Busy Season in NYC

Busy, busy, busy. I've been quite busy lately, thus the lack of blogging. And NYC has been busy too, based, at least, on what's been going on within our fair city. So let's see wuzzup:

Well, the sad news first. The Jets won't be headed to the Superbowl. They came up a little short against the Steelers on Sunday night. So while the Jets may have a been a Superbowl bridesmaid for the second time in two years, they didn't get to be the bride. But maybe next year. We still love our Jets anyway.  

And while the Jets aren't headed to the Superbowl, at least a whole bunch of mobsters are headed to jail. Last Friday, over 100 real-life "goodfellas" were busted in the biggest Mafia take down ever. Many of them were busted here in NYC (including many members of da' five families) but this bust stretched to places like Rhode Island and Florida. It'll be fascinating to see how many of these mobsters cut deals. Will they be given offers they can't refuse?

The worst part about going to jail, I would imagine, is the bad food. Mr NYC loves to eat particularly, amongst other things, cupcakes. So look out! You thought Starbucks had totally colonized our city, pushing its coffee on all our citizens, but now Crumbs bakery plans to become to the Starbucks of cupcakes. It's opening stores all over town, hocking its cupcakes and other baked goods to 8 million-plus people.

And Walmart is back in the news -- whipping up a pathetic PR campaign to get public support to open one of its stores within the five boroughs. They are relentless. Last year I blogged about what an evil company Walmart is and, a few weeks ago, a troll sent me a comment saying why Walmart was just dandy and that "poor people" needed Walmart. I did not publish this hack's comment because I suspect he was paid by this organized effort. And hopefully Walmart will stay out of NYC -- forever.

But the expansion of Crumbs and Walmart in NYC is, I'm sure, welcome news to Mayor Mike who is profiled in a lengthy Esquire piece. It's a must read. It gives you sense of how this guy who rules our city thinks -- and what he thinks of all of us.

Finally, if all of this is too much for you, may I suggest a pleasant escape. This past weekend the wife and I headed to the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory. It is the one of the best and most high-end antiques shows in the whole country and the breadth of their offerings is stunning. If you have a few thousand dollars (make that a few hundred thousand dollars), you can purchase ancient art, medieval army, beautiful first editions of classic books, furniture in good shape that's only a few hundred years old, as well as autographed mementos from people like Queen Victoria, Abraham Lincoln, and JD Salinger. It's really amazing (not that yours truly bought anything) but you should check it out.

So all in all, it's a busy season in NYC. And you were just getting over the holidays! Ha ha.