Kiss and Jell: Had an eventful day yesterday, enjoying New York City with friends. Sometimes I have to remind myself how fortunate I am to live right next to the greatest city in the world. It's so easy to take it for granted. Of course, I'm blessed to have wonderful friends as well...

First, I met Jonathan Leaf, John Appelbaum, and Caren Lissner for brunch at Quantum Leap, a Village veggie eatery that I've patronized since my NYU days. At my request, Jon told Caren the story of his being a two-time champion on the short-lived, Dick-Clark-hosted game show The Challengers". (The image above, showing the categories from the April Fool's Day episode of "The Challengers," is from the show's unofficial home page.)

After brunch, Caren went home to work on revisions of her second novel, under a self-imposed deadline. (She had good reason to be assiduous, as her first novel, as-yet-unpublished, has been optioned for a theatrical film or TV movie.) John, Jon, and I headed for Twelfth Street Books. We stayed there a good long while, leaving with heavier bags and lighter wallets. Jon then went to meet a friend, leaving me to introduce John to the wonders of the Strand.

Since the Strand usually doesn't have much to offer by my favorite authors–G.K. Chesterton, J.M. Barrie, Philip K. Dick–I'd forgotten how amazing it must seem to someone who has wider literary tastes. John made a beeline for the "W" section in fiction and was blown away by the selection of Evelyn Waugh. Since I'd never read Waugh, he thoughtfully purchased me a copy of Black Mischief (to which he himself had been introduced by Jonathan Leaf).

In the early evening, John and I parted, and I went to the Film Forum to meet another friend, John Guterman. Come this fall, I'll have known Guterman for 20 years, ever since I was a high-school freshman and he was a sophomore. He's married now, with a young son, but every so often his wife holds the fort so he can go see a vintage film. (She prefers more recent fare.) On this occasion, it was Billy Wilder's Cold War comedy "One, Two, Three". I'd never seen it before, and it was hilarious, especially the famous "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" (sic) torture scene.

Jonathan Leaf had told me about a party that night to benefit the Inverse Theater Company, so I suggested to John Guterman that we check it out after the movie. It was at the old Show World theater complex by the Port Authority, which now has signs outside boasting (or, more likely, apologizing) "No Live Girls". Neither John nor I had ever been there before, so it was a strange experience to ascend the stairs above the video room (which is still in business) to the former live-girl area, which is now used for "legitimate theater" and parties. The decor was suitably seedy–red walls accented by small black and mirrored tiles–but the dancers' poles were gone (at least, as far as I could see).

John offered to buy me a drink, but cringed when I told him what I wanted: club soda with a splash of cranberry. "I can't order that," he protested. It was funny, because Caren had just let me read the first few chapters of her new novel, and they contained a scene where a guy orders a cranberry juice at a bar, braving "a strange look" from the bartender. I admit that I had thought, when reading it, that there was no reason why, in real life, such a drink order should put the patron's manhood in peril, but John made it clear that this was so.

A tall (to this petite powerhouse, anyway) woman offered to sell me a ticket to the hourly raffle. She ran down the list of the hour's prizes, noting that they included "six months' free Web hosting".

"Thanks," I said, "but the thing is, I already have Web hosting."

"That's what everyone's saying," she pouted. She was cute. Her name was Jessica and she confessed to being an actress in Inverse's plays, but was very modest about it. When I complimented her about being able to manage the Inverse playwrights' tongue-twisting Elizabethan-style prose, she said that she didn't get to do much of that, having thus far landed only character roles.

Pretty and outgoing, she struck me as someone who, in an earlier age, would have made a good comedienne, like Barbara Nichols as the cigarette girl in Sweet Smell of Success or Lilo Pulver as Ingeborg in One, Two, Three. I told her that and she took the compliment graciously, though she added that she wished she had landed the role of Juliet in a recent production of "Romeo and Juliet". As it was, she got called back for the part of the Nurse, a fact which surprised me. I mean, the Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet" is supposed to be old and dumpy. I could picture Jessica as a nurse only on "The Benny Hill Show".

Other than the redeeming presence of Jessica as well as Messrs. Guterman, Leaf, and Appelbaum, the party was overall a surprisingly dull affair. I admit that I had actually looked forward to the "Kissing Booth" that was promised in the party's invitation. There was indeed a booth with a sign promising "$3=YUM!" and "$5=HOT!" Unfortunately, the only man in said booth was a guy named Frank [I don't know why, but, after a day with Jo(h)ns, that seemed an singularly unappealing name] who sported a bandana over his head and what my mother would call a jelly-jar beard. (You know: he looked like he had stuck his face in the jelly jar.)