The Wall Street Bull

And the 'Dive Bar'

    For every weight there is a counter-weight, apparently, so while India and some of the other ‘big’ teams appear to have favourable itineraries in this immensely, logistically complex tournament, others have drawn shorter straws.

    While Oman, Uganda, Papua New Guinea and Nepal might keep their mouths shut, Sri Lanka, as previous winners, might have reason to speak up. As mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana did after his country’s whopping loss to South Africa in their opening game on Long Island.

Careful not make excuses for being bowled out for 77, Theekshana did point out a few practical issues. Whereas South Africa, for example, have settled into their comfortable hotel 20-minutes from the stadium for two weeks and play their first three games there, the Sri Lankans are having a different experience:    

    “Some teams stay in the same place and their hotel is only 15 minutes from the ground. Ours was like, one hour and 40 minutes drive. We have to wake up around 5:00am to come here for the match, then we have to leave after every match because we are playing at four different venues. So yes, it is unfair for us,” Theekshana said.

    The Proteas enjoyed a full day off on Tuesday but security protocols don’t allow them to simply disappear into the city by themselves. A small group was ‘shadowed’ by a burly man with an ear-piece to Times Square and, apparently, a couple of others were given permission to make trips to their chosen destinations.

    Ryan Rickelton was the first to fulfil his ambition of running in Central Park. Others, apparently, may have visited the Empire State Building, or not. One can’t be sure. Security. Others definitely stayed in their hotel rooms and ‘chilled’. The evening was spent at the Yankee Stadium watching a ‘real’ ball-game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins.

Meanwhile, another 20km day in the Big Apple for me. Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Brooklyn Bridge were all on the itinerary but it was Wall Street and the Financial District which most captured me. I was expecting corporate, but not so. The famous ‘Charging Bull’ on Wall Street was fine but not as interesting as the name. Apologies to those who know this, but ‘Wall Street’?

The earliest colonial settlers in the first port, having created their small community, started having ‘problems with the Indians’. Imagine this being explained to you by kind, caring local, as it was to me. “So, they built a wall, literally, from one side of the Island to the other. It was at the southern, narrowest tip but still, it was quite an endeavour for the time.”

    Some of the streets around Soho resembled London’s old cobbles, I suggested to my friend. “That’s because they are from England. When the fur-trade started the ships came empty, so the cobbles were used as ballast which were then used for the earliest streets before they returned to Europe with many thousands of tightly bound furs. Which, of course, ended the ‘problems’ with the Indians, who did much of the hunting, so there was no need for the wall anymore.”

Overcoming the Subway confusion has transformed everything. It is still complicated, but not unfathomable. It allowed me to meet up with my old school friend, Jim, who has lived in New York for 25 years and whom I hadn’t seen for 30 years. It could have been 30 days. It took him three minutes to detect that his posh, bottle-beer and cocktails venue suggestion wasn’t working for me.

“You want to go to a dive bar?” he asked, without lowering his voice. It seems ‘dive’ is no more of an offensive term in these parts than ‘Hicksville’. So off we went to ‘Tom & Jerry’s’, a bar’s bar. Mostly men in shorts and boots, like you see in the movies and American TV sitcoms. It had draft beer and even (suitably tasteless but oddly amusing) heads of a bison, moose and bear on the wall. I ordered a draft because the label looked good and it arrived, unexpectedly, with a lime wedge. It was delicious.

** - This has already been a ‘life memory’ tour. I can’t thank the paid-subscribers enough. A longer term commitment, however small, means I can plan ahead and tolerate short-term debt! And a very special ‘thank you’ to all of you who bought me a coffee (or several) last week. I know who you are and will be in touch soon. Thank You.