... and our first stop was to meet with the whirling ball of energy who is
Eli Zabar, younger brother of the owners of Zabar's.  Eli broke away from
them two decades ago, first with his EAT store on Madison and 80th and, since
1990, with a burgeoning group of industrial buildings on East 91st from First
to York - a writing project for me.

He's been buying about one a year, converting them (variously) to a bread
bakery, garage, repair shop for his fleet of trucks, cabinet shop (to furnish
his stores), coffee shop, pastry bakery and, most famously, his
near-supermarket The Vinegar Factory, where he cut up the old vinegar barrels
for display stands and bread racks - he says that on hot days the residual
mustard made it hard to breathe inside.

Recently he's been adding large, glowing greenhouse structures on the roof -
the lettuce greenhouse is a delicious greensward - recycling the heat from
the pastry bakery below.  He loves reusing things, he says.   Today's tomato
harvest was about 100 pounds, and the new greenhouse will be devoted to herbs.

Eli meets with his architect, Richard Lewis, every morning to map out the
latest attack on the latest project - most seem to evolve, rather than start
and then finish.  He is, gradually, dominating the street, although Bell
Atlantic refuses to sell him its 1930 art deco garage and his neighbor, Mrs.
Spruyt, does regular battle with him over protecting the tree in front of her
c. 1886 brick and terra cotta house - where Kozmo.com is taking over the
ground floor.

Olivia got a free chocolate croissant, and then we came over to the office to
check the latest gossip on B-P, then off to collect bills, in person - I
wanted to teach Olivia that there are some people who break their promise to
pay without shame.  (To proceed on a project, I ask our clients only to
"Choose any time period convenient for you, as long as we can rely on it
absolutely.")  She loves money.

We took the tack of showing up in person, unannounced; I offered her a new
pair of fancy shoes for each deadbeat who coughed up, but she was too
embarrassed.  It was startling enough to have her in tow:  "Hello, I'm here
to collect from Mr. Xxxx - he promised to pay me no later than January 30th,
but I still haven't received a check.  I'm teaching my daughter that there
are people who don't keep their promises."

The first, Mr. Xxxx, a high-end, super-fancy architect who's owed me $3K
since early January, hid in the back office, sending a minion who said "Oh
yeah, this is the hard part - getting paid" with a laugh.  I replied "yes, it
is -- with some people".  Outside, I told Olivia that we'd file in Small
Claims tomorrow.

The second, Mr. Yyyyy, came out to meet us without understanding our mission,
and then gasped for air when I gave him my spiel in front of his entire
office.  (His bookkeeper's mother died!  How about that!  But in his case, he
said the check had been put in the mail "yesterday"; I'll report on the
postmark - if it doesn't get "lost in the mail".)

The third client, Mr. Zzzz, a building manager, was standing in the lobby
with two doormen when I came in.  He also gulped after my spiel and said
"Well, I'm sure we've paid you.  I'll have to check on Monday. I can't work
the computers."   I replied that he personally told me that he ran an office
with "no baloney - we get your bill, I write you a check the next day."  And
that he had been dodging my calls since February. (The doormen, listening in,
gave each other knowing looks while he babbled on.)  We'll file against him
tomorrow, too.

Olivia and I also ate breakfast, we ate lunch, we went down to see the
Schermerhorn Building on Lafayette Street (where we inspected architect John
Averitt's office, with its gargoyle-flower column capitals), and we ate
dessert.  I talked to her about old girlfriends, cash-flow, and being
straight-arrow honest because the world is a circle.  At the end of the day,
Olivia was tired.  I wish I could have learned earlier that the most
rewarding thing about having an "artistic" career is running it well  ---  as
a business.

She's artistic, too - I bet she'll be great at running a business.

Love to all,  Christopher Gray