A Year In New York

When your fiancée is a Hindu who doesn’t eat red meat, a dinner of Texas barbecue is not the easiest sell. I wheedled Joo in the door tonight with the promise of a turkey burger. We didn’t regret it.
Dallas BBQ, on Third Avenue between 72nd and 73rd, has a neon sign and paper placemats and [...]

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Today I experienced My First New York Rainstorm (the first cold, autumn one, anyway). I looked outside and thought: Can’t wait to get to the office! Rain is such an equalizer. You’re immersed in the elements like a hike in the forest, even here in Skyscraperland.
Every surface glittered and puddles built up at the curbs, [...]

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I’m happy to announce that a story I wrote about ice climbing made the cover of the latest issue of Sierra magazine. The story is part of a package of tantalizing winter trips, and my contribution tells of a lesson I took last March on the frozen waterfalls of the White Mountains, 371 miles’ drive [...]

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Last night I waited for a train at the Bleecker Street stop. It was late, with nobody around, so I stared at the tiles on this pillar. You see they are none too clean.
They were just as dirty as they were the other three or four times I have waited there for the 6 train. [...]

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You’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to in the three weeks I’ve been gone. The hands-down most important event was the birth of my new nephew, Quinn William Sears. He was born Oct. 3 to my sister Susan, a few weeks early. Both he and his mom are healthy.
Susan is my only sibling and [...]

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I have returned from the West Coast to find New York wrapped in a knee-length wool coat. The thermometer is supposed to drop to 41 degrees tonight, 38 degrees tomorrow night. What happened to that mild, sunny October weather I enjoyed in San Francisco just yesterday?
Fall seems to be underway, temperature-wise, but Central Park hasn’t [...]

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