Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses

Another incredibly noisy night on West 15th Street resulting in much tossing and turning. At least the humidity level seems to have subsided a touch. After breakfast I headed off up 6th Avenue all the way to 42nd Street and the New York Public Library where I made myself comfortable in the amazing reading room for a couple of hours of concentrated writing. At 2pm, I joined the library tour for a very interesting hour and a half look around the building. Afterwards, I decided to set off on one of those literary walks taking in the salons and saloons of Dorothy Parker, billed as one of the shrewdest and and most elegant satirists of the 20th century.

Starting off on 44th Street at the Algonquin Hotel, home to the famous Algonquin Round Table - the queen of which was Dorothy Parker who produced such wondrous witticisms as the title of this entry, as well as such gems as: "If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised" and "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." My current favourite wee poem is:

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.

The walk took me along 47th Street through Hell's Kitchen to 9th Avenue where I found the birthplace of the New Yorker magazine visited by Harpo Marx, George Gershwin and Scott Fitzgerald. I carried on back to 6th Avenue and all the way up past Radio City Music Hall to Central Park where I rested up and wrote a postcard by the lake. Back down 5th Avenue via Tiffany & Co, St Patrick's Cathedral and the Rockefeller Centre. I continued on foot all the way back down 7th Avenue and home. Then my feet fell off with a kerplonk. I managed to screw them back on in order to fetch some wine from the liquor store. Meanwhile, J cooks dinner and the air is filled with sweet smells. Even George the flying cockroach is rubbing his feelers expectantly. Full review tomorrow. The final quote from dear Dot Parker though could be deemed to be poignantly relevant:

"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."