And all I got was this bottle of seltzer.

Had to make a rare appearance in New York City proper recently. Land of my birth. Home of my education. Birthplace of my career. Bleah.

I have to say it was fascinating. You want infrastructure improvements? I'll give you infrastructure improvements.

The construction was wildly evident, by which I mean every move was a major inconvenience. New York, as they say, will be nice if they ever finish it.

What you see above took me by surprise. The old, terrifyingly narrow Goethals Bridge now looks like that. Until recently, and for ninety-odd years, it looked like this:

Not only have they re-engineered the arch, but they're building a second bridge right next to it. One will go into Staten Island, the other will go into New Jersey. Meanwhile, the lanes are still so narrow that you figure one rainy-day bonk and you're sailing into Newark Bay. My knuckles have always been white on that bridge.

I had an appointment, but because I expected delays, I had left very early. So I had a little time to waste beforehand. I stopped in one of those great urban supermarkets and got a souvenir.

Genuine city seltzer! Nah, probably
bottled in Canada.

Key Food, headquartered on Staten Island, is one of those chains that is not known much outside its home town, but continues to hum along while larger chains sink. It was founded in 1937, when A&P ruled the land with an iron fist. While Pathmark, Pantry Pride, Waldbaum's, and others went under, including A&P, Key Food stayed afloat. In fact, they have 212 locations, and bought upscale chain Food Emporium. In 2015, they added 23 defunct A&P-owned stores.

A&P's downfall is famous and almost biblical. Sometimes it pays to be the little spunky guy instead of the big bruiser.

So those were the trappings of my return to the big city. I was home by lunchtime. I should have picked up a sandwich at the Key Food deli, but when I was a kid a friend of mine worked that same deli counter and --- let's just say he made me very wary of deli counters run by teenagers.