Late last year, I had a Spanish class in an office building downtown. One night a week I took the trolley down Market Street around sunset, exiting to rush with the rest of the rush hour crowd and shopping tourists at the buzzing intersection near the cable car turnaround. I walked south down an avenue crossing Market Street, past the doormen of posh boutique hotels who always tipped their hats and said hello as I passed. As Market street fell farther behind me, the avenue gr

Now more than ever, I am convinced that airlines keep their planes' air conditioning set to "refrigerate" for a reason. My theory is that they think if they can slow down our metabolism and keep us in some sort of stasis during the flight, we'll bother them less asking for water and pillows and stuff. They can just come by periodically, in their own time, and check our pulses now and again. So, I'm in New York. And by "New York" of course I mean New York City, specifically Ma