Refuge from stupidity

Here I sit at Starbucks, taking the diagnostic test for the impending GRE and feeling stupider than ever. Why in the world do I need to know the word "larychmose" in daily life? (by the way, it means tearful...I guess I'll just think of Andre and Ricky from Project Runway. "What happened to Andre?") So, on the advice of the man sitting next to me, I am "letting my mind breathe." And checking out one of my favorite blogs, Oh Joy!, which today linked to the New York Magazine feature on "Reasons to Love New York." How can you not be cheered when looking at this?
The picture is of children at Books of Wonder, a fantastic children's bookstore right by Madison Square Park (and as an added incentive, the Cupcake Cafe is inside). First of all, way to go New York Magazine for promoting independent bookstores! There are far too few of them left, and Books of Wonder is a gem in the middle of the city. I walk in and feel like Kathleen Kelly. The writer of the article interviewed children on their favorite books and their favorite parts of those stories. So cute!
Another favorite "favorite" is titled "Because the UES Isn't Interested in Being Cool." I love the UES, the far-east UES. It's a corner of unpolluted New York City whose charm isn't replicated anywhere else on the island. A commentator who goes by the name Blubrry_Scone (how fantastic is that!? Blubrry_Scone, I hope you somehow stumble upon this blog and that we can go for tea and scones together...) captured my rapture in this post:

Thanks for this. I pass Neil's every day on my walk home to 70/2 from the 68th
St subway. It's usually just before 9, when those red neon loop-de-loops you can
spot from three blocks away abandon post with a sizzle. Lex goes dark, albeit
for the efforts of Italian eatery Lumi across the street, holding true to its
name with a bustle of indoor activity. Your footsteps actually echo. Standing at
this intersection, done most satisfyingly with a cafe au lait and chocolate
croissant in the left hand and some idiot's change from the street-meat cart on
71/3 in the right, you realize this storybook scene is owing in homage neither
to London, nor Paris, nor any other sweeping metropolis worthy of emulation. It
is the emulated, the last great neighborhood in Manhattan.
12/17/2007 at 3:04 pm

Lastly, there's "Because You Can Find Love Underground." I think the title speaks for itself. Remember Patrick Moberg, who created this drawing and a website in order to find his missed subway connection?

Well, he found her, and so did lots of others...