I got my New York Public Library card in the mail today. Anyone who lives in New York state is eligible for a card, so I now have access to the library’s impressive collection of online resources. I spent the morning refreshing my Spanish at the NYPL’s Online Language Learning…

If you have six or seven hours to dedicate to dinner and post-dinner drinks, you will discover the delightful absence of hangover or hunger the next morning. No wonder Parisians take so many vacation days. They are needed to eat properly. Gentlemen take note: Gui brought roses to all the…

I won’t detail the series of bureaucratic ineptitudes that led to Chris missing his Air India flight, and the rest of us being transferred to a different airline without permission or warning that our flight would leave TWO HOURS early, but we did spend the flight singing the famous South…

Man with a gun wrapped in a newspaper Diner called “The Usual” Brooklyn brownstones waiting to be demolished and replaced by a mall City dogs, patient and tolerant Fashion victims, many and hideous Deli salad bars with better food than most Ithaca restaurants Rat-like dog Dog-like rat Four drunken librarians…

Tomorrow morning I’m getting on a luxury Cornell bus to New York City (the place I don’t live, despite everyone’s impression when I say I’m from New York State) for a week long vacation. Yes, I said vacation. For possibly the first time in years, I’m traveling for non-work reasons….

I’m alone in the University of Michigan Science Library, enjoying free wireless (thanks to my alumni account) and a wealth of power outlets. I’m sitting in a window-alcove that overlooks campus, level with the green copper towers of West Hall. During school, I came here to watch the University’s resident…

I’m going to Flint tomorrow. I’ll be in town through Tuesday. I hope to visit my mom’s library on Friday, assuming I don’t expire from the cold I have developed. For your envy and amusement, my itinerary: I’m getting up at 4am so I can leave Ithaca at 4:30am so…

Spain! Thanks to the noble efforts of our catsitter friends, the famous librarian-and-animal scientist couple Clay and Mike, our tickets to Spain arrived safely, and we spent six public transportation-filled hours in Madrid while we waited for our train to the north. This might come as a surprise to some…