The longstanding New York City diner shut its doors last weekend. Its owner, Florent Morellet, watched the Meatpacking District undergo an extreme gentrification makeover during his 23 years in business, before finally closing due to rent increases. The Times has a good story about what Florent meant to its patrons. Elsewhere, New York Magazine has the details on the restaurant’s final night of service, and on its private friends-and-family farewell.

Photo by Jeff Tidwell via Flickr (Creative Commons)

This month’s Cartoonist of the Month blogger at the New Yorker is Michael Crawford. So far, his blog entries—a collection of sketches, paintings and candid shots of New Yorkers out on the town—provide not only a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of the magazine’s famous cartoons, but also an unusual take on life in the city itself. Try Sketchbook: Central Park or Sketchbook: Why They Call It A Hell Of A Town for a start.

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* Are New York’s Skyscrapers Outdated?

Photo by alcebal2002 via Flickr (Creative Commons)

That’s the argument this Der Spiegel piece makes, pondering the architectural clash of civilizations between East and West. I, for one, can live without a Burj Dubai in the middle of Manhattan.

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* Seven New Wonders of the Architectural World

Photo by matt semel via Flickr (Creative Commons).

From time to time in high school, I used to throw my dad’s old vinyl copy of the Woodstock album (complete with crowd chants and warnings about the brown acid) on the record player, crank the volume, sit back and try to pretend that I, too, was at Max Yasgur’s farm (pictured) on a wet August weekend in 1969. Seems I’m not the only one keen to re-create the event. The Museum at Bethel Woods opens today on the site of the original concert in upstate New York, and it sounds groovy.

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If you’ve opened a newspaper travel section lately, chances are good you’ve spotted an article about “Sex and the City” tours on offer in New York City. Of course, they’ve been around for a few years now, but with today’s release of the long-awaited Sex and the City movie, the fan craze has never been at a more fevered pitch—and the tours have never gotten more ink. Curious to learn more about how you, too, can follow in the high-heeled footsteps of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte? The Independent has the details on the deluxe $24,000 themed mini-break offered by one travel company.

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I’m no gamer, but I loved reading Dave Itzkoff’s New York Times piece about his search for his hometown in the Grand Theft Auto IV’s fictional “Liberty City.” Liberty City, Itzkoff notes, “is New York City, and it is not.” In his tour of the game, he finds familiar sights and sounds—pedestrians shouting into cell phones, saxophone players in Times Square—but also, inevitably, discovers the digital world’s limitations. 

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We’ve written occasionally about the cult appeal of Chinatown buses, which offer dirt-cheap rides between Chinatowns in a number of Eastern U.S. cities. To compete, Greyhound has launched its own budget option, BoltBus, which features online booking, power outlets and, perhaps coolest of all, free Wi-Fi. So how’s the ride? Daniel Sorid bought a round-trip ticket from New York to Philadelphia for all of $2.50 and found himself the lone passenger on the journey. 

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One sentence on a public service ad in the New York Subway has turned Neil Neches, a writer in the New York City Transit agency’s marketing and service information department, into an unlikely hero. In an effort to get riders to not leave newspapers strewn about subway cars, Neches wrote: “Please put it in a trash can; that’s good news for everyone.” The tale of his properly-placed semicolon is currently the No. 1 most e-mailed story at the New York Times. 

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It’s about time JetBlue began operating out of Los Angeles International. Starting in May, the budget carrier with excellent entertainment options will offer three daily flights from LAX to John F. Kennedy International and one daily flight to Logan International in Boston. Even if you’re not as big of a fan of JetBlue as I am, it’s good news: It could lead to a fare war among other airlines at LAX. JetBlue is expanding service at other Southern California airports, too.

In what Reuters reports is a sign that the U.S. dollar “just ain’t what it used to be,” some New York City businesses are now accepting euros and other foreign currency—and they’re finding plenty of takers: “The increasingly weak U.S. dollar, once considered the king among currencies, has brought waves of European tourists to New York with money to burn.”

Related on World Hum:
* Dollar Sinks to Record Low in Europe

Photo by jopemoro via Flickr (Creative Commons).

The New York City-based group pulled a cool stunt in Grand Central Station recently that had travelers baffled. Video:

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A recent international incident notwithstanding, Niagara Falls’ moment in the sun has long passed. Yet, as a story in the latest Believer says, it still packs a hell of a symbolic wallop. 

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