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Walking Off the Big Apple
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New York walking journal, neighborhood guides, maps, lists of affordable hotels, and art reviews with entertaining commentary on the cultural life of the city.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'christmas'
How Not to Shop in the World's Largest Department Store
I decided to finish most all of my shopping for the holidays at Macy's in Herald Square. My logic was that I would probably find all the items on my list in this one enormous department store. Turns out I was right, and after a couple of hours, I hap...
At Bryant Park, A Lesson in Curling from the Canadians (A Slideshow)
The Canadians have been generous to New Yorkers this holiday, providing the amusement of Celsius, their temporary restaurant and bar in Bryant Park, with special Wednesday night events. Today, they brought us a lesson in curling, a sport that looks t...
O. Henry's Christmas Stories of New York's Working Poor
The writer William Sydney Porter, known as O. Henry, wrote several Christmas tales in addition to "The Gift of the Magi." A couple of the stories are set in rural areas of Texas and the American West, as Porter lived and worked on ranches as a young ...
A Walk for a New York Christmas: Part IV. Exploring Irving Place
When he lived at 55 Irving Place, O. Henry believed, like so many others, that Washington Irving once resided down the street. Irving was more of a downtown guy, and he probably never lived along in here, but that didn't stop a 19th-century real esta...
A Walk for a New York Christmas: Part III. O. Henry and "The Gift of the Magi"
"One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all."Sometime in 1905, in Pete's Tavern on the corner of Irving Place and E. 18th, short story writer O. Henry sat in his favorite booth, allegedly the second from the front, and quickly wrote "The Gift of...
A Walk for a New York Christmas: Part I. Clement Clarke Moore's Chelsea
In 1822, wealthy New York scholar and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), a resident of the Chelsea neighborhood, wrote the most famous Christmas poem of all time, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," known widely as "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The...
A Walk for a New York Christmas: From Clement Clarke Moore's Chelsea to O. Henry's Irving Place (Introduction)
Many of the ways we think of Christmas, in most of its secular and popular forms - the chubby Santa and his reindeer, the new fallen snow, the warm hearth donned with Christmas stockings, family and friends celebrating in cheer, can trace its roots t...
Sing, Choir of New Yorkers: A Selection of Holiday Music Events in New York City, December 2008
With such a large number of talented musicians living in the city, it shouldn't be surprising that holiday music in New York is unparalleled. The following constitutes just a small selection of a long list of concerts about town. The sounds of the se...
New York Holiday Windows on Fifth Avenue: A Slideshow, and An Appreciation
Strolling the blocks along Fifth Avenue from 49th St. up to 59th Street provides almost everything anyone could want out of the holiday season. Here we find the creative talent of the department store windows - and this year, the smash hits are those...
