Not that you asked but is being nice the new mean? We were in NY on Saturday and were shocked in how good a mood everyone was; people on the street, retail staff, business owners, sidewalk vendors, restaraunt staff, parking garage staff (!). As regular readers of this site might know, I am from North Carolina where eye contact, familiarity and good humor are so prevelant that they resemble a kind of tic as they are constantly on the surface and constantly deployed. I often think that this kind of knee jerk niceness is a kind of ritualistic southern thing, used out of habit more than sincerity (that is just my opinion of course). On the other hand, New Yorkers are unfairly saddled with a reputation for not being all that nice. I have never thought this was the case since I moved here and have had good luck dealing with professional contacts while dealing with this site and in my other journalistic work. Still, maybe it is the recession or whatever, but New Yorkers seem to have taken being nice to a new level (notice I didn't say Long Islanders).
But, I digress, New York on Saturday was a particularly great place to be with clear skies, low humidity and great people watching....
