My Urban Sherpa

AVOID THE RECESSION DEPRESSION

It’s usually enough to see April 15—the dreaded annual Tax Day—looming on the horizon. This year, however, you also have the Bear Stearns collapse and UBS write down making you wonder about your neighborhood, your tips, your sanity. Can we regulate the financial markets or (as Senator Dodd asked at the FCC hearings last week): “Have we socialized risk and privatized reward?” Regardless of what the financial markets hope or believe or hope we’ll believe, there are lots of folks whose ARMs don’t mature until the spring of ’09 – oh no! more gloom…and I really was going to be optimistic.

Well, I’ve gotten tired of the worrying—just like I got tired of watching for the next terrorist attack in 2001. I want to enjoy my life so the only counting I’m gonna do involves my lucky stars. The good news is it’s fun to be thrifty:

*I helped my stepmother save $20/month by canceling her dedicated fax line and instead having a dedicated signal ring added to her phone line.
*My husband and I feel extremely pennywise with all the money we’ve saved by having sex with each other.
*Today I found that my favorite default “I’m alone, hungry, and in a rush” lunch place, Zen Palate, is offering my favorite meal, Sesame Medallions, normally $10.95 (which I considered a bargain) for $8.95 and that new lunch special, which runs Monday – Friday 11:30 – 3:30 includes an iced tea, normally $2.75.

Zen Palate; 104 John Street and 663 9th (46th Street) – excellent food, excellent service, excellent ethics.

We’ll be posting our free money saving ideas here for you – from now until tax day. Yep, free—as in the “best things in life are…”

(ADD YOUR MONEY SAVING IDEAS HERE)

New York City: Keeping it Reel

It’s no secret that the Big Apple is an extremely popular film location. This week at the Film Forum, you have the opportunity to join Manhattan’s movie mavens and experience “old” New York City – from the 50s to the 70s - on the big screen:

 

Wednesday: Midnight Cowboy

 

Thursday and Friday: Annie Hall

 

Saturday: West Side Story

 

Walk don’t run to the Film Forum.

 

(Mickey Z. can be found here)

A wonderful week-end for Bibliophiles!

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair opened last night with a cocktail benefiting The Morgan Library.

Bibliophiles and cartographers will enjoy this exhibition of old, rare and first edition books, maps, letters and prints.

Outside of the armory, the bibliophile should walk south, on Park Avenue, six blocks to 47 East 60th, where The Grolier Club  is displaying the original manuscript of Auld Lang Syne.

Whether it’s time for lunch, tea, a drink or dinner, the journey should continue to The Morgan Library, where before enjoying the exhibition of Drawings from the Uffizi; Michelango, Vasari and Their Contemporaries, one can revive at the cafe or dining room.

And no conversation about books in New York can be complete without including The Strand – 18 miles of books under one roof, at 12th Street and Broadway.

New York Antiquarian Book Fair

Previewing Thursday, April 3rd, at a cocktail Gala, proceeds benefiting The Morgan Library and Museum, and opening Friday, April 4, at The Park Avenue Armory, is the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.

 

Two hundred booksellers from Europe and America will have a large selection of rare books, manuscripts, first editions and maps on display to peruse and purchase. 

 

Discovery Day, Sunday, April 6, offers attendees the chance to have up to five books appraised, a la “Antique Roadshow.”

 

View Andy Rooney’s visit to the 2007 Antiquarian Book Fair. 

Travel to New York on a budget, and stay fit in style.

If you are coming to town and can’t afford a $600/night hotel with a great gym, try the New York Fitness, Pilates or Yoga Passbook. For $75, you’ll get coupons to try all the best gyms, yoga or pilates studios in town.  Coupons grant entry for two visits, a week or a month – depending on the facility. At $17 per yoga class, or $50 for a one day pass to the better gyms – it’s a great way to save money on your hotel and to try some of the swankiest clubs and classes in town.