40th Street and Sixth Avenue

Overheard on the street: “What good is a phone if you keep it on vibrate at the bottom of your bag and never meet me when I call you?”

Hudson Street and Reade Street

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the long holiday.

Murray Street and West Street

The croissants from François Payard Bakery are among the best in the city, or so I’ve often read. (The almond version was pretty good.) And now they’re in the Goldman Sachs arcade, under the scaffolding, across from the Shake Shack and next door to a new outpost of Artsee. All part of the retail and restaurant improvements going on over there. (Remember when there was just a sad Applebee’s and a few other uninspired places? I do miss DSW, however.)

Seventh Avenue and 16th Street

Through a window screen, purple flowers in the pale light of a shaftway afternoon.

Columbus Circle

A bit of art (through cropping) at the Time Warner Center. (I suppose I’m part of the Collage Culture, always appropriating, failing to innovate.) "And focus on the conspicuous," someone said, walking past me, into his cell phone.

42nd Street and Fifth Avenue

I can’t believe I never stopped in here until recently, but this gets my vote for most beautiful public bathroom in Manhattan. (Those flowers are real.) This place is right behind the main library, on the edge of Bryant Park. (Here are some other good places to stop.)

Water Street and Dock Street (Brooklyn)

Street art down under the scaffolding, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This location is, apparently, one of the top five street art spots in Brooklyn.

Jones Street and Bleecker Street

Tempura acorn squash on charred toast with homemade ricotta and truffle honey. What more do you need to know? (Maybe where to eat it: Perilla.)

Brooklyn Bridge Park

A glimpse through Jean Nouvel’s acrylic cage of Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo. It is, I’ve just read here, the first carousel to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bryant Park

Christmas ornaments hanging under the trees at the holiday market in Bryant Park. After an afternoon of browsing, my favorite stalls are Juli Ra Design (where—full disclosure—some of my own crocheted-wire-and-crystal jewelry designs are for sale) and Vivi Sun Jewelry (where I couldn't resist a giant resin ring inset with a ton of tiny pearls and beads).

West Broadway and Thomas Street

Ode to the Odeon, home of crowds all night and a lovely croque-monsieur in the morning. (Read a Vanity Fair essay on its history here.)

Park Place and Church Street

It may not be forever, but
The zing of beauty in the middle
Of the day....

            —Tom Disch, from "The Argument Resumed; Or, Up Through Tribeca"

West Broadway and Duane Street

Toy subway cars for the five-year-old nostalgic for all the hours of his youth wasted on the train. Which one will he choose? Surely not the 1 train. Maybe the J, with its whiff of rapper romanticism. (Available at Boomerang Toys.)

25th Street and Sixth Avenue

Overheard on the street: "Do you understand poetry?"

Sixth Avenue and Washington Place

Tertulia feels like a slice of northern Spain in the West Village, especially while eating slices of jamón Ibérico. Among other things, such as wood-fired fish and tasty bits of pork cheeks and arroz a la plancha (watch the chef make it here). And don't read the Times review if you're hungry.

Trinity Place and Thames Street

This juxtaposition seems (screams) New York to me. (And take a look at some much more professional combinations and compositions in the stunning new book New York: A Photographer's City, from Rizzoli.)

Somewhere on the Subway

Man dressed as water cooler, heading downtown, on the weekend. The top is filled with cash instead of water and says, "The trickle down has stopped working."

Murray Street and Church Street

Part of the endless construction/art project that is New York. A body of work that will always need repair. And I think of "An Urban Convalescence" by James Merrill: "Out for a walk, after a week in bed, / I find them tearing up part of my block."