Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. Those engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking is a British term and is found throughout the world. In the United States the term busking is not as widely known, and so buskers there are more commonly called street performers or street musicians.

So, that explains it, and now I can understand Xander.

Tim, thanks as always for your kind comments. Turning 30 has been fun so far (not very different than 29). You are a sweetheart and I appreciate you! I am stocking up on Adult Diapers though.

Adam, as you saw in the vlog, the Plaza was definitely in flux. Michael and I joked about buying a condo there. They were actually pretty reasonably priced for NYC! Very cool about your Great-grandfather…I love hearing those type of anecdotes about immigrants, but that one is especially neat. Michael’s Dad immigrated from Italy when he was a boy and the stories about what he went through are intriguing to me.

I climbed to the top of the statue with my boy scout troop when I was about 8 years old. It was a lot of work but the view was awesome and being inside the statue was very surreal. My great grandfather, who was a blacksmith and immigrated to the US from Italy, worked on the statue’s arm and torch section when it was re-constructed in the US.

On a more happy note, congratulations to the little birthday boy! From personal experience I can honestly say that 20 sucked, 30 was okay, but 40 was by far the best. 50 is just around the corner now, so I’ll let you know how it goes in a few months. Christ — I’m an antique!

Justin, you’re still pretty, even at the ripe old age of thirty. With any luck, you probably still have a couple years before you’ll have to invest in absorbent adult undergarments. So enjoy your “thirties”, they’ll probably last at least ten years.

I also see what you mean about the younger generation’s (dear lord, I actually now a generation beneath me!) attitude to security checks. To be fair, I probably would have been just as enthralled by the bomb-detector when I was that age (that said, I probably still would be… a little, childish part of me *still* likes to pretend that some airports and train-stations are spaceports…). The interesting thing will be to see whether they accept the encroachment on privacy when they grow up, or if they will become as irked as the rest of us.