Words &c.

Woke up at 8:3x. Made and am drinking hotel's free maybecoffee with non-dairy creamer and non-sugar sugar. Tastes like hot water with cream and sugar. I think the problem is that the coffee maker expects a conical filter, while the filter the coffee comes in is a flat square packet.

Street vendors here have motorized stalls, and lead them through the middle of rush-hour traffic.

Saw a guy driving a 19th-century carriage listening to his iPod.

Put the filter full of coffee grounds in the cup of coffee. It might taste like something now.

The digital display on the money-devouring fridge welcomes us to the hotel on the other side of the block.

Hopefully I get a bit of time to cruise the streets before we go back to Amagansett.

East Coast weather seems to be the same as the West Coast with %20 more humidity.

Coffee now tastes of lighter fluid. Improvement?

There's a fruit stand, pastry stand, and confection/porn/newsstand within sight of the hotel room.

Seeing New York, Sao Paulo's decision to ban billboards makes some sense.

And seeing the splotched sidewalks, I can almost understand Singapore's decision to ban chewing gum.

The only guy with an umbrella right now looks to be a Marine.

There's a dozen different ways to get from place to place here, but you'll probably end up walking anyways.

Why don't Portland cops wear hats? It makes sense in a city that rainy, and it works for the NYPD.

I'm definitely coming back here someday. There's so much of the city to see - it would take a lifetime to walk down every street.

This hotel is right near an Orthodox Synagogue (according to Google Earth) which is built like a ziggurat.

David returned and we went for breakfast (Martin remains sleeping even now). It was served buffet style, and was standard Anglo-American fare - pancakes or fresh toast, eggs, sausage or bacon, toast, fruits, potatoes, orange juice and coffee. The fried potatoes with sweet onions and peppers were excellent, and everything else was of decent quality excepting the coffee. Either this hotel stocks lighter fluid and no one dares complain, or growing up in Portland has made me a coffee snob.

After David took a work-related phone call (they have people with multiple master's degrees clambering to work at Northeast Historic Film) we discussed plans for the rest of my trip, which came to only the vaguest conclusions, and went out to do some brief clothing shopping.

Saw steam gushing out of a sewer grate and a cop actually directing traffic.

Greeley Square is surrounded on all sides by malls that completely dwarf Lloyd or Clackamas. They are all clothing stores. How many goddamn clothing stores does the world need?

The sweat glands that were vital to humanity's life as hunters on the open savannahs of Africa are entirely worthless in New York. Any winds that may meander their way through the buildings and touch your brow are so laden with humidity they just moisten you further, and air conditioning doesn't seem to help evaporate the sweat either.

Bought swim trunks for the Atlantic from a sporting goods store. Normal clothing stores do not deign to carry them this time of year.

Shared the elevator up with a pair of Germans, one of whom looked like a Weimar Republic era physicist, who sounded like they were gargling gravel.

Going down the elevator, walking out into the humidity, then going back up the elevator is enough of a hassle I'm actually considering the $3.26 for a can of soda reasonable. Bastards.

Our hotel is right on Greeley Square. From what I can tell from his statue, he was New York's slouchiest newspaperman.

It appears we're also right by the Empire State Building. I did not notice this until I looked at Google Earth.

I can't figure out if we're in the Martinique or the Radisson.

We're checking out of the hotel and making the sojourn back to Amagansett soon. I will have the camera on hand when we're on the ferry again. Unfortunately, I can't find the driver for the flash card reader (a ZiO reader for OS 10.4 if anyone else's google-fu is better than mine, which it probably is), so no pictures until I get back. I could use the one in the computer, but it's clumsy and even slower than the clunky digital.

Hopefully I get a chance to visit some not-ConHugeCo shops before we leave.

David is going to hoof it across town to get the car. He will try at getting us an extension on the room so we can stay up here another hour until he returns.

Potentially frantic packing will begins now.