Dear readers, please let me offer my sincerest apologies for depriving you of my words of comfort and succor from El Ciudad del Amor de Hermanos. Comfor. Succor. There. I hope you’re happy. With luck, I will be writing twice a week starting next week: Mondays and Thursdays I hope. With that: Happy In-Dependence Day. This’ll blow your mind: what if we called it Inter-Dependence Day? Wouldn’t that totally change the world? No? Fine. Be that way.

Last weekend, I took the exciting and reportedly dangerous Chinatown Bus from Philadelphia to New York. For those of you who don’t know, the Chinese crminal syndicates use the cover of a cheap busline to traffick heroin, tiny shoes, and the latest prophecies fresh in from China, authorized by Beijing’s Ministry for Lying to Americans, for use in fortune cookies. For the mere price of twenty dollars roundtrip, and the sure knowledge that you are participating in a criminal endeavor, you can get almost anywhere on the eastern seabord in approximately two hours. Word on the street is that J. K. Rowling researched the Chinatwon buses for her transparent ripoff, the Knightbus.

My stay in New York was too short, but a lot of good times were packed into those few days. Friday afternoon Harry Huberty and I tromped merrily around the Metripolitan Museum of Art. We refrained from holding hands and skipping merrily, but it was a close thing. In order to prove to all you skeptics out there that I did indeed visit the museum which is called Met, I present Photo-Magical Imagery!

This is some kind of pagan idol from the Eurpoean Dark ages. No one is quite sure of its significance, or what kind of practices it inspired, but it sure is lovely.

This is another pagan idol, though it dates much later, to the Rennaisance. It is a representation of the dark Goddess Kaphé, imported from the New World. See how her twin tails stand ready to dispense scalding black nectar and delicately foamed milk? Other theories suggest it is a depiction of a siren from Greco-Roman mythology, but this has yet to be proven by science.

This is a picture of Mary Magdalene, recovered from the chapterhouse of a Christian worker’s guild from the middle ages. These societies helped thier dead members by paying for services to be said for them after their deaths. In this case, the society’s patron saint was Mary of Magdala, and so their prayers are addressed through her. No, this is true. Really. Why are you lookign at me like that?

In typical fashion, European colonial powers not only enslaved the inhabitants of this island paradise, but they crystalized its panoramic views and took them back to their dreary and icy homes in the European Wastlands. This is an example of such a stolen vista.

After our sojourn amongst the beautiful art, Harry and I made our way to meet Master Dan Chamberlin of the New York Chamberlins, and then made haste to the Tambasco household, where we played an excellent roleplaying game called Dogs in the Vineyard. We learned how dangerous wine can be. (It apparently can lead people to try to summon demons. Who knew?)

The next day, after settling the island of Catan, The native New Yorkers helped Harry and me find our way to a rain-soaked barbecue in Brooklyn.

Finally, I went to church at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (which is HUGE), then spent a couple of hours in the surprisingly disappointing Strand bookstore in Union Square, then jumped my bus back to Philadelphia. All-in-all, an excellent long weekend. You should try it sometime.

For those of you keeping up with my reading, know that I am slowly making my way through Pillars of the Earth. It’s good, but getting a little bit predictable/repetitive. I must know what happens to Tom Builder, though! Damn you Ken Folleeeeeeet!!!!