I've been short of time for blogging because I was at the YIVO conference, but I wouldn't want to say goodbye to New York without mentioning some of the places I went. I met up with my friend Jeff Weintraub, also in the city for the conference, and on his suggestion we took a walk along the High Line, formerly an elevated railroad, now a public park. It's a most creative use of urban space, and how good an idea it was to use it so can be judged from the fact that it was thronging with visitors. Jeff and I walked, sat, talked about life and the universe.
The day I visited the 9/11 Memorial with David Adler, we also went to Zuccotti Park. All quiet there now, though the place was full of people, sitting and chatting, having a bite, hanging out. Side by side are two notices, one prohibiting skateboarding, rollerblading and bicycling, the other forbidding the erection of tents, lying down on the ground or the public sitting areas, the placement of tarps or sleeping bags. There were still a couple of people displaying protest signs, but they were outnumbered by maybe eight or nine police. It was hard, looking at this ordinary weekday scene in the city, to think that world history had been changed here.
I would like to put in a word also for my hotel - Park South Hotel on East 28th Street between Park and Lexington. They made me feel right at home; but the particular word I want to put in concerns the music played in the foyer and the dining room. This is - not mixed in with other music, just all on its own - jazz from the 1950s and 1960s. Can you ask for better, for any greater level of enlightenment?
Finally, the YIVO Institute itself, where the conference was held. The event was a great success and I extend a big thank you to all those who were involved in organizing it.
Oh, and the Flatiron Building, which I passed many times going about. What they said.
