Overheard in the mummy room

Visiting New York a few weeks ago I had the feeling something had changed. Back again last week I knew it had. New Yorkers are not quite so rude as they used to be. They're not exactly polite either, but they're definitely more tolerant, less complaining, a little more subdued perhaps. Is this a legacy of 9/11? Did New Yorkers discover humility that day?

Overheard in the Metropolitan Museum mummy room: "Doesn't Egypt have a problem with us having this stuff?"

No photographs

There are still far too many rules here but it's fun breaking them. In the Guggenheim a sign says "no photography beyond the first floor." Why? So many people are ignoring the signs the security people don't know which way to turn. This is as it should be.


A particularly fastidious security man is trying to protect a glass igloo held together with G-clamps. There is a grey line on the floor and when people step over it he waves his arms and shouts. In an alcove another security man is guarding what looks like an over sized gold-coloured foil chocolate wrapper curled up at the edges and stuck to the floor. He doesn't look too pleased. I can imagine his reaction when he got to work that morning and the head guard told him: "Hey Tom, you got the chocolate wrapper."


One gallery is called: Arcadia and Anarchy. Ironic? I should say so. Here hangs work by some of the most radical spirits of their generation, anaesthetised for mass consumption - protected by bureaucrats, preserved by fanatics, viewed by the mildly interested.

Vacuous girls

On 5th Avenue we bumble in to Abercrombie and Fitch where shop assistants are recruited for their looks rather than an ability to assist. Willowy but vacuous girls spray perfume on the clothes while handsome young men stand around saying hello. What about age and disability discrimination in employment? Doesn't this apply here?


In F A O Schwartz you can buy cuddly sea creatures. There's a cuddly jelly fish, a cuddly sting ray and a cuddly hammerhead shark.


There's a story recalled in the Natural History Museum that I knew but had forgotten. O C Marsh, a Yale Paleontologist named one of his fossil finds Apatosaurus in 1877. Another he named Brontosaurus in 1879. Only later was it discovered that both specimens were the same creature. I suppose that means the Brontosaurus is extinct. Or was it ever "tinct"?


I've taken a lot of pictures in New York. Quite a few of them feature fire hydrants. I'm getting interested in what I might call "street furniture" if I choose to be quaint. I'm also enjoying patterns.

Saving money


If you want to do New York on the cheap here are a few tips: take the Staten Island ferry on an evening for a view of the water front and the Statue of Liberty. The ferry ride is free. For entertainment try one of the free outdoor concerts at the Lincoln Centre. We saw Eunice Newkirk singing jazz the way it ought to be sung.


When you visit one of the top museums such as the Metropolitan and the Natural History Museum the counter staff will tell you a "suggested price". You can ignore that if you wish and pay what you think is reasonable.

Of course if everyone paid less than they suggested, the museums would have much less in their kitty to use for Hoovering up what few treasures remain in the developing world. That might not be a bad thing.