Sunday, 08 December 2002 | In New York

You can engage in silly behavior on the sidewalk, and no one seems to take notice. You can pass a vintage store near your house and be invited to a private party where you meet a bunch of people who happen to be from Memphis. You can have nothing to do but decide to go out anyway, and end up spending a few hours trading stories with the trumpet player in Sting's band. You can walk a few feet up one of the cables on the Brooklyn Bridge, and no one tells you to get down. You can walk into a bar you've never been in before and discover that the bartender is from North Carolina and knows several of your friends from Raleigh. You can decide you want to buy a pair of earmuffs, and, within two minutes, walk past a vendor selling earmuffs. You can go to a different part of the city every day, and, still, the portion you know is only a fraction of the portion you don't. You can take the subway at midnight on a Sunday night and have lots of company from all over the world.