I'm now blogging from New York Public Library, where (my guide book informs me) 'Leon Trotsky worked... on and off during his brief sojourn in New York just prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution'. You can get free internet access here. I'm sure Trotsky would have been pleased about that. But it's only for half an hour. Not so good.
I just came back from a visit to the UN building. Strange thing: as I was approaching, just a couple of blocks away, it seemed like half the New York Police Department suddenly appeared, a whole fleet of cars with sirens going like it was an emergency. (What me? I have no ill intentions at the UN today. I'm only visiting. I might try and negotiate to buy the place, but nothing more.) They sailed on by. Phew. I went in and looked, and paid my respects to a certain normative ideal.