42nd Street

The shopping season is over, thank goodness. Traffic was congested, the Malls were congested, even my sinuses were congested. It's tough finding the perfect present when you have a long list of family and friends. Despite the crowds, the time limits, and all the spending - I had to be thankful I wasn't in New York shopping over the holidays. They have traffic in spades, what with the cars, the cabbies, the tourists and the ghosts of Broadway hovering over the city.

There was Tevia in Bloomingdales, with his credit cards on the counter and his hands up in the air, wailing and singing.....If I were a rich man. Over at Macy's, definitely......the sun will come out tomorrow, as Daddy Warbucks shopped for Little Orphan Annie. Some people are just hard to buy for. Marion the Librarian didn't want those 76 trombones and as Julie Andrews told Rex Harrison - no gifts darling but.... I could have danced all night. Outside on Fifth Avenue, there was Curley and Laurey..... in a surrey with the fringe on top. And there was still one shopper in a taxi 2 blocks away belting this out the window....Get ready for me, world, 'cause I'm a comer, I simply gotta march - my hearts a drummer, Nobody, no nobody is gonna rain on my parade.....

Where is that elusive perfect gift? Like every girl, some of my favorite things are..... brown paper packages tied up with strings. And who doesn't love a perfectly square box with a fabulous red bow? Why it's just.....loverly. My best gift? It wasn't .....bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens this year. My best gift, as it turns out, came wrapped in a man's woolen suit and a bright copper tie.