{"id":93588,"date":"2014-12-19T10:18:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T15:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=93588"},"modified":"2014-12-19T10:52:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T15:52:14","slug":"shimmering-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=93588","title":{"rendered":"Shimmering Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I had to replace my Mac AirPort (a dinosaur, which suddenly crapped out after 7 years of faithful service), and then I was going to meet friends for drinks at the legendary Algonquin Hotel. There’s an Apple store in Grand Central, so, despite dreading being in the midst of a rush-hour crowd, I headed across town to Grand Central. And yes, the crowds were fierce. But there’s something about that building \u2026 I know commuters rush through there on a daily basis, and so perhaps they are somewhat “over” their surroundings since they see it all the time. I, however, almost never go through there. As a matter of fact I avoid it, because of the crowds. Yesterday, the rushing crowds (holiday and otherwise) added to my sense of the building as this glorious and long-standing hub of action, a funnel through which thousands of people flow every single day. It also was festive and magical.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, there is the CONCOURSE. With that dreamy green ceiling, with golden constellations, and pin-prick star-light shining through. Heaven. (Literally.)<\/p>\n

I got my new AirPort in no time flat and then had about 15 minutes to linger. Which I did. I leaned over the balcony and soaked up the sights. <\/p>\n

And then, I headed out into the cold night to go to The Algonquin, another legendary New York spot. Normally when we meet up there, it’s relatively quiet in that main lobby area (captured so memorably in Peter Bogdanovich’s film They All Laughed<\/i><\/a>). But when I walked in, the place was hopping, packed with people. A pre-theatre crowd maybe? They ended up finding seats for us in “the back room,” which sounded ominous, but revealed itself as a beautiful and quiet wood-paneled room, with (hilariously) a gigantic TV screen on one wall showing an image of a roaring crackling fire. We found it mesmerizing.<\/p>\n

We had a wonderful time. I just want to point out (in the photo below) the magnificent and detailed gingerbread house placed in the main lobby area. It was outrageous and intricate, with M&Ms lying around in the sugar-snow that you could scoop up and eat if you wanted to. I didn’t want to, because I imagined how many flu-ridden just-wiped-my-sniffly-nose fingers would have already touched those M&Ms. Still, it was festive. <\/p>\n

I’ve lived here for 20 years. It’s nice to go to places and look around and still have that, “Ahhh, Manhattan” shiver of appreciation. Nights when Manhattan shimmers.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, I had to replace my Mac AirPort (a dinosaur, which suddenly crapped out after 7 years of faithful service), and then I was going to meet friends for drinks at the legendary Algonquin Hotel. There’s an Apple store in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[161],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93588"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93605,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93588\/revisions\/93605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}