Lunch time, at 3:45pm. After intense deliberation as I walked back from 14th St. station (got on the wrong train), I decided that one can't go wrong with chicken chow fun at Asian Express. As it turns out, apparently one can. The noodles have been cut stumpy short and clump together to form a texture reminiscent of goo. While the noodles aren't swimming in oil, there is a slight taste of cleaning liquid with every mouthful. Just a hint. It is comforting, I suppose, that they use cleaning liquid at least somewhere in the restaurant. Ugh. The wonton soup was wholly disappointing too. Should've stuck to my trusty pita and cereal. Still, as even new habits die hard, those Cantonese-speaking folks so conveniently located across the street will watch me come crawling back the next time I need a fix of pseudo-Chinese food. And they will try to hide their smirks.

I was just reading about New York's most expensive private school in some e-newsletter I don't remember signing up for. The Dalton School, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, charges a stupefying $30,650-31,200 a year in tuition (lower bracket for K-3; upper for 4-12) for the 2007-2008 academic year. This is compared to $32,160 at Penn (undergraduate; tuition only). Think about it for a second. I don't know how common it is for a Dalton kid to go from K-12, but the parents of one such kid would be shelling out well over half a million dollars in tuition alone for their child's education, if financial aid does not come into the picture. To get into 4th grade or higher, writing samples, interviews, and standardized tests are all part of the application process, making it very much like applying for college. Poor kids, or not so poor. In sum, this is simply ridiculous. In a city where most public schools are underfunded and falling apart and deeply in need of resources, that such flagrant lavishness should exist just seems so wrong. Of course, the inequity is not just in education (although that is both caused by and leads to--perpetuates--other inequalities) but everywhere else as well, and this can be so clearly and literally seen in New York City... More later.