December 11, 2008 - NY, NY, USA

Signs that you've been away from American culture too long:

"Who's performing?" I ask into the crowd of people standing across the street from Rockefeller Center.
"Katy Perry," responds a man standing near us.
"Who's Katy Perry?" I ask.
"You know who she is," the guy says.
"No, I really don't." I respond.

At this point, our friend Kati (no relation to the singer, despite the phonetic similarity of their names) steps in to explain that Ms. Perry sings a very popular song called "I kissed a girl." Not that that helped us.

Most people come to New York for the restaurants, the Broadway shows and the amazing shopping. We're not really Broadway show people, but we do like to eat and shop. Kati (not Perry) and her husband Chris (also not Perry - although it would be cool to be friends with an NFL player, if only for the free tickets and possibility of seeing him shoot himself with an illegal weapon in a nightclub) indulged our love of American beef steak and arranged for a babysitter so that they could join us for dinner at Morton's.

After much red meat and a few bottles of wine, we all waddled a few blocks north to meet up with Bill, another Newport friend, for an after dinner drink. Strong cocktails seemed to be the order of the evening. After one fully leaded nightcap, it was time for us all to call it quits.

The next day, while Kati and Chris juggled two kids' school and activity schedules, Sten and I made our way down to B&H Photo and Video, a mecca for shutterbugs. This photography superstore is a full city block long and is filled with knowledgeable salespeople. Sten lucked out and found a lens that he's been wanting at their used shop.

On our way to B&H, we stopped at Gray's Papaya for the Recession Special. Two anemic hot dogs and a juice drink (heavy on the corn syrup, light on the fruit) was $4.45. Although a deal by NYC standards, the Gray's Papaya dog couldn't hold a candle to the Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke that we scarfed down in DC. In fact, after sampling hot dogs in Chicago, D.C., and New York in a relatively short time frame, we can now report that the best dogs are to be found in D.C. Shocking, I know.