Arriving in New York City and David Letterman

We arrived in New York City about 1:15 PM yesterday.

The problem I had was we had a friend arrange for some David Letterman tickets and we had to be down at the Ed Sullivan theater by 3:00 pm sharp.

Dominic, from Club Sea Ray fame, knew someone who knew someone who could get us these tickets. However, to get them, I had to follow these special instructions:


Here's the scoop on the Letterman tickets.

You have to be there promptly at 3:00PM. You go to the back/side entrance. The Ed Sullivan Theater's main entrance in on 52nd street. You need to go to the back/service entrance on 53rd Street between 8th Avenue and Broadway...it's closer to B'way right next to the Hello Deli show. Go in the side entrance and there will be a security guard there. Tell the security guard there that you are there to see Mr. B. Introduce yourselves to Mr. B and let him know that you are guest of Mr. G. Mr. G is the Deputy Director of the (important thing omitted). You and Susie will be escorted in.

"Mr. B" and "Mr. G" are these funky italian names that end in vowels but I changed them here. So Susie and I dock the boat at Liberty Landing which is across from Manhatten and change clothes and go to the water taxi pickup:
Susie is all smiles…

When I was checking in at the marina, a guy hailed Liberty Landing Marina and said he had a 50 foot Sea Ray and his port engine had gone dead and he had oil all over his bilge. As we left on the water taxi, I think this was the guy:

Ramming speed:
Ha! A boat like mine… Welcome to the “bad hose” club buddy.

We get over by Battery Park and hop in a cab:

And off to 53rd and 8th we go… We get out down by the theater and I have to memorize these names: The front of the theater is packed with people wanting to get in and get tickets… but we go down the back alley: And find “Hello Deli”.
There is this side service entrance and we go in and tell the two security guards who we are and we need to speak to Mr. B. I thought Mr. B was a fake/code name (his real name is not Mr. B but I’m not going to divulge my source) but they call the guy on the radio and he comes in. I speak my lines and he reaches in his pocket and peels off two tickets and gives them to Susie and I.
He tells us to wait by the door. About 10 minutes go by… and they are filming all around us for a Deli part on the show… and then Susie goes and asks one of the security guards where we should go and he says “Out front with everyone else.” Susie says “but Mr. B told us to wait here.” The security guy says “OH!!! No… You can come with me!” and he talks and talks and talks and escorts us in and sits us dead center in the front row on the balcony. He says “These are the best seats.” Holy crap! VIP treatment. We went in about 3:00 and Paul Schaufer and the CBS Orchestra was practicing and that was really GREAT! The only people in the place was us and another couple for about an hour watching them get ready for the show and practice. We are not allowed to take pictures but when no one was looking, I did.
And the band “Low and Diamond” going through their song they would play at the end.Some other “special guests” sitting at Dave’s desk for pictures: That was truly an awesome experience. The show was pretty good. Kevin Costner was on we all learned “What you should not poke” on the show.

Came back to the boat and Philippe was on the bow yaking on his phone and didn't want me to hear what he was saying to his little girlfriend,

Ate dinner at a restaurant at the marina, watched some fireworks and went to bed… exhausted…

Tonight we go see “Wicked”… And Dominic wants me to buy his boat fuel for the rest of the summer...