New York and the New Yorker

Dear Marla,
Your Christmas gift of The New Yorker subscription has been an inspiration to us. We are sitting next to piles of those magazines, eight months of them, those beautiful covers----man on girder overlooking NY, a doctor helping a sick elephant (If only he could), dueling sight-seeing buses---staring up at us. Half the magazines are turned inside out, marking unfinished stories. We love the magazine, and there is so much good stuff that we can't read it all. But we NEVER miss a cartoon. We have our own captions that (moan and groan) would have won--if only we had sent them in.

However, it hits us that we have traveled to some of the other great cities of the world (London, Barcelona, Mexico City, etc.) but have ignored NYC. So we are going. (Please note our map of the transit system of New York.) We know our children will worry about our getting lost. And we promise we will not drive in New York City. Unless we get lost. We are in the process of getting tickets to Broadway. We found a tour company for the overview. And we plan a long walk in Central Park. We'll send you a postcard.

And Will, we have thought about your advice about investing in a Really Good Meal. I have to admit that Bobby Flay is really tempting. Of course, they won't let me in the kitchen. And I can't imagine our being able to spit a meal like we usually do. Sadly, the good meal treat would have been great about thirty years ago when we had appetites. So we will be eating street food and packing lunches. If it worked in London, it will work in NYC.

After you kids read this, I can see our subscriptions next year: African Vibes, Alaska, The last Frontier. I can't guess where you will want to send us.