Small Pleasures

This may be about as much snow as NYC is going to get this winter, and it was mostly gone the next day, except for Central Park. Here is Damrosch Park, just to the left of Lincoln Center. I actually enjoy snow unless I have to drive in it. Having had my introduction to winter driving in upstate New York, I know how to do it, but the New York locals don't. They don't seem to have any awareness of how to adjust one's driving for ice and snow. Anyway, as a Manhattan dweller, I don't even keep a car anymore; I just rent one the occasional time I need one. Another driving grievance I have is twofold: I don't like the right-turn-permitted-on-red law. Do they have this in other states? I think it's dangerous. Furthermore, the law is not applicable within New York City limits, but out-of-towners either don't seem to know this or don't pay attention to it. An amusing sidebar to New York City driving is the fact that several generations of New Yorkers, particularly Manhattanites, have never driven, don't know how, and therefore don't have licenses, since keeping a car in the heart of town is both needless and ruinously expensive. They even speak with pride about their non-driver status, as was mentioned by a local type on my favorite guilty pleasure: the TV show Law & Order.

New York's City Center, on West 55th Street, is used for all kinds of visiting performers, including many dance companies. If you arrive on the early side, you can feast your eyes on the displays in the window of the Heather Floral Co., just a few doors east of the theater. I even try to allow a few extra minutes to do this before a show. Their orchids, amaryllis, calla lilies, hydrangeas, and all sorts of blooms are of the highest quality. They must get top dollar for their displays, but they appear to be worth it. No, they didn't pay me to write this.