I admit that my perspective on NY isn't yours, but I totally agree with your anger on that article (I saw the headline on the dead-tree front page this morning). I hate seeing the city being hurt - from Albany or from farther afield - by people who don't take the time to understand what this place is and what it means to be a New Yorker. I'm of the belief that if you really take the time to imbibe the city and its dreams and not be afraid of it, even if you're only here for a week, you become part of it.

Thanks for the link to the slideshow! To use your backstage analogy, I love opportunities to forage through New York's old closets and trunks of costume and make-up and think of the *old* dreams.

Ew at the man in the bar - I think I would've nearly punched him too. What a load of post-Freudian nitwittery.