New York Groove

Back in Minneapolis ... again. Phew, the jet-set life is great but I am looking forward to a nice, relaxing week back in the Twin Cities. New York City was fab, of course — as always. It was decidedly a culinary extravaganza: oysters, more oysters, sushi, lamb as rare as the chef will cook it, poached pear French toast, and pretty much every other delicacy known to the world. But enough of that ... it's making me hungry. (I'm always hungry.)

Being in NYC also made me reflect on some trends in technology. Stuck in a cab during rush hour, I was forced to endure the endless chattering of the tv in the backseat .... sitcom promos, ads, news ticker updates .... it made me long for the good old days, when I could listen to the sweet sounds of horns honking, cab drivers screaming out their windows in multiple languages, and brakes screeching as yet another pedestrian is nearly run down.

And so too with plane rides .... being in the airplane cabin used to be the rare bulwark of peace and quiet in the face of relentless technology (well, assuming you didn't have a screaming child kicking your seat, as I did on my flight to La Guardia). But now .... wireless access, in-flight calls .... is there nowhere I can go without being subject to people's private phone conversations (I don't care about your bunions! Or your investment portfolio! Or how potty training is coming along with your baby!) and the endless tap-tap-tap of the iPhone? Especially as an on-the-go entrepreneur, I fully appreciate the advantages of portable technology .... but my inner Luddite longs for a break from the constant barrage of technological input. (That's why it was nice to leave my laptop at home for once and, for 48 glorious hours, shut off my phone. Now if only I could make everyone around me do the same thing...)

But I don't mean to sound cranky. It's nice to come home to Clyde (my beloved Macbook, for those who missed it) and an inbox chock full of emails. It's nice to be able to check the weather (cold and dreary, for the record), the latest news, my buddies' Facebook statuses — all from a device that fits quite literally in the palm of my itty bitty hand. It's nice to hear my phone chirp, nice to hear the alarm go off at ... no, no, wait. That isn't quite so nice.

Annnnnyway. My point is, there is a place for technology — but there's also a place to escape from it, or at least there should be. And speaking of escaping to other places, today's fan mail comes to us from another NY destination — not the City, but upstate, from Albany. As always, thanks for the shout-out!