Overheard on the subway yesterday morning;
“What are you doing this weekend?â€
“I was going to go to Eric’s. But I didn’t want to go because he lives in Queens and also, I kind of hate him, but if there’s a hurricane I won’t have to, so!â€
“I guess every cloud.â€
But since it looks as though hurricane Earl has skated on past Manhattan, Labor Day barbeques can continue as planned – as long as nobody tells the landlord about the grill on the terrace. Here are a few low effort suggestions for side dishes – it’s Labor Day after all. Pretty much by definition a holiday from toiling in the kitchen.
They were the treat of treats for my sister and I when we were growing up. Though our parents generally imposed a fizzy drink ban, we were taken to the Berni Inn for our birthday meal of choice, and we could order mocktails and eat French fries and color in on the menu with crayons. 
Do you remember? And, if you do, is it the kind of thing you should take seriously now? Take Jonathan for instance. His 8-year old self was pretty driven; he longed to be a knight, and, failing that, to be an astronaut. When NASA recently sent him an email inviting him to give a talk he was beyond excited. Our 9 year old nephew was almost speechless with admiration. We celebrated with milkshakes.
1 – Make popsicles – try pureeing a punnet of raspberries and topping up with lemonade then freezing. And if you don’t have a popsicle set (an ice lolly set for the Brits) use odd yoghurt pots and chopsticks. Not so elegant, but they work. 
Children had put down their remote controls. Conversations had been curtailed on benches. Nannies in the café and babies in their strollers fell silent to stare. A man on rollerblades skated past, did a double take, stopped, then skimmed backwards again to survey the scene.
I have recently re-taken up swimming, and potter up and down my lane in a fairly pedestrian breast stroke, trying not to give in to chlorine-induced hallucinations about losing the locker key in a drain or swallowing a stray floating verruca plaster.