Manhattan Monday

- Manhattan's famed 2nd Avenue Deli has reopened - on Third Avenue. The restaurant family's patriach, Abe Lebewohl, was murdered in 1996 in a robbery that remains unsolved. His nephew Jeremy is the co-owner of the new location. I can personally vouch for their spectacular corned beef and pastrami sandwich.

- Cabbies are continuing to thwart the new credit card system which sent them on strike earlier this year. Three out of five cab rides I had this weekend had "out of order" signs on their machines.

- Central Park's annual bird count showed the highest number of species and individual birds ever. "The largest flocks spotted were white-throated sparrows, European starling, and herring gull. Large numbers of mallards ducks, house sparrows, and Canada goose were also spotted."

- Whole Foods ignited a craze this summer with their $15 "designer" reusable shopping bags. But why stop there? Stella McCartney is selling a grocery bag for $465 and Hermes has one for $960. This story is a few months old, but I mention it now because yesterday I saw a woman shopping the Food Emporium with her Chanel grocery bag stuffed with cabbage. Crazy.

- Bond No.9, a company "devoted to bottling the smells inspired by New York City," today released their new fragrance, "Andy Warhol's Silver Factory". Who wants to smell like a dead artist? The living ones can be bad enough. (I kid, I kid.)

- The feds raided Al Sharpton's Harlem office on Thursday, wielding subpeonas in their investigation of whether he lied on his 2004 application requesting federal matching funds for his presidential campaign. Sharpton says he's innocent of lying. Tawana!
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