PARATY, BRAZIL – We’re in Paraty to attend the most important annual literary festival in Brazil: FLIP. The real reason we’re here is to catch up with our old friend Luiz and Lili Schwarcz – Luiz heads Companhia das Letras, a prominent Brazilian publishing house. Here’s a link to Companhia’s blog, which has a piece on the first FLIP (in Portuguese, but you can use one of the “translate this page” services if your Portuguese is rusty): Companhia das Letras blog. Luiz launched the first four titles in a Companhia – Penguin joint venture today – here is Salman Rushdie and his son at the launch event.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – I walked back through Central Park from lunch on 59th Street with a friend. It was absolutely late-July frying hot. Here’s The Mall (sometimes called Poets’ Walk).
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Had lunch with an old friend at Savoy on Prince Street. Here’s a link: Savoy. We had heard that Savoy has a fabulous burger, which turned out to be true. The patty was perfect aged, grass fed beef, not overworked; the brioche bun was just right; it was cooked to perfection. After lunch I spent an hour in Washington Square exploring some of the same themes that I explored in Ecuador.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – A truly beastly day. We’re suffering under a record heat wave in the Northeast. I sought refuge in the shade of the plaza of Lever House and shot passers by against the backdrop of Hello Kitty. Not a good day to be outdoors.
NEW MILFORD CONNECTICUT – I went to Clamps, a roadside burger stand on route 202, for a burger for lunch, arriving just before the 2:00 PM closing, in time to place an order. By the time that I got my wits together to reach for camera the closed sign had gone up.
Clamps is a dying breed: a roadside hamburger stand that’s seasonal, has limited hours and isn’t part of a chain. The following is from Roadfood: “The business card of Clamp’s Hamburger stand says, NO SIGN, NO ADDRESS, NO PHONE, JUST GOOD FOOD. In fact, there is a sign about the size of a license plate on the side of the wood-frame hut: “Clamp’s Est. 1939.” Despite the lack of a billboard and a street address, you will have no trouble finding this place because there are cars and people crowded around any time it’s open … which is late April to early September every day from 11am to 2pm and from 5pm to 8pm.
“Edwin and Sylvia Clamp started the business sixty-six years ago, and now their great-nephew, Tom Mendell, is the boss. Tom told us that since 1939 Clamp’s has never advertised and never had a phone (and therefore was never in the phone book), and while it did have a prominent sign, when the sign blew down in a windstorm back in the 1960s, it was not replaced.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Midday found me in midtown on my way to a lunch date. Here’s one of my favorite spots, the plaza in front of the Seagram Building.
