With the traffic and the noise and the crowd and the smells and transit and subway platforms and rush hour and stress and steel and glass and concrete and potholes and manholes and red lights and stop signs and taxis and schedules and unions and bad news and politics and budgets and law enforcement and parking tickets and garbage and rats and dog shit and Wall Street and Ground Zero and David Letterman and super-achievers and opportunity and BCBG and organic food and dying Haitians and rescued Chilean miners and the making of Boerewors, I sometimes lose sight of the fact that while we live in a gigantic hypermegapolis, New York can also be these: dark alleys, fallen leaves, warm moody lamplights and not a cat in sight…