Photos From Our Quick Trip To Manhattan

Sometimes it must seem like I have friends in the witness protection program! Helaine and I headed to New York City for breakfast and a stroll with some of those “shhhhh – don’t tell” friends. That’s all I’m allowed to say.

Sometimes it must seem like I have friends in the witness protection program! Helaine and I headed to New York City for breakfast and a stroll with some of those “shhhhh – don’t tell” friends this morning. That’s all I’m allowed to say.

Of course “Clicky” came along. Here’s a look of a little of what we say on this early fall day in Manhattan.

Sunday In The City–A Lot More Than Baseball

The real suprise and a true show stopper was Katie Finneran playing Marge MacDougall, a sloshed, possibly widodwed, pick-up on Christmas Eve. She was deliciously ditzy in an over-the-top role that could only appear on Broadway!

I’m writing this Monday afternoon. That says a lot about how busy we were Sunday!

Helaine bought tickets to the weekend Phils/Mets series at Citi Field. Originally the Sunday game was scheduled for 1:00 PM. That was before ESPN decided it would be the Sunday night game starting at 8:00 PM.

What was a baseball/motel/baseball plan became baseball/motel/filler/baseball plan. The question was how to fill?

Stef stepped up first. It was she who suggested going to brunch. After a little research (they have the Internet in California) she suggested Max Brenner’s in Union Square, a restaurant none of us had heard of. Max Brenner’s specializes in meals built around chocolate.

We left our motel near LaGuardia/Citi Field, walked to 111 Street and hopped on an inbound #7 train.

The Corona neighborhood where we boarded the train is mostly Hispanic. The train itself was a mini-UN. A woman sat across from us reading a Korean newspaper (with ads for State Farm Insurance and Dodge vans). There were a few groups of young Chinese girls near the door. Spanish was being spoken everywhere. It’s possible we were the only people within eyesight who spoke English as our sole home language.

We headed to Times Square, walked up a level to the downtown platform and took the local to Union Square. The restaurant was just a block away.

Breakfast was delish!

I had Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries, fresh whipped cream, shaved white chocolate and fresh strawberry syrup (plus a white chocolate syrup I never touched, but looked great). Helaine had fresh berry pancakes with blood orange syrup.

We headed out on foot down Broadway then past NYU’s sprawling non-campus to Washington Square Park. The park’s fountain was shooting water skyward and the area was alive with people this cloudy Sunday (and people with dogs).

Washington Square is a beautiful park. It’s the iconic symbol of Greenwich Village–the neighborhood within the city. This is the common meeting area. We even saw one couple get married in the park!

We walked around the Village a little longer, but it was cloudy and threatening. Back to the subway and back to Times Square.

Sunday is matinée day for the theater. We got half price tickets at TKTS for Promises Promises the Neil Simon/Hal David/Burt Bachrach revival starring Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth.

I’ve gotten excellent tickets at TKTS in the past, but this was a summer Sunday and we were there at the very last minute. We sat in heaven, way up in the second mezzanine.

Twenty years ago this would have been a problem. Today Broadway performers are so well miked the sound was great though we were a little far to see facial nuances.

Promises Promises is a great show with songs you already know and a full Broadway orchestra. Kristen Chenoweth was good, but Sean Hayes (Will and Grace) was surprisingly excellent. He’s an OK singer, but an excellent comedic actor in a show which demands just that.

The real suprise and a true show stopper was Katie Finneran playing Marge MacDougall, a sloshed, possibly widowed, pick-up on Christmas Eve. She was deliciously ditzy in an over-the-top role that could only appear on Broadway!

The show broke and we walked through a now soggy Times Square back to the 7 train. It’s astounding how quickly the vendors found umbrellas to sell! Today’s going rate was $5 (pronounced “figh dollar”). I expect the rate is as fluid as the weather.

The train back to Queens was crowded, but surprisingly Mets fans weren’t a large constituency. The 7 allows the central city to unload to the less glamorous neighborhoods along its right-of-way. That’s what took up the bulk of the space.

After a quick change at the motel (and an unexpected courtesy van lift to the stadium) we were back at Citi Field. It was raining, but not heavily enough to delay a nationally televised game. The fans in the stands are second class citizens in this equation.

I want to stop for a minute to say something nice about the Mets: Citi Field and the Citi Field employees.

The stadium itself is very nice. The walking areas are wide. Food is plentiful and actually worth eating! Though Subway has a large billboard in the outfield advertising their $5 foot longs, they’re $7.50 here.

Last night as we walked from our van down a deserted footpath toward the main stadium entrance we passed a young woman casually guarding a VIP entrance. As we came within a few feet she smiled and said, “Enjoy the game.”

It seemed totally spontaneous and genuine. This woman was representative of every Citi Field employee we met! Every single one was friendly, helpful and genuinely glad to see us there… even though we were wearing Phillies shirts.

The fans were equally friendly to us. I suspect they would not receive the same welcome at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. I apologize in advance. It now seems very unfair.

I understand from a Facebook friend the Mets took their blue collar team and, in building a new stadium, priced them out of the park. Judging by the sparse weekend crowd I suspect that’s true and a shame. Unsold seats do no one any good.

Saturday we sat on the first base side in the 400 level. Sunday’s tickets were on the opposite side six rows back in the 300’s. The seats were comfortable and the sight lines very good.

What luck–we were under cover!

This was a great weekend series for two Phillies fans. The Phils won both games (with the help of the floundering Mets who made more errors than runs this weekend).

Our 8:00 PM game wasn’t over until after 11:00 PM. We got home around 1:30 AM. TV friendly isn’t family friendly.

It was a great weekend. I now need a few days off to recuperate.

Times Square Bomber Or Bungler?

He’s going to be a loser… a low life… a sad man who feels persecuted. He won’t be the conventional terrorist we’ve come to fear.

I have been following the attempted Times Square bombing with great interest. Little-by-little details have dribbled out. I’m not a terrorism expert or detective, but I’d like to take a few guesses about the perp.

This entry will stay online. Let’s see how good a guesser I am.

I suspect the guy pictured in the surveillance video… Mr Balding with a change of shirts… is our guy. If the person shown wasn’t involved he’d be at the police station by now proclaiming his innocence. It’s better to do it that way than be confronted by heavily armed federal agents.

The guy was probably alone. Anyone with backing or a mentor or organized in any sense of the word wouldn’t have attempted to do what this guy did. He used “nonexplosive fertilizer” according to NYPD. He brought a car full of gasoline, propane and fireworks and only managed to start a seatcover fire!

I’m not complaining.

Unfortunately there was some planning. This was not spur of the moment. He had to get the license plate. He had to get the car. This probably means he had a motive or a score to settle. I suspect “grudge” will be an applicable word.

He changed his shirt on the street just off Times Square where there are more TV cameras than a TV camera factory! The VIN plate from the vehicle was gone, but there are other less obvious places where VIN numbers are also found. His thought process never went beyond one or two steps. He was not a deep thinker.

He’s going to be a loser… a low life… a sad man who feels persecuted. We will be underwhelmed when we see who he is. He won’t be the conventional terrorist we’ve come to fear.

I suspect the police will find him quickly. The images from the surveillance video, though not CSI quality, will bring tips. The original t-shirt vendor who spotted the smoking car later told reporters, “See something, say something.” He’s quickly become the poster child New Yorkers want to be.

In the end the Times Square Bomber will be seen as the Times Square Bungler. The police, though diligent, were very lucky Saturday night.

We live in a free society. Stuff like this just comes with the territory. New York City is loaded with targets, but it’s not alone. A few miles from here are a series of reservoirs. They’re virtually unprotected. We’re a nation of unprotected targets in a world that’s changed.

Coverage You Can’t Count On

A t-shirt vendor saw it and called a mounted cop. That’s the part of the story that pleasantly surprises me. A vigilant New Yorker did the right thing!

It’s a quarter after two on Sunday morning. This is my favorite time of the day. This is when my mind is its sharpest. The door to the deck is open. Cool air and the rhythmic call of an owl are floating in. The TV is on. The computer is on too. There are dozens of early Sunday morning’s like this every year.

For the past few hours I’ve been watching ‘thumb sucker’ coverage of the discovery in Times Square of a parked car loaded with an improvised explosive device. It’s a dark green Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates. It’s flashers were on as smoke suspiciously built up inside.

A t-shirt vendor saw it and called a mounted cop. That’s the part of the story that pleasantly surprises me. A vigilant New Yorker did the right thing! The cops followed up.

For hours MSNBC was the only network covering this story. Fox News joined in after a while. CNN was notably… embarrassingly… missing as they continued to re-run Larry King Live. Even the New York City stations were in regular programming for much of the evening.

Google News (bless their hearts) tracked the ramping up of online coverage over time.

It’s impossible for me to know why this story wasn’t covered through conventional outlets. My guess is many staffers were in D.C. for the nerd prom (White House Correspondents Dinner). TV staffing is down too. ABC News just finished laying off 25% of its staff! The local stations have reduced headcounts as well and those who do remain are often less experienced.

Weakly watched Saturday night is an easy target when you’re deciding where to save money.

MSNBC had an interesting quandary. They had nothing to report, but a story too compelling to leave! If I were running the network I don’t know what I would have or could have done differently.

Their coverage, though totally unsatisfying, gets a free pass from me. Filling time until there was something to report was the right decision.

Mayor Bloomberg has just spoken. He instills confidence. He’s a straight shooter.

I’m going to begin by telling you what we know and what we don’t know.

In spite of his later request it’s tough to think everyone will go about their business in Midtown Manhattan tomorrow. I certainly couldn’t.

Here’s my takeaway:

  • There are enough cameras in the Times Square area to make a Bourne movie jealous.
  • The bomb was assembled in an amateurish fashion.
  • All the evidence is preserved.

Someone will be caught quickly–please.

They’ve Ruined Times Square

New York City has closed off Times Square and turned it into a pedestrian mall. The excitement is gone.

times-square-daytime-empty.jpgNew York City has ruined Times Square! Is that blunt enough? They have changed the entire complexion of the “Crossroads of America” by removing vehicular traffic–and it sucks!

I’m a Times Square guy. I’ve been going there since I was a little kid. I remember when it was a scuzzy strip of sleaze. No regrets from me those days are over. The family friendly, advertising overgrown, garishly bright Times Square that replaced the sleaze was magical.

No more.

The secret of Times Square was you were walking through a city in perpetual motion. The traffic on Broadway and 7th Avenue just reinforced that ‘heart of the city’ feel. The lights from the cars and trucks and the sound of their horns performed as an underscore does in a movie.

times-square-empty-at-night.jpgGone! It’s gone. New York City has closed off Times Square and turned it into a pedestrian mall. The excitement is gone.

When we were in New York last week I originally thought we’d picked a dead night. Nope.

With broad spaces of the square open the feeling of the crowd is gone! Every night feels like a dead night. There is too much space in a city which prides itself on the optimum use of too little.

I’m sure there are good reasons for this move, but they’re lost on me. Times Square has now been fully “Disneyized!’ It’s disappointing.

ruby-red-staircase-times-square.jpgThis blog entry could easily end right here, but there is one thing that was done right–the rebuilding of the TKTS facility in the northern end of Times Square. A ruby red staircase has been placed over TKTS stretching toward the statue of Father Duffy.

This wide open access staircase was constantly full of tourists with cameras during my trips through the area. It’s a great vantage point from which to view the surroundings.

It would be better with traffic flowing around it.

looking-south-into-times-square-from-stairs.jpg

The Deception That Is Winter

Snow is beautiful to see (though because of its high albedo and limited tone range difficult to photograph). It’s just a pain-in-the-ass to deal with!

snowy-pine-tree.jpg

snowy-rock.jpg

snowy-wood-pile.jpg

It’s been snowing again. This makes three over the last week and a half. The winter’s hardly begun.

Snow is beautiful to see (though because of its high albedo and limited tone range difficult to photograph). It’s just a pain-in-the-ass to deal with!

The tendency is to stay inside. I could drive away right now and probably handle it without problem, but I can’t trust the other drivers. They’re probably saying the same thing about me.

Tonight it gets exceptionally cold–both thermometer and wind chill. The Weather Service has switched to “mom mode.”

“WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE NIGHT. WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH ARE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING. THIS WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. IN ADDITION…VERY COLD TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH THESE WINDS WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILL VALUES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS THIS AFTERNOON AND DOWN TO 10 TO 15 BELOW ZERO TONIGHT. LOCATIONS IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AS WELL AS ISOLATED OTHER LOCATIONS WILL EXPERIENCE WIND CHILLS RANGING FROM 15 TO 20 BELOW ZERO. YOU SHOULD WEAR LAYERED CLOTHING AS WELL AS SCARVES…HATS AND MITTENS IF HEADING OUTSIDE. A WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS ISSUED WHEN THE WIND CHILL INDEX IS LIKELY TO REACH -15 TO -24 DEGREES FOR AT LEAST 3 HOURS. FROSTBITE CAN DEVELOP IN JUST 30 MINUTES WITH A WIND CHILL INDEX OF -20. IF YOU ARE HEADING OUTDOORS…DRESS IN LAYERS AND WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.”

Who exactly will be in Times Square tonight? What kind of person will brave this weather in order to stand, penned up like cattle, as a backdrop for what is now at least a half dozen broadcasts.

On a day like today it seems like winter is eight months long. It’s depressing. The summer is so much easier to deal with.

My Friday Nighttime At Nightline

The Nightline set is, to be kind, tiny. The street traffic behind the anchor plays off a server and is shown on a rear projection TV. Is nothing real?

When I came to WTNH the director of our evening newscasts was a young guy named Jeff Winn&#185. He had the thankless task of directing our newscasts on a chromakey set. This is much too complex to explain here except to say any mistake Jeff made was glaringly obvious to even a casual viewer. It was that obvious. Luckily, Jeff was good at what he did. Mistakes were few.

He left us and went on to bigger things. Again, too complex to explain here, plus if I thought about his career versus mine I’d openly weep. Jeff has seven Emmys, as do I. His are the much larger, heavier, impressive, national ones. Jeff won most of them directing “Real Sports” on HBO. He still does that on a monthly basis.

Jeff’s day night job is directing ABC News Nightline. Originally Ted Koppel’s nightly wrap-up of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and then a daily single subject half hour of hard news, Nightline post-Ted is flashier, lighter and more feature oriented. It’s also stronger in the ratings than it’s been in years, recently beating Letterman.

I’ve been meaning to watch Jeff direct for years but never had the chance. I went last night.

The drive to New York was speedy and without incident until the Bronx. What had been a wide open highway became a slow moving bumper-to-bumper grind. I broke free, headed down the West Side Highway and pulled into an open and totally legal parking space on Columbus Avenue directly across the street from ABC’s entrance.

Really–I found legal on-street parking in Manhattan. I’m available for autographs later.

When Nightline first went to its rotating three anchor configuration it came from a windowed studio above Times Square. Even now you can watch the traffic behind the anchor. Don’t be fooled (as I was). They moved around a year ago and now come from TV-3, the same studio as World News with Charlie Gibson. The Nightline set is, to be kind, tiny. The street traffic behind the anchor plays off a server and is shown on a rear projection TV. Is nothing real?

For much of the evening Jeff is ‘on a leash,’ even when there’s nothing to do. If a major story broke, he would direct live coverage across the full network. That is no small responsibility. ABC has standby staff just-in-case 24/7.

We took the grand tour to the control room passing through Nightline’s sparsely staffed offices. Most of the action happens here during the day. The show is anchored live, but the packages are mainly pre-produced at a more convenient hour. TV work isn’t as glamorous when you consider so much of it is “second shift.”

ABC’s New York headquarters is a confusing collection of mainly connected buildings on Manhattan’s West Side between 66th and 67th from Columbus Avenue to Central Park West. There are a few apartment buildings interspresed, but most of the block is ABC’s.

Back when I did some freelance work at the network (weather fill-ins on Good Morning America–you never call anymore–I’m crushed) I never ventured far from my studio (TV-2) lest I get lost! In some of the interconnections the floors don’t even line up!

The control room itself is very impressive with two rows of arena type seating, a few individual positions farther back and a separate audio booth. The production crew face a winged wall of large high definition flat panel monitors. Each monitor is split to show individual inputs as needed. Most are pretty standard cameras and servers, but I also saw tie-lines to Washington and Europe (feeding Arab language broadcasts back to New York last night).

Jeff sat down and with the technical director and assistant director went through the show’s scripts page-by-page making sure each input was properly marked and available. As far as I could tell only one small change was made during this run-through. A courtesy font for a photograph came positioned over the person’s face. It was moved to air in a less intrusive spot.

As 11:35 PM approached more and more people drifted in. By airtime there were around a dozen people at work. Actually, the show starts 15 seconds early as an animated countdown streams to the network. I’m hoping that’s a tradition carried over from the good old days, because by now the affiliates had better have synchronized clocks, wouldn’t you think?

One floor down Martin Bashir anchored. His only contact with the upstairs crew was electronic. I enjoyed when he read about someone being taken to the hospital and in his British English left out the article “the.” “He was taken to hospital,” was what the audience heard.

The show was flawless… at least it looked flawless to me. In many ways the production resembled a local newscast, but with longer packages, no live shots and more help. The producer even shuffled extra promo content in to help fill the show’s scheduled time.

Jeff and the team were relaxed and playful as the show aired. These are people working together every night. They know their jobs and at this level I suspect screw-ups aren’t tolerated long.

A little after midnight we were done.

&#185 – Our other director was Tom O’Brien, who moved out of directing to sales and then management. He is now general manager at WNBC in New York after a long stay as GM at KXAS Dallas.

Very Cold January New York City Adventure

We left Connecticut late Thursday morning, driving the 90 or so miles with minimal interruption. Our destination was the Affinia Manhattan Hotel on 7th Avenue, across from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station.


Our story starts with Santa. The old guy knows if you’ve been naughty or nice, sure. He also knows when a deal’s a deal! That’s how Santa found, and placed in our collective stocking, this week’s trip to New York City.

He found a highly rated hotel at half price and show tickets to Legally Blonde The Musical, also half price.

No wonder he’s jolly.

What Santa didn’t care about, being a fulltime resident of the North Pole, was New York City is on sale this time of year because the temperature is also likely to be half off.

We left Connecticut late Thursday morning, driving the 90 or so miles with minimal interruption. Our destination was the Affinia Manhattan Hotel on 7th Avenue, across from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station.

I pulled up to the curb behind another car, barely clearing the intersection. There was no sign of help! We waited.

A few minutes later, Helaine got out, entered the hotel and found the doorman. Within a minute or two, we had traded our SUV for a perforated piece of paper and walked inside.

The Affinia Manhattan is older, though in very good shape. It seems from all outward appearances to be a hotel that caters to tourists, as opposed to businessmen.

As we checked in, we met our first Affinia employee. We would come to find, they are all “Vegas friendly.”

That’s a compliment. Las Vegas is built on a hospitality economy. Everyone who works there knows it, and buys into it. Friendly staff brings return guests (who tip well).

Like the hotel, our room had been in its current state of decoration for a while. It was the largest single hotel room I’ve ever had, with two full size beds, a kitchenette and postage stamp sized bathroom.

Our main view from the 11th floor was 7th Avenue – a blessing and a curse. 7th Avenue is cooking ’round the clock and noisy!

We (meaning Helaine) unpacked the clothes. I set up our ‘comms station’. Passing on the hotel’s $9.95/day Internet, I hooked up via my cellphone. The G3 connection was about T1 speed, meaning 1/6th what I get here at home, though probably faster than what the hotel provides.

Stef had come prepared with a list of places (meaning stores) she wanted to visit. We headed to the subway and Greenwich Village. It was a 10 minutes ride on the “A” train.

At Belvedere Castle in Central Park, the official Weather Service observation site, the high was in the low 30s with a light wind. In the canyons of the city, with Bernoulli’s principle ramping up the wind like water through a garden hose’s nozzle, it felt closer to zero.

We were looking for Marc Jacobs on Bleeker Street. In this lower part of Manhattan, where streets no longer run parallel and perpendicular, it was tough to find. Luckily, along the way I spied the Magnolia Bakery.

This was a place I knew nothing about until Saturday Night Live featured it in “Lazy Sunday” a digital short. Even then, it took Stef’s sense of ‘what’s hot’ to move it onto my radar.

I saw the sign and could only think one thing – cupcakes!

Good God, they’re amazing. I can’t imagine there’s anything healthy about them but you’ll die happy.

As Helaine and Stef looked in stores, I stayed outside, freezing and photographing.

The Village is a very nice, very citified residential neighborhood. People move here to live an affluent lifestyle without looking ostentatious. Sorry, your cover has been blown.

We moved farther south to Century 21, a major discount clothing store across the street from Ground Zero. If you’re wondering whether Lower Manhattan has changed since 9/11, the answer is yes, there’s a huge construction site where WTC towers once stood. Other than that, people move about their business as they always have.

This part of the city is busy because it’s particularly convenient (something lost on me as a kid growing up in Queens). You’re only a few minutes from Midtown, Brooklyn (via the subway) and New Jersey (via the PATH trains) and 25 minutes from Staten Island via the ferry.

Back at the hotel we all changed to more sensible shoes and headed uptown on foot toward the Theater District and Times Square.

Helaine, our organizational beacon, made reservations for dinner at Joe Allen, a well known theater hangout on Restaurant Row (aka 46th Street between 8th> and 9th Avenues). I’d actually been once before, doing an interview there while shooting on location as host of PM Magazine/Buffalo.

Stef and I shared a guacamole dip appetizer. It was smooth in texture with a spicy tang. For the main course, she ordered a warm chicken salad while Helaine and I had meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I was comforted.

When we arrived, the restaurant was empty. When we left, it was full. This is a place that does huge business, mostly timed to make an 8:00 PM curtain. We had other ideas before the show began.

Before heading to the theater, we headed into Times Square and the oversized Toys ‘R Us. It’s tough to explain how large this store is, except to point out it has a full sized, full motion, Jurassic Park dinosaur and a Ferris Wheel!

Some things in life don’t get questioned. Stef wanted to ride and she and Helaine had already decided the ride would be with me (the less height fearful of the parents).

As Ferris Wheels go, with wasn’t particularly high nor particularly scary. After all, it wasn’t put up in a parking lot by safety ambivalent Carny’s! It was, however, indoors. That was the attraction.

Ride finished, we found the door, turned right and walked another block or so to the Palace Theater, where we had tickets to see “Legally Blonde The Musical.”

As with most Broadway houses, it’s been here for a while. The Palace opened in 1913, and much of that old school feel is still in it, though the theater has obviously been refurbished.

It is an immense house with orchestra, mezzanine and balcony&#185.

Ours seats were upstairs in the first row of the mezzanine – an astounding view of both the stage and the orchestra pit. On this Thursday night in mid-January, only the first few rows of the mezzanine were full. I assume the balcony was mostly abandoned as well.

About 20 minutes into the show I said to myself, “This is going much too fast.”

There was too much story with too few details in too little time. It was the theatrical equivalent of fast food. And then, with the story established, Legally Blonde hit its stride.

This is not Shakespeare. It’s a very light, tightly choreographed musical, based on the Reese Witherspoon movie. It’s light and fluffy and… well, it’s blonde! It was a lot of fun.

Years ago, Broadway suffered because the players voices faded over the long distance to the upper deck seats. Not so anymore. Actors wear mics (which you sometimes see protruding from their foreheads).

I’m mention microphones because for this performance, I think there was too much amplification. Less would have been more. Voices could have carried without being overpowering.

Laura Bell Bundy, who we saw in Hairspray, is physically perfect for the lead role, sorority girl Elle Woods. She sings and dances well, but Helaine felt her voice ran out before the show ended, sometime in the second act. Toward the end, it became grating.

The real standouts in the cast were Orfeh, the déclassé hairdresser who explains life to Elle and Christian Borle, the ‘pulled up by his own bootstraps’ law student/love interest.

Orfeh’s voice is strong, brassy and vibrant. Her presence is strong on stage. And, as they read this, my family will find out, she’s working with her husband!

Orfeh is Paulette, the unlucky-in-love Bostonian hairdresser who becomes best friends to Elle Woods, and Karl is Kyle, the UPS man of her dreams. Needless to say, Orfeh is thrilled to get to bend-and-snap for her husband eight times a week on Broadway.

Christian Borle reminds me of Eric Bogosian. That is if Eric Bogosian could sing… and maybe he can – who knows? In one of those weird stage intangibles, he’s really likable, though I can’t give you bullet points why. That’s good, because this part demands likability. When he was on the stage, it was tough to look away.

Oh – there are two other cast members I wanted to mention – Chico and Chloe as Bruiser and Rufus respectively. Both pound dogs, they are incredibly well trained (though you do see food move from actor’s hand to dog’s mouth after each bit of acting) and integral parts of the show.

Stef asked me to go backstage and bring them home. A father hates to disappoint his child, but the show must go on. I resisted.

After a slow start, Legally Blonde finished strong for me. We left in a good mood and hoofed it back downtown to the hotel.

Manhattan was reasonably quiet until we got to the Garden, where the Rangers game was letting out. The crowd was in a good mood. The Rangers had won.

Checkout time at the Affinia is very late – noon. We were out earlier, leaving our bags with the bellman. Breakfast/lunch was at The Bread Factory Cafe on 7th Avenue.

As is so often the case, Helaine and Stef had walked by the day before, stared in the window and decided this particular would be worth our while. I don’t quite know how they do it. Good decision.

I stood at the pasta station as my linguine with rock shrimp and garlic pesto sauce was prepared. It was tasty, and enough carbs to get me going.

Stef and Helaine decided a neighborhood store (Macy*s in Herald Square) was the place to go. I begged off. Stores just don’t do it for me like they do for them.

I cut across 34th Street to 5th and into the Empire State Building. It was me, Clicky, three lenses and three batteries (each of which would fizzle prematurely).

As a native New Yorker, I can’t remember ever going to the Empire State as a kid. It’s a tourist thing, like the Statue of Liberty and the U.N. – something the locals don’t do.

My first trip up was on a Saturday night in the summer of 1967. A fellow student from Brooklyn Tech had gotten his FCC First Class Radiotelephone license and latched on as summer relief transmitter engineer for WABC-TV. It seems like a hell of a responsibility for a 17 year old, but he was working odd hours and making big money in a unionized position.

The observation deck is on the 86th floor. He worked somewhere in the 90s… with windows that opened and a ledge some of the more senior engineers claimed they walked out on. I remember a fresh breeze blowing in toward the rack of transmitters and the glow of the city below.

I wish I remembered his name. I’m not sure if I really liked him as much as I liked the idea of going to this very special techie place.

I went back to Empire (as the transmitter guys called it) a few years ago with Stef. This was in my pre-Clicky days. Did it count without Clicky?

Back then, we waited in line for a few hours before taking the two elevators up&#178. Today, there was no crowd and I breezed right through an abandoned rope line and up to the top.

Holy crap it was cold!

The Sun was shining and the sky blue as I stepped onto the deck. Groups of people clustered around the diamond shaped fencing, peering out, trying to figure where they were looking. The city below was familiar. I looked east, trying to find our old apartment complex in far off Queens.

This time of year, the Sun is never very high in the sky. Looking south was very different than looking north. To the north all the detail was distinct. Looking south was looking at buildings in silhouette.

I watched as people took snapshots with the city as the background. It’s tough to make that kind of shot work when all you’re doing is pointing and shooting. Cameras are designed to compensate and correct exactly what you want to show uncorrected!

One of the most fascinating parts of the observatory are the pigeons. “How did they get up here,” I heard someone ask?

Hello – they’re birds. They fly. There are numerous ledges. They don’t have to do it all at once.

I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to say it, but resisted.

These city pigeons, used to people and cognizant of the protective fence, stayed mere inches away. They were scoping us out as we returned the favor.

I came prepared, bringing all my gear. I didn’t bring enough battery power. I knew this might be a problem. New batteries were already on order (and arrived at home today) for these fading ones.

Don’t feel sorry for me. I still got plenty of shots. I just had to stop before I wanted to.

Oh – one more thing. By virtue of its incredible height, the Empire State Building is an awful place for cell service! I tried making a few calls. Mostly they failed before they could be completed. When I did get a connection, it didn’t last long.

When you’re on top of the Empire State, it’s very easy to appreciate the wisdom of having this once building tower over all the others. A city of ‘equi-heighted’ skyscrapers would look wrong and the effect of this observatory would be diminished.

I met the girls for our last stop before leaving. It was a snack at Pinkberry on 32nd> Street, a street of mainly Korean businesses and Asian faces.

This was a Stef call. Pinkberry is trendy. Stef likes trendy. The American Express ads touting Pinkberry’s “swirly goodness” only add to that aura.

It’s not ice cream. It’s not yogurt. And, I’m told, it’s not terribly caloric.

Pinkberry was the coldest dessert I’ve ever had… and on a day that was already cold! There’s no doubt, it was tasty and really pretty.

I’m hoping Pinkberry doesn’t come after me, as the store has a lovely ‘no photography’ decal on the glass.

So, here we are, home again. This adventure is over. It’s amazing what we were able to accomplish in about 24 hours.

This explains why I came home and crashed!

&#185 – Writing in the NY Times before the Palace opening of Beauty and the Beast, Alex Witchel wrote, “Even if the cost is $11.9 million, that’s still a lot of money by Broadway standards, if not Disney’s. Can jealous fellow producers at least hope it will take years to recoup the investment, especially given the Palace’s hard-to-sell second balcony?”

&#178 – The first elevator goes from the ground floor to the 80th. You change there for 86.

New Year’s Eve On TV

Helaine and I did some intensive TV watching, waiting for the ball to drop. Here are a few observations from the evening.

Does everyone now have a New Year’s Eve show from Times Square… and why? It looked like Fox News, CNN and CNBC were there for longform live shows. Is there that much demand for their … especially when ABC and MTV are also there?

With all the networks and their non-interlocking musical acts, are the bands actually amplified enough to hear or are their outdoor performances a sham for TV? Times Square isn’t big enough to have multiple musical acts performing at the same time without acoustic mayhem.

As it is, it looked like the acts were facing away from their audience. That shot works for TV, allowing a wide expanse of humanity to be on the screen. It’s not very appealing for the people watching in the cold.

Tila Tequila – what’s the deal? I have this fascination with Asian women, but I’m going to draw the line somewhere on this side of her.

At one point a musician picked her up. Dude – wash your hands.

Kid Rock looked like he was dressing to be a sideman in Funkadelic.

How did Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve get a pass from the Writer’s Guild? Dick Clark Productions is a member of the producers organization. This show was scripted. Other DCP shows, like the People’s Choice Awards, have been affected.

Poor Dick himself still sounds terrible and it is painful to watch. I know – that’s my problem. I’m probably wrong for being judgmental in this way.

It should be noted, Dick was able to keep up with the countdown numbers. A few years ago, he was not.

Every year Helaine asks why anyone would go to Times Square. I watch, half expecting to see some act of terrorism. How can it not be a ‘soft’ target?

Why does anyone go? Is anyone there over the age of 25?

As I got set to turn the TV off, I saw Anderson Cooper on CNN with Kathy Grifffin. That’s TVs new odd couple, right? I am sorry I missed them.

Getting Set To Go

I have burned the candle at both ends. We’ve hit the road a week ago last Friday. I am bushed. Please, let this not be the screaming baby flight from Vegas. I want to need to sleep.

My sister and brother-in-law arrived in Las Vegas yesterday. This is one of those lucky, versus planned, things. They were scheduled to be here for a convention. In fact, when I asked if they wanted to have lunch today, they were busy selling.

At least we had one meal together. Yesterday, my sister, brother-in-law, and three cousins hit the MGM coffee shop. We were seven, not a common number. We waited over and hour for a table, and that was with a line pass!

Last night, I thought it would be fun if we took our young cousin, Max, downtown. Staying on the Strip, downtown’s far away and never seen.

Fremont Street, the main drag downtown, is where all the gaudy signs were in the 40s, 50s and 60s. If you saw Elvis in Vegas, Fremont Street is where he was. It really can’t compete with the Strip anymore, so it has positioned itself a little more downscale and affordable.

Fremont Street is where you an get 99&#162 shrimp cocktails (Golden Gate Hotel – they’re still great) and where $5 blackjack players get rated for comps. The street itself has been closed to traffic, covered with a mesh canopy and loaded with little kiosks and stands.

The atmosphere is comparable to what I’d expect on New Years Eve in Times Square. There are people of every shape, size and color. Families gawk. Pierced, Mohawked wackos gawk. Retirees gawk. They’re all together, and though the area seems tawdry, I never felt unsafe.

Cousin Michael made note of the nearly invisible security. We’re guessing they’re hidden, just seconds away… but that’s a hopeful guess and nothing more.

Once an hour, all the outside casino lights dim and thousands of tiny lights on the overhead canopy turn on to project a multimedia show. It’s called the Fremont Street Experience.

A few years ago the show was brought up-to-date… which ruined it! A more appropriate, though still modern, show is currently featured.

We were back at our hotel before midnight (which here, on a Saturday night, is something like noon anywhere else).

Our room is sad now. Nearly everything is packed and ready to go. Southwest Airlines has already sent me a text message saying our flight should be running on-time. The weather here and in Connecticut should cooperate.

It’s not over until I call the bellman. That’s only minutes away.

Glad I’m Home This Year

I’ve been to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times. It’s really great. The photos I took three years ago are among my all time favorites.

Last year I went and worked for ABC, doing live shots for affiliates across the country. Stef came with me, which made it even more fun.

This year the weather will stink. I’ll be glad not to be under a tarp on Central Park West hoping my fingers don’t freeze off!

It will be interesting to see the decision New York City’s officials make concerning the balloons. I expect significant wind. Last year a balloon caught a light pole while moving through Times Square. It wasn’t the first incident where someone got hurt.

New York City should be cautious, but there’s a downside to caution. Each year’s spectacle on TV is a tourism advertisement for the next year. And, for New York, the holidays are incredibly lucrative.

By the time I wake up tomorrow, the decision will have already been made. I’m sleeping in.

Rand McSteffie

Steffie’s college roommate is back at school for some summer classes. Steffie thought it might be nice to bring her their shared television and some other things we’d stored here in Connecticut. So yesterday afternoon, with her friend Sam in tow, Steffie set out for Long Island.

It’s really not a difficult trip and before long they were there.

Flash forward to departure time. By this time Sam, suffering from a headache, dozes off in the front seat. Steffie hops onto the Meadowbrook and heads home.

Everything was going so well, so smoothly until she got to the Cross Island Parkway. That’s how Helaine and I get to the Throgs Neck Bridge. The problem is, just at the point you exit to the Cross Island there’s a sign beckoning you to a different exit for the Throgs Neck!

Confused, Steffie followed the sign… and so began her great adventure through the boroughs!

Instead of heading north, into the Bronx, she was heading west toward Manhattan. Somehow she got on the Long Island Expressway, driving past the apartment where I grew up, past Queens College and the New York World’s Fair site.

Her exact route isn’t certain. She doesn’t totally remember and probably had no way of knowing anyway. I am reconstructing it from a conversation we had a little after 1:00 AM.

“You know that tunnel,” Steffie asked?

“Did you go up on a very high section of roadway with a great view of Manhattan?”

Holy crap! Steffie had made her way to Long Island City and was heading into the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

“It went on forever and was really narrow,” she said.

She’s right. The twin tubes of the Midtown Tunnel run around 1¼ miles. The lanes are narrow and the tunnel does curve. Even worse, as you leave you’re faced with three choices, “Uptown, Midtown and Downtown,” none of which would make any sense to Steffie!

She remembers Lexington Avenue and seeing Times Square on her right. She was totally lost.

“You know the glass building?”

Glass building? I looked at my toes – where all answers emanate. Glass building… uh… “You mean the Javits Center?”

It was around this time in the conversation that Steffie admitted that she knew she’d drive in Manhattan at some point, but had hope she’d wait until she was around 40.

Back in the car she pulled into a parking lot, hoping to find an attendant. No dice there. She yelled across at a taxicab stopped at a light. As he explained, the light turned green.

The time between a green light and horn honk in Manhattan is measured in milliseconds.

The were signs for the Holland Tunnel. She knew she didn’t want to be there. There were also signs pointing toward the George Washington Bridge. That sounded more familiar.

She didn’t know it at the time, but she was now heading north on the West Side Highway.

On family trips, we often make a decision as we approach the George Washington Bridge. If there’s heavy traffic on the bridge heading into the Bronx, we continue north and wind our way through the Bronx and Westchester. If the coast’s clear, we take the easy way – I-95, the Cross Bronx Expressway.

Steffie looked at the bridge and decided to continue. It’s lucky for her she did, because as it turns out, she would have taken the GWB. She would have headed across the Hudson into New Jersey!

Heading north, the West Side Highway becomes the Henry Hudson Parkway. She drove through the toll, over the Henry Hudson Bridge and into the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

Now nothing looked familiar! Exits came and went, but no names she recognized… until Mosholu Parkway.

Unfortunately for Steffie, she knew the name because we’d had brunch at the Mosholu, a boat moored on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. She took the Mosholu anyway.

Even with a map, it’s tough to reconstruct her trip from here. She did panic a little when she saw signs pointing to Albany. A little after that, a sign for the Hutchinson River Parkway.

Steffie headed north on the “Hutch,” finally breathing a sigh of relief as she passed the “Entering Greenwich” sign. She was back in Connecticut.

The 100 minute trip had taken her four hours. She had visited Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx and was within a few hundred yards of Brooklyn.

Steffie probably expected Helaine or me to get angry. We didn’t.

Do I wish she would have called me at some point? Of course.

It’s a great story we’ll have forever… one of those family fables grandparents will someday tell grandchildren about their mother.


Criminals Of The Internet

I am fascinated by the ‘dark side’ of the Internet.  Maybe that’s because I was here (wherever here actually is), back when it all began… or close to it.

How long ago was that?  My first surfing of the Internet was done with a browser (Lynx) that only saw text – no images, much less multimedia content.  I remember sending a  technical comment to Yahoo!.  The person responding (get an actual person to respond today) said he’s pass it along to “Jerry.”  He was talking about  Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s co-founder.

The Internet was trustworthy.  In fact, many of the Internet’s biggest weaknesses are caused by the innocence of software coders who didn’t feel it was necessary to verify much of anything because it was a relatively small group of American geeks – mostly affiliated with colleges, universities or the military.

When I send email from home on my geofffox.com account, it comes from servers run by Comcast.  The same mail, sent from work, comes from a server I use at 1and1.com (not the station’s mail server).  I hardly ever use the server assigned to geofffox.com (long story about its dependability).

No one checks to make sure I really am entitled to use geofffox.com.  I could use anything as my return address with little fear of getting caught or suffering consequences!

It’s that ability to do what you wish with little scrutiny that has allowed parts of the Internet to become a cesspool.

I am often call upon to fix friend’s computers that have slowed down, as if a computer was a mechanical device that doesn’t run quite as well with age.  Of course the real reason for the slowdown is that they’ve been bogged down by hidden garbage on our trustworthy Internet

I read a long article, Invasion of the Computer Snatchers , in today’s Washington Post that shows how far all this scamming is going.  It’s scary.

Compromised computers are turned into ‘bots.’  It’s the PC equivalent of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

As is so often the case with crime, a few criminals can affect hundreds or thousands of unsuspecting computer owners.  And, since the thieves and scammers are giving away your time or money or convenience, they really don’t care how insidious their actions are.

What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a more concentrated effort to crack down on this crime?  OK – maybe mere individuals don’t have much pull, but Citibank, Bank of America, PayPal and others must.

And, since at some point these transactions must lead to the movement of money – why can’t it be tracked down and stopped?  I just don’t get it.

The Internet has such an incredible promise, which will never come to fruition if the net is allowed to remain the cyber equivalent of Times Square, circa 1975.

We’re Back From New York City

I like going to New York. The city is invigorating to me. When I was a kid, living in the bowels of Queens, going to ‘the city’ was a big deal. It was where sophistication was – and I was anything but sophisticated.

Helaine is less a New York lover than I am. On the other hand, she loves me. She agreed to go because I wanted to go.

Helaine, Clicky&#185 and I headed to Union Station in New Haven for the 11:57 AM train. Union Station is a moderately large, moderately grand, railroad station.

There are rows of large wooden benches in the waiting room. Over the past few

years someone has put large model trains, under plastic covers, on the tops of the benches. It was a great idea, but it ruins the look of this classic station.

Of the eight trains listed on the stations schedule board, three were delayed or cancelled. Is this any way to run a railroad?

Our train arrived at Grand Central Terminal ahead of schedule and we were on our way to Times Square.

The norm for a Fox Family trip to New York is to see a show, and the best deal is to go to TKTS in Duffy Square in the northern reaches of Times Square. TKTS sells Broadway show tickets for half price, plus a small surcharge. There are no credit cards accepted and no guarantee of any show being available.

Oh – you have to stand in the cold, in line, and wait. Temperatures yesterday never got out of the mid-30&#176s and there was a pretty stiff breeze.

We got in line around 2:00 PM. TKTS opens at 3:00 PM.

I had done some research, seeing which shows had been posted for sale in the previous week, and which shows we might enjoy. Trust me, some shows are bad. Even worse, some shows are weird. There are shows about nearly every aberrant behavior you can think of – and many you can’t!

Our goal was to see “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” We had seen small snippets of it on the Tony Awards, and it looked funny. Here’s the original NY Times review.

After waiting a few minutes, it was entertainment time. A man brought a portable amplifier, karaoke soundtrack, and buckets for contributions and began to sing. Yikes! No wonder he can’t get a legit job.

He started with “New York, New York,” and it went downhill from there. Like the guy with the broom who sweeps up after the elephants, he is in show business.

Most times you can get your first choice for show tickets. This time we did.

For $47.50 + $3 service charge each, we got $95 seats for the show. Our seats we’re in Row C at the very oddly shaped “Circle in the Square Theater.” More on that later. It was just after 3:00 PM and the show wouldn’t begin until 8:00 PM. Five hours in New York to kill.

I suggested, and Helaine readily agreed (she really must love me) to go to the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side. We popped into the subway, bought two Metrocards, asked the ticket agent for assistance, and found the correct station was a few blocks away.

I’m not sure how most out-of-towners take to the subway. I grew up riding them. I took a long subway ride to high school, every day for four years. It is the fastest, easiest mode of transportation in Manhattan. They’re just not very clean or friendly looking. The cars are filled with people from every corner of the planet.

We were at the museum in 15 minutes.

Our time at the museum was a little aimless. We got there late in the afternoon. Even on Fridays, the museum turns into a pumpkin at 5:30.

We walked around the new space wing – an impressive glass lined structure. We moved into the ‘old school’ sections of the museum.

At one point I needed the men’s room. I left Helaine and walked a series of hallways to get there. I made a turn and stared down the hall where the lunchrooms for school kids are located.

Good grief. It’s deja vu! I remembered being there, in this very same hallway, well over 40 years ago.

I like this museum. We needed more time, or more importantly, a real strategy for seeing things. We walked around aimlessly.

Some of what we saw was very impressive. Huge dinosaurs filled large halls. In other areas, animals from around-the-world were pictured in their native habitats.

Helaine asked if the animals in the dioramas were ‘real’ or re-creations. You know, sometimes you just don’t want to hear the answer!

I would assume these are the best of taxidermy. I’m also guessing the same antelopes have had vultures picking at them for decades. Some of these dioramas looked pretty old.

As the museum closed, we headed south. There was plenty of time, since we were meeting Steffie and her college roommate for dinner at the Stage Deli. We decided to walk.

The Museum of Natural History to the Stage Deli is around 1.5 miles, but it’s a flat, easy walk down Central Park West. CPW is a broad, two way street with the park on the east side. On the west side are mostly large, stately, very expensive co-op apartment buildings.

We walked past canopies leading to lobbies with multiple doormen. From time-to-time as we walked, a doorman would dart to the street to hail a cab or carry a bag.

We walked past the San Remo. It’s one of the few buildings on CPW I’ve been in. Years ago a friend worked for Barry Manilow, and I was in his apartment (without Barry). His view of Central Park was unreal.

We walked past the Dakota, the building where John Lennon lived, and outside of which he was killed.

We walked past one cross street, and as I looked down, it was covered in snow… and movie gear. A film shoot was in progress.

A few young women were talking to technicians, wondering about the arrival of someone – probably a movie star. Though the tech said he’d be there in a few hours, they said they’d stay.

We continued south to Columbus Circle. For years the circle was dominated by the horrific Edward Durrell Stone designed Huntington Hartford Art Gallery and the New York Coliseum. The Coliseum was actually uglier. With it’s astoundingly restrictive work rules it came to represent everything bad about doing business in New York City.

Now Columbus Circle is ruled by the Time Warner Center, a huge complex of condos, hotels and upscale shopping. We still had a few blocks to walk before getting to the Stage.

I fished my cellphone from my pocket and called Steffie, in the Village. She and the mystery roomie were heading to the subway to meet us for dinner. Luckily the Stage wasn’t all that crowded, as Helaine and I sat for a half hour waiting for their arrival.

I’ve written about the Stage before, but briefly, imagine Shaq sized sandwiches with bowls of matzo ball soup large enough to bathe in. On the table, a plate of very large, very sour pickles. Along with these oversized courses come checks the size of a small mortgage payment.

There was still some time before the curtain… and it was still very cold. Helaine sat down in the theater’s lobby while I headed back out to Times Square to take some more shots.

I took over 200 photos on this trip. It wasn’t particularly sunny and there wasn’t a whole lot I hadn’t photographed a dozen times before. I have a few good shots, but alas, nothing spectacular.

I made a few attempts at panoramas, firing off shot after shot as I slowly spun around at a location. So far I’ve looked at my panos for Times Square and the Museum of Natural History. Neither is a keeper. There’s still one from Grand Central to process.

It was dark out as I went to take these last Times Square shots. Obviously, the square itself is illuminated with miles of neon, but I wanted to capture the lower light foreground as well.

This kind of shot really calls out for a tripod. I have a little tabletop tripod in my bag… which was with Helaine. So, I waited for the light to go red, moved out into the crosswalk, and put the camera on the blacktop. In some shots I placed a tube of Chapstick under the lens to ‘lift’ the view.

Our show, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” is presented in “Circle in the Square” on 50th Street. This theater is at least 30 years old, new for a Broadway house, and probably has been refurbished at least once in that time. The theater space is actually downstairs.

To get you into the theme of the show, the lobby is decorated as if it were a school. There are posters, mostly handmade, for the A/V Squad and school elections. I didn’t know it at the time, but everyone pictured seems to be in the show or with the show.

Some members of the audience were standing in line with forms. This show uses four members of the audience as spelling bee participants.

Within a few minutes, a coordinator was approaching me. Helaine had found him and ratted me out.

As it turns out, I wasn’t chosen. Helaine says I wasn’t dweeby enough and probably too tall. Wow! Those are two things that never apply to me.

“Circle in the Square” is a very unusual theater space. The stage juts out into the house with no offstage wings. The audience surrounds it on three sides.

It’s not a particularly large theater, and having the audience split into three makes it that much more intimate.

Helaine said she felt a little uncomfortable sitting sideways to the stage, as we did. I thought they were fine – and we certainly had great seats for half price.

Before I continue, if you’re reading this and have never been to Broadway to see a show – go. I’m not talking about a Broadway show touring your city with an all-Minnesotan cast.

There is nothing like live theater, especially when you are seeing the cream of the acting crop, as you are in New York City.

But, it’s more than the actors. The theaters, the staging, the lighting, the musicians – they are all very special to Broadway. There is no other experience quite like it.

Broadway has become very pricey. What used to be a New Yorker’s pursuit is now primarily there for tourists. You can get good seats to many shows for half price. I have never been disappointed when I’ve seen a show on tickets from TKTS.

Back to the show.

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” follows the action at the bee, but of course is more than that. Each of the participants (two of whom could easily be played by an unamed friend of mine) has a back story. There is a subtext in everything that’s going on.

The dialog is clever. The music is OK, though there’s no tune for me to hum or memorable moment in the score. The play is performed so close to the audience that every action is a ‘tight shot.’

It is an ensemble cast of mainly young people, trying to look even younger.

The four audience members are integrated into the spelling bee and one-by-one, they are stumped (though when the script calls for them to stay, they are given words like “cow” to spell) and sit down.

At our performance, one of the audience members was an excellent speller. She got a word right that was obviously there to stump her. On her next turn, she spelled an even more difficult word.

Without missing a beat, she was given another, even more difficult word… a word which began with an “x” and went on for four or five syllables! It was obvious this was her time to sit down.

When she finally walked toward her seat, she was given a huge ovation. Really, quite sweet.

We enjoyed the show. It runs 1:45 without an intermission. That left us plenty of time to catch the 10:22 PM train back to New Haven… except the show began almost 10 minutes late!

We dashed from the theater and began walking to Grand Central. My legs are longer than Helaine’s. Advantage Geoff.

We huffed and puffed to 6th Avenue, then through the Diamond District (all closed on a Friday night – shabbot). I was wearing my atomic watch, accurate to the millisecond, and kept yelling out the time remaining.

Finally, a few blocks from the terminal, I had had enough. A cab was at the light and we hopped in. He took off and we then managed to hit every light the few blocks to GCT.

Helaine’s shoe was coming off… or coming apart. I’m not sure. It just wasn’t going well. We were living the Sandy Dennis, Jack Lemmon life from the original “Out of Towners.”

Our train left from track 15 – about a thousand tracks in from the main entrance. We were tired and I was sweating (Helaine might have been glowing – not sure) but we made it on board.

The train was crowded. Helaine said it looked like there were more than a few Rangers fans, going home after their game. There were more than a few people drinking beer and some loud, though controlled, laughter and discussions.

We rolled through the quiet Connecticut shoreline, getting to New Haven at 1:11 AM.

That’s a lot to do in one day!

&#185 – Since I’ve taken nearly 16,000 photos with my Canon Digital Rebel, it has earned a name: “Clicky.” Helaine, Steffie and I refer to the camera by that name – we really do!

How Time Slips Away

This past week in Birmingham, I told a few people about how I used to fill-in on Good Morning America. It’s been a while. What I didn’t realize was how long ago it really was.

I was searching for a tape tonight (never found it) and stumbled across an aircheck of my first GMA appearance. It was June 1, 1993. Good grief.

For a few years I was their go to guy and then… well, who knows why, I just fell out of favor.

Actually, it’s a weird story. I had just finished a full week of filling in on the weekday show (while also working nights in New Haven) and was back, on New Years morning, doing the ‘old’ Sunday show.

I finished a live shot in Times Square (across the street from where the studio is now located) and made my way back uptown to TV-2. I walked into the control room. The executive producer was sitting there in the back row. He turned to me and said, “You did a really good job this week. We’ll be seeing a lot more of you this year.”

As you might imagine, that was very good news. It didn’t take me long to call Helaine and tell her. I was juiced!

That was the last I heard from him!

Before long he was gone too. As new staff moved in I was no longer, “You did a really good job this week,” but just some guy from New Haven.

I still think about the fun I had and how I know I’d still be great for them. I’m afraid that train has left the station. That saddens me.

Of course I haven’t totally given up. If you’re friends with Ben Sherwood (GMA’s executive producer), put in a good word, won’t you?

Blogger’s addendum: The attached photo shows me with Joan Lunden and Charlie Gibson. Click here for a larger view. Don’t let the window fool you, we’re on the West Side of Manhattan.

I am holding a miniature helicopter and explaining Bernoulli’s principle. On the table are two plastic copter blades meant to fly when you spin them between your hands.