Dec 27, and I mean it.

So we went to the Met. Even through Ellie's fog, she managed to have a good time, and I was very very pleased to see things of the Ancient World again. There is no doubt that the OBD is the Top Classicist in the house, knowing more Latin and probably more Greek than I did in my prime, but my blood still stirs. There are the wall paintings form Boscoreale , there are gold coins, there are carved gem seals, there are exquisite painted vases





This is the vase featured in Elizabeth Wayland Barber's _Women's Work, the First 20,000 Years_, to which some of you may have heard me refer once or twice. It's less than 10" tall.

there are bronzes


there is the Etruscan chariot I had never ever heard of and it's really good (my pictures are all details, not very useful.

You can see the ivory tusks in the boar's head. This was a classy vehicle.



We eventually ate in the basement cafeteria, which my aunt had warned us against for reasons of her own. It was crowded, but at least there was room to sit and the entrees were under $17. There were small children there, including two brothers of five and three, whose mother had brought them (really just the older one, but the smaller one was part of the package and she had managed to hand off the 16-month old to her mom at home)to an educational undertaking about mummies (get it?), actually ancient Egypt. I have no idea what the kid got out of the presentation, but he and his brother _loved_ the yellow cardboard taxis the French fries were served in. They want to crash them into one another (which I thought was natural NY taxi behavior) but she wouldn't let them. So the eldest made his into a rocket and counted it down and blasted it off. It was pretty good for luncheon theater.

I did go to the gift shop, but there was nothing I could afford/carry that I wanted.

We did not last anywhere near closing time. We folded, and went to stand in line for cheap tickets at TKTS. I am told we were there, on already scandalized feet, for two and half hours. Fortunately I had a couple of socks to knit. Ellie got tea and cash (they do not take credit cards). We had hoped to see a musical, but ended up with Kevin Kline (and Jennifer Garner and the evil prince Humperdinck, or at least the same actor playing much the same role) in Cyrano do Bergerac. The play was translated from the French by Anthony Burgess (Clockwork Orange et al)into mostly blank verse, and the actors did it well. The first three scenes were funny and the last was just so sad, I wanted to swat Cyrano up the head. Kevin Kline is delightful even with nose.

Between waiting for tickets and going to the show we ate cheap, tasty Mexican. Times Square was just as crowded (very, very, very) at 11:30 pm as it was at 5 p.m., which was sort of interesting. City that never sleeps is right.