Sushi, Psycho Judge, and "Goyishe Kopf" make for the perfect Amtrak ride

I finally have a laptop after endless weeks of Dell-ays! It's quite unbelievable; I'm even up and running on the Internet. So far the keyboard on my Inspiron 1420 seems comfortable, and I think I'm glad to have the anti-glare screen, but we'll wait for the full jury a few more weeks after more use.

So, I'm just back from NYC. What a lovely, lovely weekend I had. The Big Apple was at its very finest. Granted there was one walk through midtown on Sunday night where WWIII seemed to have hit with garbage strewn everywhere... Steph and I could quite figure out whether all the bags of garbage were broken open, stamped upon, and/or exploded or whether the garbage was part of some movie set. It was disgusting to say the least. Apart from this aberration, I was impressed at how beautiful New York was - awesome vistas north and south when crossing the avenues, looking out over the East River from my friend Sandy's 6th-floor walk-up, strolling through Central Park, brunching at the Times Warner Center at Columbus Circle. It was pure fun AND it made me itchy for more of the city. Both Steph and I were lured back by the pulse of the city, the wildy diverse peoples, and the exquisite culinary treats on nearly every corner. Let's see, this trip we sample Afghani food in the East Village at Kyhber Pass, sipped Frozen Chocolate at Chocolate Bar on 8th Ave in the West Village, and feasted upon (well, I feasted upon) Junior's famous scrumptious cheesecake with strawberries. Oh, and least I forget, after church on Sunday we hit a favorite brunch spot on E77 and York - Barking Dog. We shared chocolate chip and dried cherry pancakes and a country sausage omellette with NYS cheddar cheese and Empire apples. YUM! Whatever you do in NYC, make sure you eat! You need not spend tons of money to give your taste buds something to jump for - that is the good news. There is something for every budget.

Turning from food, well, maybe not yet... right before I made my way to Penn Station, I stopped to get sushi and made a rush trip to Korea town to pick up some sweet rolls at a Korean bakery. Mission accomplished. While waiting for the train track to appear in the main hall at Penn, I ripped open one Korean bun and finally sat down to enjoy my spicy crunchy salmon and spicy tuna and crunch shrimp rolls once on the train. I was in my own little heaven. Some days you can actually have your cake ere sushi and eat it too!

I've never had such an interesting train ride... Scratch that - this one ranks up there with my trip last March when I was humbled by the guy sitting next to me whose screen saver included pictures of him and just about every famous world leader you can think of... ranging from famous senators to former and current secretaries of state to heads of state and celebrities. That was wild - tonight's ride was interesting and unexpected. The personalities included a former attorney turned writer just launching her first novel on a book tour, who noticed me reading and gave me a copy of her book. And, there was Dave who lives and breathes Yiddish and could not help but tell me all about his 3 week trip to Lithuania where he studied Yiddish intensively and connected with Holocaust survivors who speak the language. By the way, the phrase Goyishe Kopf means "Gentile Brains", which I believe was/is a bit of a derogatory remark. I learned it in the context of a story about a professor in Vilnius who headed up a Jewish philosophy department whose favorite Jewish philospher is the 12th century rabbi, physician, and philosopher Moses Maimonides. When my train companion Dave asked the professor why he preferred Maimonides, the professor replied, "Because he had a 'judishe Kopf!"" - that is a Jewish brain.

You might see that I did not get a wink of sleep on my Amtrak ride home to DC. But, I sure had some interesting travel companions and walked away with a book and some insight on the differences between Lithuanian and Polish Yiddish.

Okay, and on a side note, get a load of this extraordinary find on the streets of the Big Apple... A little Gnome!!!!