After my meeting with my editor, Maria and I sat on a bench at 6th Avenue and 48th st. and we watched the color and range and vividness of the street stands and street food that line the streets of Manhattan. New Yorkers tell me that the immigrants who have come to the city bring enormous energy and diversity to the city, and there is no better show anywhere that just watching people walk by on the streets of New York.

The food vendors are also compelling, they move with incredible speed and sureness, there are many different things to eat.

Maria took a walk in Central Park by herself and she took a video of a busy family of rats moving around right in front of her. Nature is nature, art is art.

Maria does not discriminate.  She is not like the other children, I am not sure I know anyone else who would be so delighted by a rat encounter.

When we met up, she told me proudly that she had just filmed a rat family in Central Park and it was fascinating. Come and meet a family of rats.