Greetings from New York!

As David Letterman calls it, the greatest city in the world.

I'm in New York City visiting friends and reveling in the glory that is High School Musical 3: Senior Year. My friend Renee and I love the High School Musical series. When we found out the end of the trilogy would be released in theaters, we agreed to see it together rather than dragging people kicking and screaming to see it. It was absolutely amazing. The boys are back. Sharpay was ridiculous. Ryan was adorable. Troy was full of angst. Oh, and don't worry - I'm not judging you just because you haven't seen it yet.

Here's a few things that are different between DC and NYC:

1. DC is shorter. Manhattan is the home of the skyscraper, while DC is "the American Paris" with a sprawl of low buildings. There's several reasons for Washington's midget status. The short story is that it is illegal to build a building taller than the Capitol Building (289 ft). The longer story is here.

2. The Metro is cleaner. That's just a fact. That said, the subway has far better hours so you generally *don't* end up stranded the way you can in DC.

3. How to cross the street is a regional thing. At Cornell, it is the cultural expectation that pedestrians will prance out into the road at will, without looking - ever - and that cars will stop. It's death defying, but it almost always works well. In NYC, "waiting to cross" involves getting about halfway out into the first lane and eyeballing the traffic in a tough guy sort of way. No cars? Continue. Cars? Stand still - they'll miss you. This is not the case in DC: stepping too far off the sidewalk ends with people staring at you. This includes DRIVERS, who may actually stop their cars and wait for you to get back in your place. I've had this happen at least twice. In DC, it's best to stand on the sidewalk and mind your place until it's time to cross. More or less.

4. The words. In Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how everything ultimately has one word that describes it better than anything else. DC's word is Power. The city vibrates with it and spits it out all across the country and the world stage. At the same time, DC residents and representatives are struggling to get the same power as their 50 state counterparts.

I don't know what New York's word is. I always want to say Culture, but that's not it. What name goes to the city that consciously effects the lives of billions? Washington's got the power to change every life on Earth, but people generally don't pay it *that* much attention to it. But everyone pays attention to NYC. To the culture, the cool, the style, the entertainment. Most people want to be a part of NYC in some way, even if only as a tourist. So what do you call that? Synthesis? Popular? Pull?