I have promised to take on blog duties tonight - mama is here with me (and dutifully sorting through her new yorker cartoons trying to find a funny one to post for you guys) but very worn out by New York driving. She is perplexed by the fact that pedestrians in Manhattan will happily and determinedly mosey across the street regardless of whether the pedestrian icon is a white man, a red hand, or a "fresh" or "stale" flashing red hand. In driver's ed, they teach you to distinguish between a "fresh" and a "stale" yellow light, but come to think of it, did they really want you analyzing that very carefully? how fresh is fresh?

We had dinner at a Turkish restaurant where they swept the crumbs from in front of us about three times during the course of the dinner. One time I was sitting with my elbows on the table and the guy asked me to move my arms so he could swipe any crumbs I might have been hiding under them. I have to say I don't really care for this. If I have made crumbs why can't I just pretend to ignore them all night?

We are still not having any luck with the New Yorker cartoons. I have to say I think most of these are pieces of crap. They are so bad I can't think of any explanation but that they have a very different definition of "funny" than, um, funny. You guys probably don't think that she is working very hard when she looks through cartoons but in fact, the next cartoon (which she is saving, to post later) actually represents about half an hour's worth of searching. To save you-all the trouble.

--melina