Travelogue part 1 of ?

In early December I wrote about how cold it was here. After that we had several weeks of warm dry weather, until two days before our February vacation when the cold and snow returned. Little did we know it would be an omen of the whole vacation – then again, who recognizes foreshadowing when it occurs?

In the Denver airport, we noticed that Mayor Hickenlooper was boarding our plane. He didn’t sit near us. Instead we sat near a pleasant woman who had some plans for the trip that were similar to ours. We landed in New York amid some snow and wind, the forecast was for total accumulation of 6 – 12 inches.

As we’ve done in the past, we rented an apartment on the upper West Side (of Manhattan) – that’s both more convenient and more affordable than a hotel. We lucked out with a location overlooking a small park and the Hudson. Building and neighborhood were both nicely quiet. Since time was tight, we just went to the closest market rather than to Balducci’s, Zabar’s, or even Whole Foods to get staples to keep us going for the week – you know coffee, orange juice, muffins, Pilsner Urquell, etc.

We drove to Jersey to see several of my wife’s cousins, including one of a couple removes who’s barely six months old. Didn’t stay long as the snow and wind were both getting heavy enough to seriously impede visibility. The trip back into the city took nearly three times as long as the trip out, but we made it in without event.

When we awoke the next morning, it was clear that this was no ordinary snowstorm. It turned out to be the heaviest snowstorm in NYC since they started keeping records of that sort of thing. Mayor Bloomberg came on TV a few times. The first time he asked everyone to stay put, so we did. We also cancelled our plans for the day, including another evening trip to Jersey. A few hours later the Mayor came on again saying that mass transit was working fine, that all Broadway shows would go on and that the city was providing hot chocolate and free use of sleds in selected parks. This announcement affected us, as we had tickets for a 3 pm matinee.

The subway stop was only three blocks away, but the blowing snow and the piles of sonw in intersections made it a chore – particularly for my better half who is rather disabled. As we paused in front of an ugly gray building, I belted a few notes. She looked puzzled. I explained that I now can say I sang at Julliard.

We got to the theater plenty early, so we enjoyed a drink in the basement bar before the curtain went up. Our seats were in the second row on the (ironic) extreme left of the theater. Advice for travelers to NYC: see Spamalot. (Yes, they did horrid things by (1) omitting the witch trial; (2) including the nihilist anthem“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and (3) buggering up the story and the whole concept of comedy late in the second act to further the worst political idea on the planet, but those things aside the play is fun and funny.) At the intermission we exchanged greetings with our seatmate of the previous day, who was sitting in the mezzanine.

The snow had stopped while we were in the theater, but the wind hadn’t. It had also gotten much colder. We grabbed a bite near Times Square and caught a cab back. To no one’s surprise, the cabbie was a Pakistani who had been here for twenty or so years. I mentioned several Pakistani physicians of my acquaintance and we chatted quite amiably amid relatively light traffic. All went well until the last few blocks when the cabbie started railing about the pernicious influence of Jews on conservative Americans. I bit my tongue and slashed his tip. After the Jizya, the hatred of Jews is the worst feature of Islam and apparently one of the most intractable.