New York Geography Lesson

Riding a cab from Kennedy Airport to Manhattan this morning, I got an insight into New York geography. On the back of the front seat, there's a Manhattan map, showing all the neighborhoods--Greenwich Village, Times Square, Morningside Heights, but Even Spanish Harlem and Yorkville, the works.

Except for that area right below Murray Hill, starting at (I'm working from memory now) about 34th Street, and going down five-six blocks until you get to Gramercy--there's nothing: zero, nada, zip. It's a super-gravity zone that sucks everything in behind it.

We regard this as unfair because it is the home, inter alia, of one really fine neighborhood-style sushi restaurant: that would be Mishima on Lexington just below 31st. As to a neighborhood name, though, I supose the best you can do is Curry Hill, authorized by the New York Times, after Curry in a Hurry, where, come to think of it, the cabbies hang out. But I guess you wouldn't want to share this kind of profesional information inside the cab.