Yesterday I stood in the middle of the intersection of Whitehall and Pearl, in lower Manhattan just above the Staten Island Ferry terminal, and repeatedly stopped traffic.→[More:]
And not due to my chiseled features or Michelangelic nudity, either.

I spent the last couple days working in production on a commercial shoot for a new Finnish search engine called Hoo-Hoo or something similar, roping off sidewalks, humping stacks of equipment hither and yon, directing pedestrians and vehicles around the location, running around, and generally helping with shit.

We really inconvenienced a lot of people, but I tried, with smiles and big words like "pardon" and "inconvenience," to soften the blow.

It was pretty hard work, but fun and varied and active, so though I'm sore today, I feel terrific.

I ran into four friends over two days, two of them from my old job: people who were on vacation during my last week there and who were completely surprised by my absence. I was immensely happy to see them, and it proved my theory that if you stand on any corner on lower Manhattan long enough, you'll see someone you know.