New York state of mind...

But I'm takin' a Greyhound down the Hudson River line; I'm in a New York state of mind...

I'm tempted to blame this on Pete Hamill.

Really I should blame it on my co-worker Emily. She just got back.

Whatever the case, I'm in a New York state of mind.

Haven't been to the big city since 2002. Well, other than through the pages of the Times, Daily News and Post. But I've got the itch again.

It's partially Hamill's fault. His excellent "North River," which I reviewed last week, is a loving ode to a New York that is long passed gone. Now, I'm reading "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning," all about that horrible, wonderful summer of 1977. Disco and Reggie Jackson aside, it must have been a heck of a trip.

I won't have any time off until after Christmas. Maybe then. Maybe.

Until then, I'll have to be content to do New York through the pages of the tabloids, through the words of its writers and through the green fields of imagination.

Pardon me, though, while I cue up Billy Joel on the iPod...