A complete stranger was polite to me this morning, while both of us were looking for a taxi.

I arrived first at the corner and was looking for a cab. A moment later, a woman darted out from between two parked cars upstream from me and started looking as well. As she was looking around, she saw me, and let me take the one cab that was headed our way.

As I got in, I looked back at her to thank her or to at least acknowledge her, but she had her hand up looking for the next available cab.

There are certain gray areas when it comes to taxi hailing etiquette, but if someone takes up a stance one car length upstream from you, you batten down the hatches and get ready for some verbal sparing over who gets the cab. That did not need to happen in this case because the woman respected the rules, and I want to thank her for that.

Whoever she is, “Thanks”.

News of this shocking event elicited a vigorous discussion of taxi hailing etiquette with my fellow co-workers. The native New Yorkers all agreed that if someone darts out two car lengths upstream from your hailing location, then you have the right to fight over that cab because it should have been yours (assuming, of course, that you were there first). Anything over two car lengths but less than five, you still have a legitimate claim to that cab, but by the time you get there to argue, the other person will be in the cab and on their way, so there isn’t much you can do. Anything over five car lengths is considered a different part of the block, and they are free to defend their territory as you would yours.

The native Long Islander said that any cab is anyone’s no matter where you hail it from or who’s around. “Survival of the fittest!” was his mantra. In his defense, he probably has not hailed a cab anywhere except in front of Penn Station or outside a bar when he’s drunk, so he doesn’t know what goes on in the morning rush-to-work-when-you’re-late.

Do you think the above etiquette is correct, far fetched, or somewhere in between? Anyone got any really bad horror stories when it comes to fights related to hailing?

On the streets of New York, you’ll see everything. Naked people, crazy people, people talking to themselves, a lot of runners near Central Park and what not. It’s the New Yorkers that make New York interesting. This morning I saw an elderly gentleman outside of a Harley Davidson dealership walk onto the sidewalk and started doing pushups.

He kept on doing them until I left the scene. The best part was that the sidewalk was filled with shattered glass and other debris. Now that’s dedication to your morning routine.

Whew! It’s hard coming back and finding something to blog about. What can I say except San Francisco was pretty darn awesome? It’s a great city, pretty easy to get around in spite of a weird public transportation system in which they seem adamant about not cluing you in to how it works or where you can get said transportation.
Still, I managed to visit Pacific Heights, Union Square (there’s has palm trees and Macy’s, ours has protests and skateboarders), more homeless people than you could shake a stick at, the Castro, a square devoted to chocolate and a gigantic vermillion bridge.
The weather was crappy, as it seems New York got my California weather while I was gone. I still managed to travel that city from one corner to the other and back again about four times and visit point after point of interest.
Even though I enjoyed it and the city certainly reawakened my not-quite-forgotten West Coast love, I still turned to my boyfriend as we were circling to land at LaGuardia and could see the lights of Manhattan out the window and said, “there’s nowhere on earth like New York.”

Above is the price list for a Midtown garage. Granted - the address is very fancy - 5th and 60th across from the Metropolitan Club. Does anyone know of higher priced parking anywhere in the world ?

So we had “Bushlock” again. Barbara Walters reported on the View this morning that she couldn’t get down her street due to the “blockade”. Well, I for one am happy that the rich and famous are inconvenienced by our fearless dictator….oops leader. Said Barbara “He’s not a king!” King George indeed!

But, now here’s the rub: Dubya was in town to garner support for the next installment of his brainchild “No Child Left Behind”. So he goes to Harlem to visit a school — a charter school. Thanks for a whole lotta nuthin’ George! Why dontcha set foot in the school I used to teach in, in East Harlem? Why not visit a public school and see the kids who are really “left behind”? Were you afraid to meet secondary students who can’t put a sentence together because they were “left behind” in a second-grade time warp? Or the kids falling asleep in class because they haven’t had a proper breakfast? Or would it bother you too much to see kids sharing textbooks because there wasn’t enough iin the budget to get enough? Not a good photo-op, I guess……

The Financial District may finally become a residential neighborhood. Pretty much since its inception, this area has been solely for work (and maybe for those workers’ happy hours). But now, everywhere you look a new residential building is springing up.

Unfortunately, as seems to be the case with most new housing projects I’ve noticed around the city, these building are all ultra-luxury housing. $700,000 for a studio. Yeah. In the buildings is everything you could possibly want, pool, gym, jacuzzi, rooftop garden, massage, room service, childcare, movie theater, bar! Seriously. The good thing is they are often really nice looking buildings built next to parks, sometimes with eco-friendly elements such as green roofs and solar panels. But they’re only affordable to a select few.
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I was walking down the 6th this morning, when I saw a guy come and get into his Mercedes, start it and drive away - without using a key at all. Now i know keyless cars have been around for some time now and are picking up the buzz, but it didnt stop me from wondering - How does this technology work?

For starters, this is what i found on some popular auto sites -
“It lets drivers unlock cars by just walking up to them and touching a door handle. Drivers don’t need to push a button on their vehicle’s key fob or even take the fob out of their purse or pocket.
Mercedes, which is a pioneer in what it calls Keyless Go technology, offers the system on at least five 2005 vehicles, which is more than any other carmaker.
Option price is more than $1,000 on a Mercedes S430, but it’s just over $900 on Toyota’s Prius. In the Infiniti M cars, it’s standard. ”

But here is my question - The driver has to carry this “fob” thing with him to be able to unlock the car and do the magic. What if he/she forgot the fob, like we all forget our keys? I was thinking more on the lines of fingerprint technology. Would our future cars be keyless and operate/unlock based on just fingerprint recognition? That way, we eliminate the idea of carrying an irritating fob altogether? I dont know if this technology already has been implemented by some manufacturer? The technology exists - it is just putting it to the best benefit, that makes all the difference i guess!

I had an eye-opening visit yesterday, when I for the first time discovered how black a smoker’s lungs were compared to a non-smokers. Looking at the actual lungs…yep, I am talking about the “much talked about/everyone’s been there” bodies exhibition down by south street seaport. Considering this was my first outing after me getting back into the country (had to leave for an emergency to india, which explains my absence), it was pretty eye-opening.
The baby-infant section was acutely sensitive for me, I dont know how others felt about this one. The best part was where they extracted all the fibrous tissues and nerves in the wrist and palm, removed all the muscle.
In case I am talking about something which you all already know, excuse me for that. But the cool part is - Get a free round-trip MetroCard with your purchase of a ticket to see the Bodies Exhibition at the South Street Seaport

Tribeca Film festival is as much an independent film festival as McDonald’s is fine dining. Look no further than the U.S. premiere of Spider-Man 3 being at the DeNiro supported festival as evidence.

It starts here in NYC tomorrow and people always ask me if I’m going and expect a resounding yes. I have yet to attend the festival and maybe I will get a chance to in the near future. But I just don’t find it to be the most inspirational festival to attend. It’s definitely better than the thieving New York Film Festival which rapes independent filmmakers for their non-existent dollars.
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I’m back in Town for a few days. The first chance I got - I strapped on the blades and went for a quick skate around Central Park. Sheep Meadow is always my favorite hangout during the first warm days of spring - here’s a shot from my phone cam.