My Urban Sherpa

Shangri-La for less.

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New York’s 3500 year-old “needle”

The next time you’re soaking in the history at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, don’t forget to take a stroll into Central Park for a visit with Cleopatra’s Needle (East Side Drive and 81st St.).

This 71 foot, 244 ton Obelisk was erected in Heliopolis (Egypt) around 1500 BC and later moved to Alexandria around 12 B.C. In 1879, it was shipped to the U.S. (another went to London, while a third is in Paris) as a gift where it stands tall as the oldest man-made object in Central Park.

The Pre-Metrocard Days of Yore

After a few dubious experiments, New York’s elevated train system began in earnest in 1879. Known simply as “The El,” this highly efficient mode of transportation came to symbolize early 20th century New York and was never fully replaced upon its dismantling between 1940 and 1955. Those in the outer boroughs, however, can still experience the ride.

Walk on Water

If you weren’t lucky enough to create your own Exodus from the steamy apple today, create your own miracle by keeping cool.

Cool your feet in the fountains behind the Hayden Planetarium, or your entire self in the wonderfully air-conditioned and endless halls of the American Museum of Natural History.

Suggestion for a sunny day

As the ladies who lunch have long known, nothing compliments a sunny day better than a fabulous hat.

Stylish and lovable hats, these hats are handmade, reversible, machine washable, and one of a kind. Extravagant enough to be the perfect gift, practical enough to justify purchase, these hats are available from David Rodriguez, milliner and mayor of Stanton Street.

Casa Rodriguez is located at 156 Stanton Street.

The stars will be out at Yankee Stadium

We already told you about this being the last hurrah for Yankee Stadium…so what could be better than Major League Baseball bestowing the annual All-Star Game upon the House that Ruth Built?

Starting with the Home Run Derby on Monday, July 14 right up to mid-season classic the following night, baseball’s royalty will descend on the Bronx. Legends like Reggie Jackson and Whitey Ford will mingle with some of today’s pinstriped heroes (e.g. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez) and for one night, we’re all ten years old again.

Looking for some sunshine?

Head to Dylan’s at the corner of Third Avenue and 60th Street for candy in every color and fun for every fun-lover. Children will delight at the dazzling selection of sweets. Adults indulge in the nostalgia of long ago coveted penny candies – Pop Rocks, Sugar Daddies, Fizz, Mary Jane. All enjoy a respite from a gloomy day at the closest visit to Willy Wonka’s this side of the television.

Lizards & Snakes: Alive

Squamates at the American Museum of Natural History. Through January 25, 2009.

Manhattan’s first real estate deal

Did the Dutch really buy Manhattan for $24? According to historian Kenneth C. Davis, “the first Dutch settlers to arrive on the narrow, twelve-mile long island of Manhattan didn’t bother to pay the Indians for the land they chose for their settlement.” However, when Peter Minuit became leader of the settlement in 1626, he decided it would be salutary to meet with the local chiefs and make it official.

The deal involved two boxes of goods (believed to be hatchets, cloth, metal pots, and bright beads) that were worth 60 Dutch guilders. Sixty Dutch guilders, in 1626, were worth 2400 English cents and that is where the infamous $24 figure comes from.

(Mickey Z. can be found here)

Welcome to the melting pot (and we don’t mean the weather)

The first black setters in NYC were some 10 or 12 Angolan men who disembarked as slaves in 1625. By 1644, they were granted freedom.

The first Italian settler in NYC: Pietro Cesare Alberto in 1635.

The first Jewish settler in NYC: Jacob bar Simson in 1654.

The first Chinese New Yorker was Ah Ken, a Cantonese who set foot in NYC in 1858.

The first sign of a melting pot: In the 1643 words of Jesuit missionary Father Isaac Jogues, “On the island of Manhate, and in its environs, the Director General told me that there were men of eighteen different languages.”