Seveth AVenue was closed today.  Well not all of it, just from the high forties to the high fifties--from just north of Times Square to just south of the park, or should I say The Park.

The reason was something called Movie Day Festival, or something like that.  Booths set up selling movie memorabilia, studios giving away tickets to coming movies--basically a celebration of the motion picture.

This is something the industry needs--to generate interest in going to the movies.  But it was far more.

It was a chance to celebrate New York, the city so nice they named it twice.  Thousands of people strolliing up and down the avenue, eating fried things while sipping cold things.

Damn there are a lot of ugly people.  Fat, butt ugly people should not go out in "Wife Beater" t-shirts or shorts so tight that it looks like they've got a stolen turkey stuck in their pants.

But that's them, the average American.  The NASCAR watching souls who are worried about Brad Pitt's disease and whether Courtney Cox is not aging well.

Tucked in among the funnel cake vendors was a financial planning tent--two guys sitting there in lawn chairs hoping somebody would stop by and ask about retirement planning.

I could not resist.  They're with Cadaret Grant, one of those "Indy" deals out of Syracuse--run by an NASD gadfly named Art Grant.  From what I gather it's an OK broker/dealer for those who are jealous of the guys and gals who make it big at the wirehouses.

I did not tell them that I know more than a little about investing, for all they knew I was an upscale tourist who happened to be in town for the weekend.  In any case, they were disinterested in talking with me--acting almost bored that I was interested in what they were doing.

It was hot--over 90 degrees on the pavement--so no doubt they would have rather been somewhere else.  But they weren't, and as the saying goes, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."

I guess they were looking for the glamour in the biz.

If you've never been to a New York street fair you should come to town some summer weekend and take one in.  There are certain things we owe ourselves--a trip to Rome, spending the first Saturday in May in Louisville, going to the World Series, tickets to a Super Bowl, and a funnel cake at a New York street fair.

The best one is yet to come--plan to be in the city any day from September 15th through the 25th for The Feast of San Gennaro on Mulberry Street.  With luck you can see Tony Soprano off somebody.