Old school service at Russ & Daughters

Although my trips to East Houston area typically happen after 9pm, I made an exception of spending some AM hours in the neighborhood.





They've been around since 1914 in Manhattan's Lower East Side. I tried the Classic lox and cream cheese on a bagel with onions, a tomato slice, and a few capers. I also ordered the pickled herring in cream sauce. The lox+cc bagel was tres magnifique, however, I still prefer my pickled herring in wine sauce.



There are plenty of other places in New York, many not so famous, that have equally good appetizing products. I think what keeps R&D going is the service and attention to detail. They have a relatively large staff that takes their time with each customer order, giving you the feeling that you have stepped back into a different time in New York's history.

Brain Candy

Seth Godin breaks down the elements of success for magicians, business at large

I wonder if this AMEX initiative will encourage incremental volunteerism or just reward those already doing good work pro bono. Even if it does increase the overall level of volunteerism, are those activities the ones we would want to incentivize? i.e., Do we really want people coming out to dole out soup at $5/hour? Wouldn't we rather utilize those funds to invest in social entreprenuer organizations that are scalable?

The economics of fashion

While we were playing Monopoly, the Russians were playing...

Adam Savage's (from Mythbusters) excellent speech to the Harvard Humanist Society

Big Apple Entreprenuers

The only people more interesting than entrepreneurs, are extreme risk-taking entrepreneurs; the folks bringing a completely original idea, or at least a one-of-a-kind service to the marketplace, or non-marketplace in some cases.

Here in New York, I’m impressed that a guy named Justin Gignac can literally sell garbage and, in conjunction with his wife, put his wants on canvas and sell the paintings in proportion to the wants in order to achieve said wants.

Another cool idea from Long Island, is the Something Store. You give them $10 and then send you something. Maybe it’s an iPod shuffle, maybe a travel pillow. The fun is the uncertainty.

In February 2009, my friend Kat and I visited the Free Store on Nassau, sadly only a temporary art installation, where I selected some coasters depicting different stages of Japanese history and Kat picked up a really cool Buddha statue. Total cost: $0

At Lulu & Mooky’s on Allen Street you can get liquid nitrogen ice cream in thousands of different flavors. Check out our review here.

Here are some other weird businesses around the U.S.

Piracy Is Wrong, Even if it’s Beneficial

I keep reading articles about how music sales are up even though illegal downloading is still rampant. Pirates and friends of pirates cite the spillover effects from having illegal music (and other content). I admit that the industry should probably give away more in its own self-interest and as someone who had received a cease-and-desist letter in his youth; I can say I have not always held this point of view. However, saying your theft helps the vendor by promoting the goods, you might be correct, but that doesn’t make the theft any more legitimate.

That’s akin to saying some people broke into a liquor store, stole some brandy, and shared it with everyone in the neighborhood. Now that all the neighbors enjoyed the brandy and the store is making more money because they are coming back for seconds, doesn’t make the original theft legal.

Also, people are upset about pricing. Well, I’m not a big fan of gas prices either but just because petrol firms are making a bundle doesn’t give anyone license to start hijacking gas trucks.

The solution: The bottom line is people are going to continue to pirate as long as it’s possible to do so. Just as people continue to break into homes and steal people’s identity’s because it’s possible, although difficult, people will continue to steal digital content. You can make is more difficult to get away with by increasing the penalties of engaging in such activities. But the real trick is making the mechanism by which digital copyrighted material is distributed harder to reproduce.

Back in the days when the distribution of data took place in physical forms (vinyl records, cassettes, CD-ROMs, etc.) it was difficult to make a copy of the physical entity. These barriers prevented piracy from becoming widespread. Even making a mixed tape or recording from the radio was time consuming and costly.

Attempts at locking digital formats to date have proven somewhat successful but given the ability to crack the newer formats and all the older, unprotected versions of copyrighted data, I think the Spotify model is the future. The “owner” never really owns the content or has possession of it, they “rent” it from the content providers and stream whatever they'd like on-demand, via a subscription model.

What a Town

Guess which town you can take part in an active forest restoration at a site once visited by Benjamin Franklin, pick and consume autumn olive berries near the Atlantic Ocean, catch a musical about Charles Manson, and stand in a room five stories beneath the ground in a room filled with over $290B in gold?

What city am I in?

Only in New York!

In the past month, I’ve done everything listed above and the variety of those experiences is one of the reasons I don’t mind paying the high cost of living here. I mean, I mind, but not enough to move away.

If you live in or around the city, or are visiting from someplace else, you should consider visiting The Conference House on Staten Island, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Brooklyn, and the New York Federal Reserve in lower Manhattan. While Charles Manson: The Musical is only on for another few weeks in 2010, but check out End Times Productions for other off-Broadway shows. Although the comedy was hit or miss, the overall production was highly enjoyable.

It's not all concrete jungle -- view from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Brooklyn

The Re-election of Michael Bloomberg

Despite the hotly contested third-term controversy, I thought Mr. Bloomberg deserved to be re-elected. Using private sector strategies, the city has seen gains in the areas of the environment, education, crime, security, and public finances. While his job creation claims are a bit dubious, it is clear that NYC is still a great place to live and work. Despite the massive financial collapse NYC’s unemployment rate is holding steady with the national average, no small feat considering NYC was disproportionally damaged by the financial crisis.

Perhaps Bloomberg’s greatest achievement is in education. By increasing the number of charter schools from 17 with 3,200 students when he took office to 78 with 24,000 students today, Bloomberg is further experimenting with ideas that will come to revolutionize education in America. Results vary for charter schools in NYC but are overwhelmingly positive. Education is the single most important issue in local politics and should remain so due to its unique ability to influence other issues (i.e., crime, housing, public financing, and the economy). Only by closing the achievement gap will our society regain a leadership position in primary and secondary education. Michael Bloomberg has arguably made the most significant contributions to making New York City’s schools a model for other urban school systems.

Redefining Ethnic Food

Growing up, I remember thinking a gyro or shrimp fried rice was ethnic. That was in the suburbs.

Having lived in six distinct metropolitan areas in the past eight years and visited countless more, I can safely say that my opinions on what constitutes excellent food and what may seem weird or strange to some might be perfectly normal to another.

It is in that spirit which my friend Kat and I are exploring new culinary ventures in NYC and beyond, sharing our experiences, and telling you how you can participate. Join us as we redefine ethnic food over at Weird Food Club NYC

Suppon stew (Tokyo)