Eve

My friend Silo and I decided to escape from the city and do a little apple picking. So, we put on our migrant farm worker finest and drove to Warwick, New York.

Renting a car in Manhattan takes patience. When I showed up at Dollar Rent A Car at 10:15 am, they were out of cars. So, we waited. And we shot the shit with our fellow wannabe escapees. We went to Starbucks. And, 3 hours later, we had a car and were on our way. (It would have been 2 ½ hours, except I took pity on this girl who was in line after me, who was trying to make visiting hours at the prison where her brother was currently residing. All I can say is, thank God my sisters, Abba and Frampton, haven’t landed in prison (yet).)

Just over an hour later, we were in the sticks. And surrounded by children. So what did we do? We picked exactly 9 apples, a pumpkin (which Silo later abandon), ate some apple donuts (a total waste of calories, in my opinion – have they not heard of glaze?), and hit the “winery”. As we checked out of the orchard with our 9 apples and 4 bottles of wine, the clerk looked into our almost-empty apple bag, scoffed, and waved us through. And off we went, back to our little island of Eden.

Kingpin

Hands down, my favorite building in Manhattan is the Chrysler Building. And today, I had the pleasure of going inside and learning a little something about it.

The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, and is still the tallest brick building in the world. (It was the world’s tallest building for a few months, until the Empire State Building came along.) References to Chrysler’s automobiles can be found in the radiator cap gargoyles (31st floor) and hood ornament eagles (61st floor).

Here is the 43rd Street entrance/exit:



And a lobby elevator:



The ceiling mural in the lobby:



And, a lower level subway entrance: