Yeah, I know we're still early and all that, but still...

I'm sitting in a place called Solid State Coffee, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. I have heard about it for a while. Today I had occasion to kill a few hours in NYC, so I took a (long) walk over to 71st near Columbus Avenue to check it out. It was a pleasant walk. I passed Columbus Circle.

I even tried this old classic New York joke set up line on a cop during the walk over:

"Hey, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

I hoped to get the proper response:

"Practice, practice, practice."

But no. All he said was that he didn't always work around there and didn't know.

I passed Lincoln Center. It was a long walk and I didn't have much time. I finally arrived. It's a below ground, unassuming place, but very nice.

I ordered a black coffee and immediately said I wanted to pay in bitcoin. The pleasant young woman behind the counter looked very confused. She asked the guy next to her, who was the manager, if they accepted bitcoin. He looked at me and said "Yeah, we sometimes can, but the bitcoin machine is broken."

No, I am not making this up. I didn't bother to protest. I was too demoralized.