Nov 25th, 2010 at 10:30AM:
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade always attracts a crowd from the Upper West Side of Manhattan down to W. 34th Street, where you'll find the store for which the parade is named. It can be exciting to cram onto the streets and see each of the floats and balloons roll by. Even if it is chilly outside, with the coffee in your hands quickly growing cold, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
manhattan posts
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon inflation
Nov 25th, 2010 at 10:30AM:
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade always attracts a crowd from the Upper West Side of Manhattan down to W. 34th Street, where you'll find the store for which the parade is named. It can be exciting to cram onto the streets and see each of the floats and balloons roll by. Even if it is chilly outside, with the coffee in your hands quickly growing cold, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, ...Q & A with Grantourismo round-the-world slow travel bloggers
Nov 24th, 2010 at 2:00PM:
With all the holiday travel madness just beginning, sometimes it's nice to take a breath and think about taking travel more slowly. I recently had a chance to meet up with blogger Lara Dunston and her photographer-writer husband, Terence Carter, of the round-the-world travel project and blog, Grantourismo while they were traveling through Istanbul. Lara and Terence hosted me at their fabulous ...Marriott Renaissance New York Times Square: Manhattan's hidden hotel treasure
Nov 3rd, 2010 at 2:00PM: There's a lot to love about Times Square. The bright lights of Broadway, the scrolling marquees, endless restaurants and bars, TKTS booth and on any given occasion, a live street performance. Times Square is the epicenter of New York - the convergence of everything - the mecca of Manhattan.
Tourists come in droves, book Times Square hotels and spend the majority of their time walking Broadway ...New York City can make you deaf: new study links city noise to hearing loss
Oct 28th, 2010 at 9:00AM:
The locals hate midtown, and we just got another reason why.
It turns out that visiting the most heavily trafficked neighborhood in Manhattan could be hazardous to your health. Noise is the problem. Of course, it comes as no shock that parts of Manhattan can be quite loud. People, taxi horns and construction represent just part of the list that can rattle your ears and, eventually, cost you ...iheart the Roger Smith Hotel: art salon arrives in Manhattan
Oct 25th, 2010 at 8:00AM:
I would not have been surprised to find the likes of Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau sitting across from me Friday night. Reviving a concept only too scarce since the end of the eighteenth century, the Roger Smith Hotel was host to a dinner that centered on the exchange of ideas and the appreciation of art. The creators themselves were in attendance, flanked by friends, admirers and even ...Airport contraband featured in Lever House Art Exhibition
Oct 15th, 2010 at 9:30AM:
Go to Manhattan's Lever House, and you may see that lighter – or hand grenade – that was taken from you a JFK airport. Through the end of the year, the free exhibition will consist of photographs taken by Taryn Simon of items seized from passengers and mail packages coming into the United States. She spent five days clicking away at more than 1,000 items.
The exhibition, called ...Top ten overrated U.S. travel destinations/attractions
Oct 14th, 2010 at 4:30PM: Whether or not you're an American, there are certain places that are on almost everyone's must-visit list. Some tourist traps, like the Grand Canyon or Disneyland, are worth joining the masses and ponying up the entrance fee (although I just checked the Magic Kingdom's website, and Mickey and friends are bilking the parents of children under nine for $68 a pop).
Other much-lauded, highly ...Marrakech Hotel goes pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Oct 8th, 2010 at 5:00PM:
The Marrakech Hotel on New York's Upper West Side isn't just putting out a donation jar or donating a few spare percentage points to breast cancer research this October, they've taken it a leap further and gone pink! I headed over there with my camera to see what their pink-ified room was really like.
I was impressed with the hotel itself; you get a lot of charm for a very reasonable price ...Crif Dogs: The Top Hotdogs in New York City
Oct 6th, 2010 at 8:00AM:
The various hotdog-and-papaya joints scattered across Manhattan are great for a quick fix, but if you want to truly experience a hotdog's potential, you have to schlep down to the East Village. Tucked away on St. Mark's Place, just in from Avenue A, you'll find Crif Dogs, an establishment that redefines what many consider to be the worst form of meat.
...Affordable Art Fair: Putting the beautiful within reach
Oct 5th, 2010 at 12:00PM:
The Affordable Art Fair wrapped up in New York last weekend, crowed until the end. The event, which highlights originals and reproductions that don't require obscene wealth to own, is the antithesis of a global art market in which the appreciation of beauty has been nudged aside by appreciation in value.
Galleries from around the world were represented at the event, which was home to more than ...Times Square Fairfield Inn to celebrate "straight 10s" with Shake Shack
Sep 22nd, 2010 at 9:30AM: If you kept track of my Shake Shack odyssey a few weeks ago and built up an appetite, you're a few weeks from being able to satisfy it. On October 10, 2010 ... that's 10-10-10, in case you didn't realize it ... the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Times Square is going to make it easy for you. To celebrate the day of straight 10s, the hotel will give a $10 gift card per room for guests to use a ...New York City's Bloomberg proposes outdoor smoking ban
Sep 15th, 2010 at 4:30PM:
Thought you were going to light up a cig on your next trip to Central Park? Think again! Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to get a new measure passed that would prohibit smoking – outdoor smoking – in parks, beaches, marinas, boardwalks and pedestrian areas in New York City, according to the local Fox affiliate.
Even the mayor hasn't always been convinced that he could pull this ...
Four views of Shake Shack burgers in New York City
Sep 14th, 2010 at 2:00PM:
The line always seems to be long in Madison Square Park. Shake Shack, known for its burgers as well, always draws a crowd, and it isn't unusual to spend an hour or more waiting to sink your teeth into its greasy delights. I've done it, and I know I'm not alone. Well, the stand's popularity has led to expansion, and there are now four locations across Manhattan, with a fifth in Queens at Citi ...Daily Pampering: Louis XIII Rare Cask shots for $1,000
Aug 19th, 2010 at 4:00PM: Only in New York can you throw back a $1,000 shot and live to write about it.
If you're looking for a spirit to redefine celebration, you don't necessarily have to dress up for New York's luxury hotels, top-tier restaurants or exclusive bars. After all, this is New York, and luxury can be found in the most obscure places. Instead, direct your driver to W. 33rd Street, between 5th Avenue and ...The best places in the world to smoke a cigar
Aug 19th, 2010 at 3:35PM: Smoking a cigar the correct way demands a critical mix of solitude, contemplation, and most important, awareness of surroundings. All other things become subservient to the act of observing and evaluating. With this game plan in play, the smoker's post-ignition environs take on as much importance as the flavor, taste, and draw of the tobacco. Here is one man's list of the top ten places in the ..."Ground Zero Mosque" reality check
Aug 17th, 2010 at 4:00PM: We've all heard about it--the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque". Journalists, bloggers, and pretty much everyone else have been screaming at each other about whether it should open or not. All but absent from the debate, however, are hard facts.
Now the Village Voice has published an angry article with facts about the Ground Zero Mosque. First off, it's a community center as well as a mosque. ...Wheelchair kid stranded by Air Canada after tweet-a-thon
Aug 5th, 2010 at 1:00PM:
An eight-year-old kid suffering from muscular dystrophy had a simple dream: to race through Central Park in a tutu surrounded by a group of supporters. After a tweet-a-thon, anchored on the hashtag #TutusForTanner (the kid's name is Tanner) resulted in $25,000, he hopped a plane for New York. The trip ended with the discovery that his $15,000 wheelchair had been ruined during the flight.
...Munch on Mozzarella on Madison in Manhattan
Aug 3rd, 2010 at 5:00PM: One of the frustrations of Madison Avenue in midtown is that there isn't much to eat. You have to dash down a side street to get a quick bite, which leaves you craning your neck at every intersection to see if it's worth taking a few steps off your path for a chance to fill your stomach with something you want. After a while, you just give up and walk into the first restaurant you see after your ...
Five ways to make bus travel bearable
Aug 2nd, 2010 at 8:00AM: I've been spending a lot of time on buses lately – and not the kind that trace an east-west route across Manhattan. For the trips I've been taking, it's been the best way to go, but rolling by bus is still far from exciting. From having to smoke outside with the homeless people in front of Port Authority to being stuck next to or in front of a loud cell phone talker, it's hard to find a less ...Top 10 farmers markets in U.S.
Jul 26th, 2010 at 11:30AM: There's an innate pleasure to eating seasonally, especially this time of year, when berries, stonefruit, peppers, corn, and tomatoes are at their peak. Farmers markets are one of the best ways to enjoy these ingredients, not only because they afford the chance to connect with growers, ranchers, fishermen, and food artisans, but also because they're a window into the soul of a community.
I'll be ...
