Notes by the Rube: The stretch of 57th Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh is probably the most gilded in Manhattan, the Rube decided after a visit there yesterday to test out his new camera.*

It may be that the Crown Building, perhaps the most gilded in New York, has had that effect on its neighbors. It reminds him of visiting Longwood Gardens -- the homes nearby have especially nice landscaping, as if they feel they have to live up to being near the Gardens. And an enterprising gilding salesman might starting working on the remaining building owners -- "don't you feel your building is a little conspicuous by its lack of gilding?"

1-jpg and 2-jpg are two of the stores in this building full of picture windows. In 3-jpg, yesterday's subject, 57W. 57th St., is visible just beyond this building.

_________________

*It is a Canon G5, quite similar to his trusty G2, only with one extra megapixel and with 4x zoom instead of 3x. So far he is quite happy with it ... not that you get that much more detail to work with (there are limits to what a point-and-shoot camera lens can resolve), but it reminds him of when he switched from the Trak 2 to the Mach 3 razor -- or maybe it's like when you shave with Edge Gel instead of foam. And then you rub the credit card across your face, and you don't hear anything on the Edge side. Yeah, that's it.