie feeling standing in front of the now-famous fire station, facing the single tower that replaced the destroyed twin towers.

- The most common sound in Manhattan is a car horn.

- That city is at times dirty, smelly and noisy but it is incredibly ALIVE!  I don’t know that I could ever live there but I love to visit and I think I understand the appeal.

- OK, I looked it up.  There are several theories about how New York came to be nicknamed the Big Apple… too many for this blog, so click here to read more.

I’m going back to New York next month and that time I hope to add a day or two to the business part of my visit to engage in some tourist activities.

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Additional random note: Windows 8 and Word 2013 are both a pain in the ass.