New York Snake Dance

Wonderful weekend in New York hooking up with a bunch of terrific bloggers but I have to describe this utterly mysterious thing that happened at dinner at The Oyster Bar.

First you have to visualize one section of the restaurant that has large horse-shoe-shaped counters -- about four of them. This is the most fun place to plop down and get a bowl of clam chowder or oyster stew. I like the UNSTUFFY feeling of the counter area, as opposed to the fancy-schmancy dining room seating. Each of these horse-shoe shaped counters holds about 12 people up one side and another 12 down the other. When the restaurant is in full swing, they are always packed and just like you would in any diner, you have to stand around patiently and HOPE to get a seat, or if you're really lucky, two seats together or if you're talking total miracle, three seats together.

I hadn't thought about this when I suggested dinner there on Saturday night with a bunch of bloggers. It was probably a dreadful choice as a venue, but I didn't really care, I just wanted to go there.

When we got there, there was one big problem right away. Out of the 4 counter areas -- 3 were closed. That meant we could only pray to sit in about 24 available seats and guess what, NOT ONE WAS AVAILABLE. Strangely, once we decided not to worry about it, everyone made a trip to the rest rooms and then returned, there were 2 seats available. Even more strangely, suddenly a few more seats opened up, exactly the number we needed and they opened up right next to our other 2 friends who'd snagged seats.

The plot thickens as three more bloggers arrive, I gulp ... and damned if three more seats didn't miraculously open at the far end of the snake chain of bloggers, just in the right place at the right time. Stranger and stranger.

Then one more blogger -- and this one on crutches -- so we really needed a seat, just one. And guess what -- yes, one more opened.

Two guys popped up towards the end of the meal, just as I was leaving and leaving two open seats. It was the most peculiar thing.

Great to see everyone. Thanks for coming down, up, over, across the river, over the border, wherever you hailed from. Sorry I couldn't stay long and late, but let's figure it was just a first meet-and-greet with many more to follow.