Physics Experiments are more fun in NYC

I've seen several high school physics experiments going on in the city over the last few days and have to say they are a lot more interesting in New York. IN NC, we would examine gravity and speed, blah, blah, blah through dropping things out of our second or third or occasionally fourth floor window. Here, I've seen two seperate sets of kids dropping certain htings from maybe the 30-40th floor of their apartment building. Yesterday there were three boys gathered on a fire escape down here in SoHo who were "fishing" and got a gay man right on the back of his Lilly Pulitzer? shirt. It was HILARIOUS. He started screaming at them while they apologized between gasping with laughter. I have to admit I chuckled along with other adults who didn't know where the heck a blob of sticky stuff had come from. Wind is a very powerful element here. Really.

Then today I was on my way back from lunch when I noticed the sweeetest old couple sitting on a bench and staring at one of the huge high-rises that popped up in the middle of Greenwich Village. When I looked up I could faintly make out some sort of blue string dangling. Following that down, I saw three kids huddled over a bright blue ball of yarn, one recording notes while the others argued about something scientific. I stopped to watch for a few minutes when suddenly, as if moved by a puley, a shoe started flying up in to the air on a second piece of blue yarn. It was crazy, since th ball had not seemed to move. But that's what happens, apparently, when you set up a lever system that lightweight on a building that tall- it takes a long time for messages to go back and forth.

Kind of made me want to go back to a science class.