it’s follow a museum day on Twitter and so my recommendations are as follows: @metmuseum @atAMNH @tenementmuseum @TheJewishMuseum and just to prove I do know there’s more to the museum landscape than NYC – @britishmuseum. Of course there are soooooo many great institutions doing all sorts of interesting things with their twitter feed (or feeds in some cases). Check out the #followamuseum hash tag for more

Am awake, am caffeinated, am ready to get started. as soon as the groceries arrive. Started on what, you might be wondering. My holiday to do list for 2009! Which looks much like the one for 2008. And 2007 but with more writing and – fingers crossed – more snow!*

Yes, my friends – it is that time of year again. That time when I look at the calendar and think, “Gads! I have so much to do.” Followed by the only slightly less panicked, “ACK! where did the year go?” after which I manage to focus on the essentials like, “Have I got enough envelopes for the doorman holiday bribes – uh – bonuses?” and the broad but widely appropriate “OMG! So much to do.”

First things first – I thought about writing an updated version of Tips On Holiday Tips — discussing that most ancient of New York City Holiday Traditions, the distribution of holiday tips for the door staff — but having gone back and read it again, I think it’s fine as it is.  But there are a few notable holiday happenings worth mentioning.

The big Christmas tree is now up in the lobby. The lobby tree used to be real but 3 years ago someone decided it would be more cost effective to have a fake one. I suppose it is – and its not BAD as fake trees go. But I have to say, I am a real tree girl. Easy for me to say, I guess – since I don’t have to clean up needles in the lobby.

Of course, with the lobby tree comes the lobby menorah. A sad excuse for a menorah, quite frankly. I’m not expecting a massive menorah (like the 32 foot number at Grand Army Plaza or the 29 foot one outside Borough Hall) but a nicer one would be – well, nice. I have no idea how much money they spent on the tree but a little bling invested in a menorah is my next note for the suggestion box. I applaud the effort of the staff (who aren’t the ones responsible for the tatty menorah – that would be the board) to jazz the sad symbol up a bit by surrounding it with neon metallic dreidels and giving them out to all the kids.

Actually, one of my other favorite holiday happenings here is the ‘dreidel-inspired’ competitiveness that comes out in the staff each December. They practically create tournaments for themselves. They end up making up new and ridiculous games. I’m sure half the dreidels intended for display and distribution never make it out because they are under the benches in the locker room or skidding across the mailroom floor after two or three staffers engage in “dreidel races”

I am also happy to report that the doorstaff holiday card to residents this year (they put a holiday card under everyone’s door every year – so we spell their name right on the bonus envelopes, I presume) is a new one. About time too. It’s been the same one for 4 years. Anyway. Now that I have the card with the list of names, I can confirm whether I have the right number of envelopes for the staff tips. I thought I did – and I was sure I would recall whether anyone had left during the year – or anyone new had started. But it’s good to check.

My other tasks for December include – a whirl wind of socializing across the city, department store windows to see, articles to get done, train schedules to consult (yes, I am heading back to the lake for the end of the year) and apologies to make for all the stuff I won’t get to (because there’s always something).

What’s on your holiday to do list?

you know, I didn’t think the State Senate could disappoint me anymore after all the f*cking around earlier in the year but you know what? I was wrong. I am BEYOND disappointed. A 24-38 defeat for the marriage equality bill. Disgraceful cowardice and bigotry all round.

“a representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgment, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion.” — Edmund Burke (via Dr. Lyman Hall in 1776 but Edmund Burke all the same).

I actually have a robust post ready to go but my holiday season “to do” list is kicking my butt so I give you this annotated link round up as an appetizer.

Greater Gotham tells us about a new website that lets New Yorkers talk back to the State Senate – all well and good but do they really want to hear what New Yorkers have to say? Call me a cynic but I don’t think they do

I’ve been spending more time lately on Twitter (both for my own purposes and for researching purposes.  If you find New York a bit to much to wrap your head around or difficult to keep up – Twitter might help (in an information overload kind of way).  So I decided I’d collect groups of  NY-related Twitter feeds you might want to check out. The first group – New York Food and Dining:

NY food truck twitters:
@biggayicecream
@waffletruck
@RickshawTruck
@nyccravings
@schnitzeltruck
@LCBBurgerTruck

NY food-related twitters
@seriouseatsny
@grubstreetny
@eaterny
@MidtownLunch
@CarnegieDeli

The ORT New York Autumn Cocktail Reception was held Tuesday and with the exception of my hair (which I always complain about), everything was fab. It was a great success and this was entirely due to the great crowd that showed up to meet, mingle and make a difference.

Oh it’s been a while my friends but while I might have been out of sight, I hope I was not out of mind. I was working hard, honest. I wasn’t just slacking on a beach somewhere or lounging about on a cruise ship verandah. If I had been – I assume you, I would have been here and being smug about it.

No, I was working, working, working. And now I need a drink. I’m going to get one too on Tuesday when I go to the ORT New York Autumn Cocktail Reception. It’s a networking event (isn’t everything these days?) but networking is not required. As far as I know, the requirements are shirts and shoes.

Come, drink, eat and you just may get to see me engaged in my least favorite activity – public speaking. Oy.

City Council banned the sale of flavored tobacco products Wednesday. And to that I say, “eeeeeew. I didn’t even know there was flavored tobacco.”

Holding a small pink cigarillo in her hand, Quinn said, “That looks like a lip gloss. Don’t tell me that’s not targeted for a young girl.”

OMG! Peach flavored? Grape? But . . . but. Oh gross.

Bye Bye Birdie Mishap Upstaged by Don Rickles: Rickles maintains Heckler of the Year championship – even in his downtime. I don’t recall ever feeling sorry for John Stamos before. And I don’t really now either but this is the closest I’ve ever gotten.

NYC related twitters I follow and which you might find interesting too:

• New York Public Library (and they also have a NYPL Facebook)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art (and they also have a Metropolitan Museum of Art Facebook)
• NewYorkology (and they also have a NewYorkology Facebook)
• 311NYC
• WNYC
• Brian Lehrer’s twitter and he’s got a facebook too.
• Time Out New York and here they are on Facebook as well
• Grub Street New York
• NYC Subway Scoop from the MTA
• NYC Department of Parks and Recreation
• NYTimes Style
• Wafels and Dinges
• Rickshaw Truck
• Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

mayoral debate this evening – Bloomberg advised not to roll his eyes in annoyance or sigh in frustration. Thompson advised to wear name tag.

New York author Laura Anne Gilman has a new title out. Flesh & Fire is the first in the exciting new Vineart series. Wine, magic, history – a highly potent mix and bound to be heady fun. You can get your own copy (and get a jump on holiday shopping – books are easy to wrap too!) at any of the following:

• Indiebound
• B & N
• Mysterious Galaxy (signed copies will be available)
• Powells
• Amazon or Amazon UK

Museums facing tough choices: I’ve been thinking about museums lately as I prepare a new installment of Gotham Girl in London.

Have you checked out the previous “episodes?” If not – go on over to Boris’ site and see what I have to say on traffic and transit in NY and in London, or the street food experience or the trip from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

Wow! I’m not sure how one paints a house this size this color “by accident” – surely as soon as one opens the paint can, the color is apparent. And yet – it IS bold.

Jay Walder, the new MTA chief has said that “New Yorkers should be able to expect the same type of customer experience riders enjoy in London“—whose transportation system he worked for between 2001-2006—”with accurate arrival information and modern fare technology.”

Yes, Mr. Walder and I have been expecting it for some time. My expectations are in place and ready to go. Are you the man to meet them? I hope so.

In that same article, The Gothamist declares, “Hear that, New Yorkers—no more Underground envy!” Well, I reserve the right to retain my Underground envy until I see this “action plan” he speaks of. Until then, I shall continue to view the Tube through rose colored glasses and wish myself at Covent Garden (provided the lifts are working). In fact, I’ve gone on at some length about it over on Boris’ blog. Check it out.

It’s a big city. Lots to do. Lots to see. Occasionally you overdo and you don’t feel like doing much more than sitting around recovering.  Completely understandable. But even if you aren’t going sight seeing – you can still go site seeing. Get it. Sight / Site? OK, yeah. I worked really hard there for very little pay off. Sorry. But, the point remains – there are a lot of sites out there that let you see the Big Apple without getting out of your jammies.

Lots of folks are out there documenting the big and the small, the vistas and the close-ups, the absurd and the sublime. Check out some of the these Gotham-centric photoblogs:

• New York Daily Photo: “a daily photo blog of the timely, the timeless, the classic, the unexpected and the hidden gems by a long time resident who shares his love of New York.”
• Greenwich Village Daily Photo: obviously it’s one of the most picturesque and interesting parts of the city but even someone who’s walked the the area for years – that would be me – sees something new in these shots
• nyc daily photo:  one city – one day – one picture. She may claim to be merely a “happy-snapper note-taker” as opposed to a photographer but I love these pictures. It is very much like taking one of my own walks through the city
• Pictures from a Taxi: Just like is says on the tin – a look at the city from a pretty unique angle.
• missbinnyc: says she hopes “this blog will inspire me to take more photos of the world around me and become a better photographer. ” Well, the pictures are inspiring to me and I bet I am not alone.

There’s tons of photoblogs out there, of course. I could spend all day perusing shots of New York and never see the same thing twice. But I thought, as I head off for the weekend, I’d share some of the “regular stops” on my NYC ’site’ seeing tours.

Last night was a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me, food wise. I spent many years working in the Flatiron district – my first three jobs out of college and the internship I had my senior year all happened within the confines of that immediate neighborhood.

During that time, I had more lunches at Chat & Chew than I – or my waistline – care to recall. It had been ages since I’ve been there but Uncle Red’s Addiction (honey dipped fried chicken) had lost none of its sticky, messy appeal. My dining companion had the ‘Thanksgiving on a Roll’ and spoke highly of it in between mouthfuls. Reveling in the “bad for us but too delicious to be resisted” mode of the evening. We both had dessert. I wish I had the words to describe Vesuvius, the chocolate cheesecake concoction I had. But I can’t. Calling it multi-layered sin on a fork only scratches the surface.

Then we headed over to Old Town Bar for a chat and a drink – again as I used to do so often during my Flatiron days. There’s something really comforting to sit down a 55 feet of bar and have a drink at a place that has been in the same place, doing the same thing and not changed in any significant way in almost 120 years. You can get a decent drink, hear yourself think as well as hear the person next to you.

The crowd, quite bustling as you would expect on a Saturday night, isn’t the obstacle it might be in other bars because there is space to move. Space is something sorely lacking in more modern watering holes where they’ve crammed in as much – or more – than fire regulations will allow so they can pay the rent and keep the bartenders awash in hair product. I wonder if the luxury of space (and grownup bartenders) is something only bars that own their space can manage? It makes me want to do a “classic bar tour of NYC” post. Obviously a great deal of um – research will need to be done.

But before I do that, a quick link found up since I’ve got food and the city on the brain.

October is a month with an R in it so you know what that means! Oysters!

• Oct 3 – Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant annual
  Oyster Frenzy
• Oct. 17 and 18 – Long Island’s 26th Annual Oyster festival

The 2009 Vendy Award Winners were named yesterday and NewYorkology has the whole story. If you’d rather cut straight to the eats:

• Country Boys aka the Martinez Taco Truck won best food vendor
• Wafels & Dinges was named the winner in the dessert category.
• Biryani Cart won the Grey Poupon People’s Taste Award

Speaking of street food, NYC’s food cart mania in the media isn’t the only frenzy on the Gotham street food scene. The clashes between vendors, in light of the vendrification of the scene, are getting pretty heated as well. Vendrification. Great word. I shall adopt it right now. All credit to BlackBook Mag.

More on the topic of street food is coming.Oh yes. Much more.

The weather was beautiful. The camera battery was charged. I went for a walk. In no particular order, these are some places I went.

You know how I was so disappointed to miss being in New York while Boris The Blonde was here? Well, I’m still disappointed to have missed it but I’m feeling ever so much perkier now. Why?

Cause there is a new series of posts starting on his blog that will touch about the similarities, differences and amusing points of reference between New York and London. Oh yes and they will be written by — ME! The first one ‘Gotham Girl comes to London isn’t so much a ‘compare and contrast’ the two cities as it is “Hi! I’ll be your transatlantic tour guide but first I have to get through customs.”

Future topics may or may not include:

• fashion – amighty battle depending on whose fashion we chose to focus on.
• street food – in which I feel there is no real contest but it’s a topic I’m rather hung up on at the moment
• traffic – which readers here will know drives me up the wall since it’s the only place you CAN drive in Manhattan these days
• history – something both cities are steeped in though obviously London had a considerable head start

theater, parks, literature, etc… it might be any number of things. What do YOU all think we should examine through this dual lens?

I had this whole plan for writing an in-depth and amusing post yesterday. I was going to do it after a quick dash down to Macys. The dash down went fine. Got down there in good time, found what I wanted without having to hip-check too many people (the joys of going on a weekday in the late morning – the only ones to hip check are the tourists, who are unlikely to hip check back) and then I headed home.

That’s where it all went horribly wrong. I should have taken the subway but the weather was nice so I thought, “I’ll walk over to 3rd and take the bus up.”

The traffic was appalling. It took us ages to move a few blocks. “I’ll get out and walk,” I thought. It was, after all, still good weather and I could widow shop.

What’s this? Barricades? ON the sidewalk? AND across the intersection. What do you MEAN I can’t cross the street? Damn, this is all feeling terribly familiar. And why?

Ha! It’s UN General Assembly Week and little did I know that at a time when normal people would be moving around, fetching lunch and going about their business – the NYPD (and presumably the Secret Service) declared a frozen zone (no vehicles moving, and no pedestrians going north-south) in midtown. Why? Because the president was moving from the UN to – well, somewhere else. His hotel, presumably.

Yes, I’ve been here before. The last time (when Clinton was in town for the 50th Anniversary of the UN), things got a bit tetchy between me and an individual with a thing in his ear. I decided that this time, I would just wait it out. No need to add another sheet to what I am sure is “my file.”

I amused myself by watching person after person try to wheedle through the barriers, explain that they “just have to get to XYZ,” or “they’ll go really fast,” or asked, “why can’t THEY cross” with a disdainful look at the rest of us. The best was the woman who jogged up to the cops at the barricades and tried to negotiate continuing her north-south run. She jogged in place during the whole conversation and only took one earplug out.

I got home eventually – on foot since traffic was still appalling, the frozen zone being cancelled just in time for rush hour – but was in no mood to write. I don’t even recall what I was going to write now.

I keep forgetting we’re having a mayoral race. Not sure whether this says more about me or the candidates

Can’t decide which is the more accurate reflection.

New York is to London as Nero Wolfe is to Sherlock Holmes or New York is to London as Archie Goodwin is to Doctor Watson.

Which?