Manhattan

I tried to go into the Marble Collegiate Church because my mother has always been a fan of Norman Vincent Peale. However, it was closed.

There was a shower, and to avoid getting wet, I stopped under the stoop of a building which turned out to have a plaque that read that it was the Greenwich Village residence of Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1940s. 

An unshaven Buddhist monk--or a man dressed as one--tried to hand me something, something gold colored, which I didn't realize till I had replayed it in my mind a moment later. I thought he was asking for alms, and I was already into the motion of fishing for some change when I realized that I had had a misperception. 

A Hare Krishna wanted me to have a pamphlet. 

Around Union Square, I was accosted by Planned Parenthood people, Greenpeace people, a children's charity, and one other nonprofit I can't remember the name of. 

In Greenwich Village, I stopped in a bookstore whose name was "Unoppressive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books". There were books about Bob Dylan and left wing politics; classic rock was playing. 

I saw the Blue Note, which I've dreamed about visiting. It looks different than I imagined.

I like The Strand bookstore. The books are okay--I got two. What's really special is the camaraderie you can sense among the staff. They have fun!