Planet of the Grapes

81st Street & Central Park West The American Museum of Natural History (cue Intelligent Design joke) knows how to wow. It greets its front-door visitors with a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton (or as creationists call it, “Untitled Bone Sculpture”). The visitors then embark on a journey of plexi-glass and fossils, taking them back through time [...]

629 6th Avenue and 19th Street The Container Store is an organizer’s nocturnal emission, offering a very insightful angle in the commercial world our economy relies on. Where other stores try to sell devices, gadgets and all sorts of “things,” The Container Store sells you a way to store those many things you have undoubtedly [...]

50th Street and 5th Avenue Why not give the chains a chance? We did, and we found they’re called chains for a reason. Banana Republic is a respectable enough outfit, but its restrooms are still bush league. After all, everyone knows it’s just a suped-up Gap. When we visited one restroom it downright stunk, olfactorily [...]

1230 5th Ave. at 104th Street When an establishment contains multiple bathrooms, it often is handing their customers a two-edged sword. The second or even third bathroom presents a choice, and hopefully some diversity. On the other hand, with every choice comes a question. Where is the upstairs bathroom? Why is this particular bathroom less [...]

Parts Unknown The main bathroom in Yahdderman’ home was hilighted recently, and now two other members of this organization must turn the looking glass on themselves, exposing all the glory and all the sorrow that comes when one stands face to face with his own reality. They live together and call their apartment “Pharaoh’s Landing,” [...]

34th Street & Broadway We had to, of course, save Macy’s for December. It’s the only department store the real Santa actually visits (at least that’s what we were told when kids—hiring a guy with a real beard goes far. Hiring a guy with real prison experience doesn’t). This entry features the facilities in the [...]

30 Rockefeller Plaza- 50th Street btwn. 5th and 6th Avenues For those of you outside of New York, the Top of the Rock is not a VH1 countdown, but rather, the top decks of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a very tall building. You essentially pay $17.50 per adult (less for children and seniors, unless you’re throwing [...]

42nd Street & Fifth Avenue It’s sometimes hard to find a little peace and quiet at this place, the irony of which is astounding. No doubt due to its (ill-founded) repute as the best place in the area for the toilet, we found it difficult even to take a photograph there owing to the high [...]

10 Columbus Circle, intersection of Broadway, 8th Ave. Central Park West and Central Park South When the shopping complex at Columbus Circle, aptly titled “The Shops At Columbus Circle,” premiered in 2003, it was greeted with much hullabaloo and for a certain type (the type with no imagination), became the place to be. Granted, there [...]