Audrey Hepburn is coming back to town today. That’s how I think of the young woman who is letting me use her apartment for my 18 day bonus life in Manhattan. l Audrey is a few days early and is graciously staying with a friend so that I can finish my extra life here. Her […] Read More

A cool rainy Sunday in my extra life in Manhattan: a rousingly good church service, a three-hour brunch-with-live-jazz with good friends who’d driven up from Philadelphia, then an excellent late-afternoon play in a small theater with audience discussion with the playwright and composer afterwards. Then, of course, the long walk and the frozen dairy product, […] Read More

This splendid orb was created for the 100th dropping of a Times Square New Year’s Eve ball. The New York Times started the practice in 1907. This piece was made by Waterford Crystal and a lighting company in 2007 to commemorate the century of these celebrations. This ball now sits in the Times Square Visitors […] Read More

Food report from my bonus 18-day life in Manhattan: above you’ll see a lamb kofta burger from a fine establishment called 5 Napkin Burger. It was impressively good. And as juicy as advertised. In fact, 5 napkins were not enough; I needed a bib, really wrecked my shirt. Speaking of wreckage, here’s the update on […] Read More

Well, I screwed up. I’m here in New York apartment-sitting, with the simple duties of watering the plants and bringing in the mail. You’d think I could handle that. But I let one of the plants on the terrace go too long without water. Its prognosis is now iffy. I’ve sent my confession and apology […] Read More

The first day of the second half of my bonus life in New York felt like four different days crammed together. Yesterday was: Gallery-hopping. Doll clothes. Meeting with book editor. Evening haircut that felt like a Japanese tea ceremony. And then today turned out to be a half-day. Time has been funny that way in […] Read More

Number 9? This means that I’m at the halfway point in my 18-day extra-life-within-a-life. As a New Yorker, I’m middle-aged. But I’m not taking this as a sign that I should re-assess, have a crisis, or do anything differently in my New York adventure. I’m going to keep on poking into things on whim. I […] Read More

[youtube c7_NPSeAb8Y nolink] Sunday was Rap Day for me. First, brunch at The Grey Dog in the West Village. Highly recommended spot, but I was there to say hi to the daughter of a friend back home who waits tables at the cafe when she's not going to auditions. She just got a one-month role […] Read More

A few highly personal images from my Bonus Life in New York:From the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. At home, I live beside a little pond with a Japanese zigzag bridge. Husband Bob has very Eastern tastes and philosophy. A piece of the Tudor City neighborhood, on the east side of mid-town, […] Read More

5:40 a.m. I was up getting ready to go get my ticket to see live Saturday Night Live. I arrived under the famous NBC marquee at Rockefeller Plaza by 6:30, only to learn that the making of the shows is “in hiatus.” But that’s not what the website had told me. Furthermore, the security guard […] Read More