Return to New York

This past Thursday I returned to New York City to once again audition for WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONARE. Again I took the test which was made up of 30 questions on such random subjects as Flags of European Nations, Grey's Anatomy, poker, fabric, KISS, The Great Gatsby, and fractions. And again after the test I didn't hear my number called as one of the lucky few who moved on to the next round of the audition process. But that's ok, because the other main reason for the trip to NY was just to do some good old fashioned sight seeing! After last year's trip, my wife declaired she never wanted to visit New York City again so this year I went with my good buddy Kevin. (He also auditioned for the show, and he also did not make it.)

Sadly, for two fat guys visiting The Big Apple for the day the highlight of the trip was food, in particular a visit to The Stage Deli. Kevin had been several years ago and raved about their pastrami and he was looking forward to having it again. I opted to go for a sandwich with a bit of a variety in it and ordered the Conan O'Brien. This celebrity created sandwich was piled high with not only pastrami but also corned beef and brisket. It was fantastic, the meat was so tender and juicy it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. A visit to the Stage Deli is highly recommended next time you're in NY!

We also happened upon the Letterman Show theatre where we saw Biff Henderson making his way back to work. He said hi to us as he walked on by. At the CBS store I bought Tanner a cute little Late Show with David Letterman t-shirt and I got Joey a King of Queens shirt. (His favorite show!) We made our way to Times Square looking for an ABC store as Grey's Anatomy stuff was requested by my wife. ABC does not have a store New York, by the way. But the M&M's do, we visited their huge 3-story store. Do people really need all that stuff with M&M's on it!? Across the intersection from M&M's is Hershey's attempt at a Times Square store. It's not even as big or as plentiful as a gift shop at Hersheypark! We also stopped by the Toys R Us and Virgin Records stores in Times Square.

From there we headed up to Rockerfeller Center to check out the NBC Experience Store. I'm happy to report that even though the majority of the merchandise is related to current shows, I found two ALF magnets for sale among the Law & Order golf balls and the Heroes coffee mugs. Next door to NBC is a very fancy French chocolate store that Kevin wanted to check out. We sampled some very fine chocolates and a $5.00 Vanilla Macaroon that was out of this world!

Of course I also ended up at the World of Disney store, which is basically a Walt Disney World gift shop plopped right in the middle of Manhattan. I actually didn't spend more than a couple of bucks there since we had just been to WDW in March I had already seen most of the stuff.

One of the things you come away with after visiting New York City for a little while is the fact that people in New York have no idea how to drive! They all think they're big and bad with their New York attitudes and their F.U. way of life but when it comes right down to it...they are idiots and they can't drive! No one uses a turn signal, no one wants to let you merge, and lane markers on the road are only a mere suggestion of where you should drive your car. It's just a complete free for all with horns honking everywhere and people shouting...it's idiotic! People in New York use their horn more in one five minute span of time than most people do in their entire life!

And if they want to continue to claim they're the greatest city in the world they might want to consider dropping the utter lack of manners the city has. A lady was approaching a door I was about to walk through, she had a baby in a stroller so I opened the door and held it open for her. She looked at my life I was crazy, meanwhile three people walked right into me from behind because they were dumbfounded as to why I stopped and held the door open.

After a day of putting up with all those self-centered people, battling the traffic and then competing with thousands of other people to escape the city through two little holes known as the Lincoln Tunnel...you've had your fill for a while. New York is n a nice city to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.