DailyHeights

Prospect Heights to Newark: I paid the driver from International Car Service on Washington Avenue $61 ($45 plus tolls both way and tip) to go from front door to terminal. The car picked me up at 5 am and there was virtually no traffic, so the trip took maybe 35 minutes. (So that’s like, $2 per minute).

On the way back I took the advice of Candicissima (ideas! She’s all about ideas, that gal) and took a $6.50 train ride to NJ-Penn Station, where I got a $3 PATH ticket ($1.50 if you have exact change) to the World Trade Center station, pictured (what are all those funky giant nuts-n-bolts sticking out of the wall at a 45-degree angle, not pictured?). Then I walked underground to the Park Place 2-3 stop, and took that to Grand Army Plaza ($2), where I walked home 4 blocks in drizzle with no umbrella. Total cost: $11.50. Total time: 90 minutes, or an ABSOLUTE BARGAIN at 12.7 cents per minute.

Bonus Anecdote:The important young turk behind me, yelling into his Blackberry, just shouted his webmail URL, username and password, repeatedly, for the benefit of the entire shuttle plane.

He was asking an officemate (“Andrew”) to “clean out” his Blackberry e-mail account because “people keep sending me monster attachments.” The username was his first and last name (spelled out three times, in case you missed it). His password: “password. PASSWORD. P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D. … Well, that’s what I use, dude.”

Then he hung up, dialed another number and cell-yelled the same URL, username and password information in someone’s voicemail. Apparently when you are that important, it takes two people to “clean out” your e-mail account.

Not satisfied that two people could accomplish such a task, he then dialed a THIRD co-worker to announce that his e-mail was being “cleaned out,” and “could you shoot me a test e-mail” to make sure it worked.

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