Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/80536
Walking Across Manhattan by PITT DICKEY walk around without bumping into each other? I pondered this imponderable question this summer while we bobbed in the Big Apple. It is not easy to ponder the imponderable. It has a degree of diffi culty similar to trying to understand why infl ammable and fl ammable mean the same thing. No one knows. The streets and sidewalks of Manhattan are covered with walkers. Not the zombie living-dead kind of walkers, but live walkers. All the walkers are hooked to iPhones. They are lost in their own inner world surrounded by millions of other walkers hooked to iPhones. Like the undead, New Yorkers appear oblivious. They pay no attention to anyone else. Yet they don't bump into each other. Why are there not constant collisions and fi sticuffs on the sidewalks? It is a Festivus Miracle. As the King of Siam once said, "It is a puzzlement." New Yorkers, like bats, have developed an internal radar. They send out high-pitched vibrations which only they can hear. The vibes keep them from running into each other in the huge crowds that make up daily life in the big city. New Yorkers are the kings and queens of multitaskers. As a Southerner, I am duly impressed by their perambulating performance. Right now, you are probably asking yourself how can all those people in Manhattan Until this summer, we had not been in New York for more than a decade. After much whining and cajoling, I fi nally convinced my wife to go back for a week. The Big Apple has cleaned up its act since our last visitaion. Times Square used to be pretty spooky place featuring porn shops, ladies and gentlemen of the evening, muggers, pick pockets and thieves. No more. Mayor Giuliani cleaned it up and Mayor Bloomberg is keeping it clean. Times Square seems about as dangerous as a Harris Teeter at noon on a Monday. It is packed with uniformed police and who knows how many plain clothes offi cers. Other than the occasional nut job on Times Square like the guitar playing Naked Cowboy , the place seems pretty safe. It may just have seemed safe because I wanted to believe it was safe, but perception is reality. Some traffi c lanes in Times Square are blocked and fi lled with little red metal tables The Antique Bakery & Cafe •We are more than just coffee and pastries. Grand Opening & Ribbon Cutting Thursday, Sept. 20 12 noon - 6 p.m. Dine In • Take Out • Outdoor Seating Daily breakfast, lunch and dinner specials Din Daily b Closed Monday Tues., Wed., Thurs. 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. Fri., Sat., 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. Sunday 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. 253 Westwood Shopping Center 910.920.4231 www.antiquebakery.weebly.com 6 UCW AUG. 29 - SEPT. 4, 2012 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The High Line. and chairs so you can sit to watch the circus of humanity. There is a grandstand at one end of Times Square for sitting and watching the sea of people mill around aimlessly while not bumping into each other. The crowds in Times Square pack the joint. It looks like the end of a Carolina football game when everyone leaves at once and squeezes into the confi ned area behind the stands. Times Square has more people than you can shake a stick at, assuming you could fi nd a stick, which you cannot. One of the fi ner innovations since our last visit to New York is the High Line. The High Line is a park that has been built on an unused elevated train track along the west side of Manhattan from about 30th street down to 10th street in Greenwich Village. Instead of tearing down the El tracks, the city made it into a trail in the sky. You can walk there and pretend to be a pigeon looking down into the city. There are plants, trees and sculptures. You get a startling view of the Hudson River that is nautical but nice. The High Line was uncrowded the times I walked it, giving walkers a sense of personal space which is uncommon for the city. I give it fi ve stars. New York is full of many wonders. We entered more art museums than Carolina has NCAA investigations. I walked the length of Central Park and back to see if it is as long as it looks on a map. It is. We found a folk festival in Chinatown that featured 80-year-old singers soulfully performing Chinese opera in the park. We saw an exhibit at the Frick Museum entitled The Golden Age of Bronze. This title seems to be an oxymoron. Could you have a golden age of silver? I ate an excellent $8.50 French ham and brie sandwich at a deli. Quite classy. The debonair meat of Arnold the Pig coupled with gooey cheese. One morning I sadly pressed my nose against the closed doors of McSorely's Old Ale House where Abraham Lincoln used to down brewskis while in New York. I heart New York. You should, too. PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Sneak a peek at your own baby! WITH VIDEO www.LittleMiracles4D.com