Kids, Don't Try This At Home.

These are actual signs I saw in a subway car. Apparently, the MTA has run out of ideas but never runs out of idiotic ways to spend money.

...Kids, don't take joyrides on the outside of subway cars. Only you can prevent forest fires.

The Celebrity Treatment (aka You Can't Make This Kind of Stuff Up)

I go to the Equinox gym in Columbus Circle. It's a huge and airy place, and it's considered to be one of the poshest gyms in Manhattan (certainly not the cheapest). And upon entering the gym, one passes a locked door to what appears to be an inner, secret room (see picture on left). From my investigation (basically my peaking through some glass areas around the pool and above the door that let you see part of this "inner" area), this is a secret (presumably celebrity) gym (see picture below of what my camera saw through the glass above this door).

And right by the locked door leading into this secret gym is a wall-mounted contraption that looks like one of those Sharper Image wall-mounted CD players (see picture of door above and pictures of the contraption itself below). ...But, get this -- it's actually an eye scan. Yes, an eye scan! As in, futuristic Star Trek wannabe eye scan!

Of course, I'm not creative enough to come up with an eye-scan conspiracy theory by myself. Leave that one to the hubby. He's been talking about it since we started going to the gym, and I was sceptical that there could possibly be such a thing at our gym. That is, until I stopped in front of the mysterious "eye-scan" and put my own eye to it. It immediately began blinking a green laser, trying to scan my eye (see picture below of my finger in front of it)! That's when I was convinced the theory had to be true and started telling the story at cocktail parties.

What's amazing is that the theory was finally confirmed the other day when, as I was leaving the gym, I actually saw someone walk up to the eye scan and put his eye to it only to have the secret door open! Of course, you're thinking (as I was), who was that guy??? I don't know; he was bummy and I didn't have my glasses on. But I can assure you that I will be bringing my glasses to the gym from now on and stalking the secret eye-scanning entryway until I spot my very own celebrity. ...You really can't make this stuff up. I will keep you posted.

Holy Morons, Batman!

"Two men, one a practiced French stuntman known for climbing tall buildings, the other a New Yorker who said he wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of malaria, scaled the 52-story New York Times Building in Times Square on Thursday just hours apart. Each was arrested when he stepped safely onto the roof." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/nyregion/06climber.html?_r=1&oref=slogin What else is new?

THE Sex and the City Movie Post

If you couldn't tell by my name, I am a huge Sex and the City fan. I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite show, as I have seen, re-seen, and over-analyzed every episode ever made. So, like almost every other girl out there, I was way psyched about seeing the movie. I made a night of it -- fine NY sushi, cosmos at a Manhattan rooftop lounge, and then an evening showing at the Lincoln Center AMC. And let me tell you -- I have never seen so many girls in one, packed movie theatre before. It was like the antithesis of seeing Ironman (and apparently I'm not the first to compare -- very cleverly -- the two, see http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/06/sex_and_the_city_box_office_ex.html).

Okay, so make room for spoilers galore here -- meaning, if you haven't seen the fabulous Sex and the City movie yet, then 1) what's wrong with you?, and 2) you should stop reading this post now if you don't want to ruin it for yourself.

The movie is looong, and it feels long (in a good Sex and the City marathon way, though). And when closing credits rolled, I had many mixed thoughts. For one, why couldn't they have come up with something more original than "Carrie and Big break up again?" And did Samantha really have to break up with Smith?? And did they really have to make Steve's lovable character a cheater??? Something just didn't sit well with me about the movie immediately after it ended. But then, I had some time to absorb it, discuss it, and understand why they did the things they did.

As for the main plot, I expected something more than just another break-up. I was really waiting for Big to finally have that heart attack. But after I left the theatre and had time to think about it, I realized that because the whole show (from episode 1) is really based around the love story between Carrie and Big -- how quirky they are and how perfect they are for each other -- it made sense that the movie plot would revolve around Carrie missing the "big" picture (pun intended) and losing herself (again) in planning their wedding and life together. The wedding charade that unfolded wasn't "Carrie," and contradicted the show's main idea of Carrie being true to herself. After all, Carrie would have never picked out that pouffy wedding dress on her own (remember the Aidan wedding dress rash?). As I thought more and more about the concept of the movie from this perspective, I appreciated the plot more and more: Carrie stays true to herself through Big, rather than losing herself like she had with Petrovsky.

And what about Smith and Samantha? Well, I'm still somewhat torn on this one, but I can understand that, ultimately, Samantha is the type of character that needs to be free. She is the quintessential single girl, and while it was nice to see her find love, it's understandable that she lost herself in that, as well. Not every woman ends up with someone, and of the four girls, Samantha was the perfect one to stay single. After all, someone had to end up being the role model for all those 50-something women who are making it on their own out there with a dog or 10 cats.

Now for Steve. It broke my heart that Steve cheated on Miranda (maybe because I relate to Miranda so much that I married a Steve myself). And I think the fact that this plot line was so powerful that it broke my heart and made me feel so much, while forcing me to root for Miranda and Steve to still work it out (because Steve is such a good guy), proves that this was a good story. I'm mad at Steve (and the hubby got a talking to because of it), but I forgave Steve and I'm glad Miranda did too.

So I guess that's it. ...But I am quite sure the girls aren't done playing with our hearts. I am certain we'll see another installment of a Sex and the City movie, especially considering how well this one did at the box office ($55.7 million opening weekend, becoming one of the top five R-rated opening grossers of all time). Girl Power!