Disclaimer: this column: it’s a stream of consciousness series of impressions, opinions, and comments from the perspective of Yours Truly. It’s designed to offer the feel and spirit of this week’s Macworld Expo and New York City (at least my impressions of them). It’s not designed to be a news article. You have been warned.
The Ice Cream Social, held at the cool New Yorker Hotel (481 Eighth Avenue at 34th Street), kicked off User Group University this week and was a blast. Of course, with me anything that involves ice cream is a good thing. But it was also good to chat with Chuck Joiner, Daniel East, Fred Showker, Keith Putnam, and others.
I had a good sandwich at the Burger Heaven restaurant on 45th: a Grand Lobster Club Triangle Triple Decker. It was lobster salad, bacon, lettuce, and tomato, all for about 10 bucks.
And, as usual, I’ve seen some, well, eccentric folks wandering around New York, including: a woman talking to passers-by with her hand puppet, a man wearing a bicycle helmet though he was on foot, a man carrying a giant cross, and “the naked cowboy” strumming a guitar and singing in Times Square. And that’s not even mentioning the cussing fight two cab drivers got into (naturally, one was driving my cab). You gotta love this city.
Still, the image of New Yorkers is wrong. New Yorkers like it neat and drug-free, according to a study conducted by RoommateMenu.com, a roommate matching service offering the most comprehensive nationwide listing available online. The study showed that 67 percent of New Yorkers who registered for the service last spring don’t want to live with a messy roommate. Drug use is also a top deal breaker, ranking second with 61 percent of the votes.
For what it’s worth, registered users in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston also listed messiness as a top deal breaker, whereas in San Francisco, drug use is the number one turnoff, garnering 80 percent of the vote. Messiness takes second with 78 percent of the votes.