Chelsea Morning

The UN was in session last week.

For a couple of days, New Yorkers had to share their streets and air-space with presidents and dictators, diplomats and spies. I don't know how often Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops in where you live, but if he has, you know what a pain it can be on a commuter schedule.

On Friday, I ended up wandering around Chelsea with my cousin Chris. I had meant to be somewhere else doing something else, but the city got in the way, so we rolled with it, sat down outside at the Standard grill, ordered a dozen oysters and a glorified pitcher of sangria and watched for quiet moments on a windy and warm Fall day.

Lost

Bryant Park Station, FVBD downtown platform.

All You Need is Love

A couple of weeks ago, Laura and I headed out to Flushing Meadows for an afternoon to watch some US Open qualifying matches. This drawing was originally intended to be a part of the Summer In The City blog post I did for the New York Times, but at the last minute, the editor and I decided it didn't really fit with the others.

The Way It Is

CBS News invited friends and colleagues to remember Walter Cronkite this morning at Lincoln Center. I went along as a guest of Bill Bragin, head of Outdoor Programming for Lincoln Center and he managed to get us great seats. Among the impressive speakers were President Clinton, Buzz Aldrin, Leslie Moonves, Andy Rooney and Tom Brokaw. There were also musical performances by The United States Marine Band, Mickey Hart, Jimmy Buffett, Michael Feinstein and Wynton Marsalis. President Obama spoke last, spending the morning of the day of his major speech on health care reform before Congress, praising a man he never met.

It was a good speech and worth reading, if you are inclined. The President's other speech tonight--quite rightly--will be the one most folks will be talking about tomorrow, but I'm glad I got to hear this one as well, a reflection from the Commander in Chief on the importance of those who tell the truth and a testament to the individual who was once the most trusted man in America.

The Conversation

A couple of weeks back, I was on the A train late in the evening. It was a stupidly hot night and as we passed through lower Manhattan, this guy got on, sat down and started singing "A Change Is Gonna Come."

Anyone who lives in New York and rides the subway frequently knows that this is one of the "go to" songs of the un-trained train singer, but this guy wasn't looking for hand outs or donations, he was just singing and telling it like it was. I know he was telling it like it was because he told me he was telling it like it was. He told the guy next to me too and may have mentioned it loud enough so that everyone knew.

He kept looking at me looking at him from across the seats and started telling everyone that it may have seemed like he was the one doing all the talking but in fact I was the one driving the conversation.

"This man here," he said gesturing to me, "he's saying more then me, saying more than any of us and he isn't even opening his mouth, isn't saying a word, but he's got some eyes that are looking and they're making me sing."

And he sang some more.