The Empire Trail passes the Ardsley Acres Hotel Court
Commentary, Empire Trail, Walking

Inn to inn on the Empire Trail

You may have heard of “inn to inn” walks.  It’s like backpacking, but with restaurant meals, beds and showers every night.  I’ve heard about it in Europe, particularly in England.  In California, Tom Courtney and his daughter Emily have published a series

Commentary

Border brutality

In the summer of 1998 I was on a bus from Montreal to New York.  At the United States border we were told to get off, get our bags and file through a building.  Inside I showed an immigration agent my passport,

Commentary, Subway

Second avenue reminds me of Christmas

In 1956 Isaac Asimov wrote a little song about the Second Avenue Subway, set to the tune of a classic Christmas carol. Fifteen years later he published it in his Treasury of Humor. I’ll let you follow the link and read it,

Commentary, Queens, Traffic calming

When Broadway is too broad

This past Saturday, a young college student was killed by a hit-and-run driver while walking on Broadway at 58th Street here in Woodside. I know the danger he felt. Just two weeks before I was walking home from a dinner date in

Commentary, Greenwich Village

Wittgensteinian villages

Last month I guessed that when Ari Wallach said that Hastings-on-Hudson is a village “in a Wittgensteinian sense,” he meant that it was part of a family of things that are called “villages,” but don’t all share the same set of criteria.