I went on good long walk through the city on this grey and misty autumn day, and here’s what I encountered:

• South along the High Line: thousands of slow-walking tourists stopping and puzzling over fold-out maps. Autumn leaves, autumn smells. A few stray patches of residual snow from the recent nor’easter.
• South from there along Greenwich St: cobblestone streets, beautiful architecture.
• Hudson Square area: I’ve heard a bit about new commercial real estate projects here. It has a feel of things to come — construction and billboards with marketing messages from realtors. At this point, it’s not a very interesting place to walk through.
• East to Soho: I stopped off at Souen, a restaurant that describes itself as “organic and macrobiotic” and consumed an insanely healthy lunch: sautéed brussel sprouts with peanut sauce (topped with walnuts), and wakame soup.
• Walked by the 443-449 Broome St Building in Soho and marveled at it.
  
• While I was criss-crossing Soho, I saw a guy that bore an uncanny resemblance to early-70s-era Lou Reed. He was wearing absurdly huge sunglasses and he was talking on his phone. I heard him say: “Take it easy! No this is what you do. You put some soft music on,” [pause] “No listen. Listen to me. You put some soft music on, and you take it easy. Alright?” 
• At an ATM in a bodega in Soho, after finishing my transaction, I saw this message:  “Thanks for using. Bye bye!”  My favorite ATM message ever.
• Walked north through Little Italy / Chinatown — these neighborhoods seem to be one and the same; there is no clear demarcation between them. Areas of Mulberry street are way too touristy and pandering, but you don’t find that in Chinatown. 
• Stopped off in Think Coffee on Bleecker to read for a while. There was a really intense, frenetic fellow there writing by hand in a notebook. Nearly bald on the top of his head, he had big tufts of curly hair on either side. As he wrote, he absent-mindedly played with one of the few remaining curls of hair on top of his head. Later I went to the bathroom, and when I stepped out, I saw him waiting to enter. He had his notebook up against the wall, writing furiously on it — even there in the restroom line.
• Walking up through the east village, I heard a mom say to her son (maybe 10 years old): “Do yourself a favor and say nothing.. Because you’re going to *lose* points.”
• And then stopping off for happy hour, I saw a woman who looked remarkably like Anne Hathaway. Near her, a guy sat fiddling with a camera. He had headphones on, and was sometimes kind of grooving in his seat. I don’t understand these people who wear headphones in a restaurant — I’ve seen it a few times. After a while, the Anne Hathaway lookalike said to this guy: “are you taking pictures of me? Because I am *not* ok with that.”  He shook his head and looked offended. I looked over at him periodically after that, and he appeared to be pouting, thumbing through the photos on his camera, still grooving to his tunes.