Odds & Ends

When they call my parents always ask if I've been anywhere new lately, and it seems that I've been to a greater number of new places than usual recently. It took me a while, but I was very pleased to finally happen upon Bethesda Fountain at the southern tip of The Lake in Central Park.

I saw Ratatouille last Wednesday and made a point of doing so in the Ziegfeld Theater, a rather majestic and plushly carpeted cinema that seats 1200.

The dumplings in Chinatown are cheap and tasty. They're also more or less in the same area of Manhattan as South Street Seaport, so I picked some up last week (10 boiled dumplings and 4 pork buns for $3) before Fujiya & Miyagi.

Killing time between screenings at the IFC Center, I've gone to Washington Square in the past, but I recently wandered through the West Village over to Hudson River Park, which has a lot of nice waterfront facing New Jersey.

Finding myself on the Lower East Side after Once at the Landmark Sunshine, I stopped by Teany (hard to find a good picture, but this captures the aesthetic and was, in fact, exactly where I sat), which I'd always wanted to visit from back when I regularly read Moby's blog, maybe sophomore year in college. The iced Earl Grey was good, but the gazpacho with avocado and mango chunks was probably even better.

Tomorrow I get to visit the most exciting new place of them all: the DMV!