Ah, we are back to our blogging roots after an invigorating drive up the New Jersey Turnpike, which, in its ability to inspire, is second only to Rockville Pike. (That strip of asphalt that hugs Newark Airport, with those Continental jets streaming in one after another, gets my heart racing every time.)

And then, after stewing in the sauna of the congested Lincoln Tunnel, onward into Manhattan, where after a few seemingly hopeless trips around the block, we are offered a reward...