I'd heard a lot about Macy's, of course, from reading, but apart from the reputation this too was something of a disappointment, being just like any department store at home except that it's bigger and except that smoking was not permitted and I had to stub my cigarette. It's surprising just how these greatly cracked up places, especially stores, do disappoint, though. In London there are both Foyle's and Gamage's, both of which are overrated. From Macy's we looked across at the Empire State Building and I took some more shots. We walked over to this, this... well, how do you describe it? We walked over to it, anyway. And we went in, too. I was a little surprised o find that one had to pay to go to the top of the Building. The price was a dollar thirty, just over nine shillings. Sandy told me that there are 102 floors and that there was an excellent observatory on the eighty-sixth. We took an express elevator. The lifts at home are nothing like this. I don't suppose they have the room to get really started on a fast trip. This car took a few seconds over a minutes to make the 86 floors. The operator, or lift man as we'd call him, suddenly began to chant in a monotone something about a plane crashing into the side of the building, coming through two elevator shafts. The pilot and navigator had fallen to their deaths down the very shaft we were then traveling. I'd heard better hi-fi records but at least this recording could answer questions. I asked how high up this had occurred and was told that the plane crashed through the 72nd floor. Need I add that at that moment we were at the 72ndfloor? The observatory has all the usual tourist attractions, with recording machines, a post-box and souvenir counters. We ignored all these and step- ped outside on to the paved walk. I'm normally not a person to get wildly enthusiastic about the man-made wonders I'm obviously supposed to get en- thusiastic about, but if there ever has been an exception in my life then the Empire State Building is indeed that exception. The view is breathtak- ing. I really enjoyed taking pictures of the different landmarks... the Chrysler Building, Radio City, the famous "Skyline" and the rest. Even I picked out the United Nations Building and I got a kick out of pointing out the Queen Mary which was to sail back to Southampton the following day, and the S.S. United States which was docked close by. I imagined that the children at school back home would be quite pleased with the films I was taking and I regretted that I would not have Sandy alongside me when show- ing them. He made an excellent guide, a walking encyclopedia. At the time I did half think of coming back up to the top of the Building tho following morning to get some shots of the Mary sailing by, but needless to say I never carried this through. Sandy and I had promised Pat that we would get back for dinner so we traversed our route. Afterwards Shel Deretchin, the London WorldCon's "Boy Ugh," dropped in and by indulging in some brilliant mathematic calculation he and Sandy decided to show me Greenwich Village. We drove down in Sandy's car. The Village is a weird place. I have heard of areas having their own decisive personalities, but I've never felt that such a per- sonality could be as tangible as that of Greenwich Village.