(New York City)...New York New York is a wonderful town. Or as Frank Sinatra would sing

it a lot better. That�s what my wife and I encountered December 31, 2003

while visiting the Big Apple. During a six hour period, we walked roughly

fifty blocks or more from Grand Central station uptown to Saint Patrick�s Cathedral,

where I drew a Smugglers� Notch canister (namesake for our Vermont condo) of

Holy Water to Trump Towers, to Disney store to purchase a toy animal for our son

Andrew. Then onto FAO Swartz, which is going out of business much to our surprise,

a sad commentary given the fact that it was a unique experience when my family

visited the once upon famous toy store with our sons Andrew and Eric.

We learned that FAO Swartz will only keep New York and Las Vegas stores open.

In the meantime, bargains were irresistibleand we purchased stuffed animals for our sons.

Then onto CBS near central park, and then back downtown to Rockefeller Plaza and NBC,

where we purchased an NBC peacock toy animal for ourselves and

I had my picture takenalongside a 1950�s TV camera.

Then to Howard Johnsons� near Times Square for turkey dinner

and over to ABC andToys R Us a "must see" to appreciate,

and then onto Bryant Park, where we had our picture

taken by a good Samaritan.

Then, onward to Macy�s at Hearld Square passing Fox. People were delightful everywhere and

New York police were at their best preparing for the night�s

event in droves of dozens of officers at

various street corners. We went into Empire State Building

and passed through Korea section of the city, and back to Grand

back to Branchville, Connecticut.

Now, what did we learn?

New York is a safe place to visit and have lots of fun as we did today.

And, that holds true today August 2, 2004 as it did on Dec. 31, 2003.

Al Bruhn reporting for USA TV Talk News in New York City.

E-mail: [email protected]

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