Postcards · August 22, 2025

A visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York turns to be more interesting than expected—part security theater, part mid-century optimism, part global committee meeting, and part symbolic art installation. Beneath the bureaucracy and contradictions, the UN still runs on one stubborn premise—that countries should keep talking.

Dispatches · August 19, 2025

A guided tour through Roosevelt Island and Central Park revealed New York at its most layered—aerial tram, smallpox ruins, asylum history, Nellie Bly’s legacy, banana pudding, Bethesda Terrace, model boats, the Ramble, and Belvedere Castle…a not-quite-full-day tour with full-day density.

Postcards · August 18, 2025

A behind-the-scenes tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral starts in fluorescent-lit offices and a surprisingly modest crypt before opening into the familiar grandeur upstairs. Along the way, a quiet chapel, a Lebanese saint, and a Haitian hairdresser complicate expectations about what belongs—and who earns a place—in one of New York’s most recognizable spaces.

Postcards · August 14, 2025

A visit to New York City Hall reveals a building that presents a carefully arranged version of the city’s history—confident, polished, and occasionally a bit convenient. Look a little closer, and the details start to shift, revealing something more layered beneath the surface.

Postcards · July 28, 2025

A full circumnavigation of Manhattan aboard the Circle Line turns out to be more than a tourist cruise. Seen from the water, the island’s skyline, bridges, neighborhoods, and rivers suddenly make geographic sense—revealing New York not just as a collection of famous buildings but as a physical landscape.

Postcards · March 14, 2025

We signed up for a small group tour to Celestún mostly because the timing worked and the weather looked decent. Also, I was promised flamingos…