I was in New York City today on business. My meetings were good, but draining; they have left me too tired to write anything of much substance. Waiting at La Guardia for the shuttle back to DC, I’m remembering how I spent some spare minutes during the day: gawking at the midtown skyscrapers, admiring the murals in Rockefeller Center and the interior of St. Patrick’s, watching the skyline from Queens, and (best of all) visiting Christie’s auction house. Asian objects were on sale, including Samurai armor, Indian statues from the 2-3rd century AD (carved under heavy Greek influence), and a huge, serene Buddha. The showroom looked exactly like a museum, except that people were handling the objects, peering into the ancient Chinese vases, stroking Khmer statuettes, rotating porcelein busts on their bases–just like the shoppers across the street at Gap.