Quote for the day

Want to multiply your life? Then divide yourself from people of subtraction, and surround yourself with people of addition.

Gotta love a Kiwi fan!

From today's NZ Herald. Click through to read the story about arguably the staunchest Kiwi fan of them all.

Photo: Hawkes Bay Today

"It's not a perfect world Brucey"...

If any reader's interested in Grant Dalton's press conference hot on the heels of the New York Supreme Court's decision affirming the validity of BMW Oracle's Deed of Gift Challenge for the America's Cup against Alinghi - click here.

New Terms for 2008

Let me know how many of these you hear/use or get in one sentence...feel free to enter your entry in the Comments section!..

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)!!!

1. BLAMESTORMING - Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

6. PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8. SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9. STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10. SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11. XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12. IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message '404 Not Found,' meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17. OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

18. WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING:Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.

New York, Part 2

In New York for the weekend last month at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and I had the chance to grab some sights on my final morning in town...a sleepy Sunday morning in the slow-to-rise, late-night-centric Lower East Side.

For the second morning in a row the highlight was breakfast...as it should be for any self-respecting foodie!

I happened on this tiny cafe on Hester Street near Chinatown called Brown on my way back from the World Trade Center site.

What started as a biodynamic catering company, Green, Brown and Orange (an event company, Cafe and epicerie, respectfully), had obviously become something of a local institution.

I was the first to arrive at 9, and in the quiet half hour spent eating and reading the papers everyone who trickled through the door knew everyone else, and the staff, including the super cool French dude with his blonde haired, modelesque wife and cute blonde, toast soldier-eating toddler...
The place captures the perfect laidback sophistication of the new downtown, from the rustic yet elegant baked eggs and lashings of proscuito to the minimalist plywood walls.

Heading towards Manhattan Bridge...as if we need reasons!

Under the Manhattan Bridge looking towards Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Bridge

Outside Paddy's apartment - not sure about the faux LV seat cover!Streetscape on Norfolk
Until next trip...

Why we don't have a cat

New York, New York...

Last month I got to hang out in New York for the weekend, as I attended the opening week of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week helping out our sister agency who works with MB on all their event programs. I'll split these into two posts - one on NYC and one on FW. Here's to NYC....

Stayed Chez Patrick Jnr on his groovy couch in his Lower East Side apartment. Tres cool neighborhood and he's got the place sorted...

His "loud" (!) apartment building stands out amidst the relatively low-rise Lower East Side neighborhood.

Let me start with the absolute highlight of the weekend - doughnuts at Doughnut Plant - one block from his front door (in fact that's his cool, architecturally shaped apartment under the street lights from inside doughnut heaven).

Doughnut Plant is a tiny shop selling the most exquisite glazed and cake doughnuts - EVER! I happened upon it after reading about the place in Hip New York, via Paddy's coffee table. My early Saturday morning visit elicited a lovely conversation on the joys of food with the delightful guy behind the counter. They're passionate about the quality of their ingredients, their organic, unbleached flour, and natural products - meyer lemons, Valhrona chocolate, and Tahitian vanilla bean flavorings.

They make everything from scratch - including their jelly fillings and the divine urn of Valhrona hot chocolate that simmered on the counter and warmed my insides. What started out as a small family venture is now a thriving wholesale business and shopfront, beloved by such foodies including Martha and Emeril, and now Maria!
The Liquor Bar is at the other end of Paddy's street - his local bistro - with a great wine list..and ambiance...a former pharmacy turned bistro - with the glazed white tiles still intact on the walls.
Across the street, and the venue for an evening nightcap one night - was the Back Room where cocktails are served in a tea cup. You won't find it unless you look for a sign that reads The Lower East Side Toy Company. Pass through the gate, walk down an alleyway and up a set of stairs to find a dimly lit den fitted with a gleaming bar. Apparently a trick bookcase leads to the real “back room,” a VIP-only lounge.

Rockafeller Plaza

St Patricks Cathedral on Madison Ave

The giant 16,000 square foot subterranean Buddakan restaurant that Paddy took me to in the meat-packing district

My favorite building - the Chrysler - amidst the grey winterly light of New York

A little ambush marketing, outside the Bryant Park venue for Fashion Week

The New York Yacht Club - tried to get in, but they weren't having it!...(apparently it didn't mean much to the receptionist that I'd given up the better part of the 7 years of my career to the America's Cup - and it was a Saturday...!)

I didn't have enough time between shows to visit Moma - other than the bookstore and the very cool foyer
The new LV store on 5th
...and the cool glass atrium entrance to the underground Apple store opposite Central Park
The coolest window styling is at Barneys
My favorite paper...
My late night solo dinner (after a late night at the shows) at Katz...home of the famous scene from When Harry Met Sally...
Matzo ball soup and a brisket sandwich - tres NYC!


Not sure if these two photos will appear side by side in everyone's viewer, but here's the Twin Towers site - the enormity of the hole is emphasized by one of the remaining towers on the site on the left of the photo.
The site was incredibly hard to photograph as it was surrounded by high walls and I got there too early in the morning, before the visitor center was open. These few shots were taken through a hole in the chain link fence....


A bronze mural on the wall of a firehouse right across the street.
By strange and moving coincidence this small, antique church and graveyard is right across the street from the World Trade Center site. St Paul's is one of the oldest churches in NYC and was left unscathed. It became the center of some of the main ministries that were put in place after the tragedy. It's a haunting oasis...

More tomorrow!