OTHER SIGHTS AROUND NEW YORK CITY--
The Big Apple for Late Night                          
"New York, New York. It's a toddlin' town."
I hummed the words in my head as we stepped onto the 9:21 a.m. Metro North train to the Big Apple on March 30.
"The Bronx is up and the Battery's down, and people ride in a hole in the ground."
Many times before we had taken advantage of senior citizen status to ride the rails into the city for the day, whether it was for a Yankee baseball game, a Broadway matinee performance, a day at the Metropolitan Museum, or a tour of a historic site.
"New York, New York. It's a helluva town."     

Still in the morning shadows, the
Easter decorations at Rockefeller
Plaza promise spring weather.

Flowers adorn the Plaza as early warm
temperatures bring out tourists.

                                                                                                                                   The melody haunted my brain.  The lyricist certainly nailed that one, I thought, as we settled in a two-seater closer to the back of the train. I looked up the words:  from a 1944 musical called On the Town with songs by Leonard Bernstein.  But interestingly, "helluva" was changed to "wonderful" for the movie version in order to make the language acceptable to the public. "Toddlin'," "helluva," "wonderful"... it didn't matter at all.  The city was a great place to visit, and today's trip included free admission to a taping of "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert.
Rockefeller Center wasn't quite as spectacular at Eastertime as it had been at Christmas, but the decorations still provided an interesting sight-seeing stop.  Little kids gazed wide-eyed at the rotating Easter rabbit, and adults marveled at the flowers already creating a canvas of color across the pavilion promenade. We checked out the Met museum store at the Center, a favorite stop for unique gifts.

Emergency vehicles block traffic after a crane collapses.

A crane accident near Wall Street downtown earlier in the day attracted lots of attention.  We stopped at Starbucks for coffee and checked out the emergency personnel and vehicles on the scene.  A building crane had fallen on a man's car, killing him and injuring several on the street a block away.  Business owners in the neighborhood assured us that people in the vicinity had been warned to stay away as winds whipped up and operators attempted to dismantle the heavy equipment that morning.  It seemed the stuff that action movies are made of, but there wasn't much action.  Most of the emergency workers stood waiting for orders, and onlookers who verified what had happened soon lost interest. Only a couple New York City firemen who directed traffic showed any urgency when a bus tried to turn down the street and then back out.

Only those with hand stamps
are allowed to return for Colbert.

We had come to the city for the afternoon taping of "The Late Show," but there was plenty of time before the line for ticket confirmation formed at 2 p.m..  Weeks earlier Andy had qualified for tickets to the taping of "The Tonight Show," starring Jimmy Fallon.  It was fun, so he had risen to the challenge of trying for another taping. 
Fallon had taught us the ropes of preparing: no cell phones, no photography whatsoever, be prepared for lots of waiting in lines but be in line before the time given on the ticket, use the rest rooms early, be ready for any seat assignment, make a lot of noise, don't leave your seat once you enter the theater, and don't expect pictures or autographs.

Visitors and residents alike crowd Central Park
as springtime temperatures awake nature in the Big City. 

After checking identification and proof of admission, Fallon and company had given each person a letter-number combination and seated us inside with comfortable lounge chairs, spacious restrooms and TV show clips for entertainment.  Then they called the groups by letter and asked each group to line up as they called out our numbers.  And the letter-number combinations were not given in any particular order, but those in charge of distribution were not to be questioned.   Probably the oldest people in the audience, we were happy with our theater seat locations in the center on the left side.The Stephen Colbert show taping was a bit different.  Directions said to line up in front of the theater by 2 p.m.  After an hour of waiting in front of the old Ed Sullivan Theater, we were checked and approved.  "Be back out here by 3:45 p.m.," instructed the security guard. "And when you arrive, put yourself in numerical order out front."  Andy and I were numbers 144 and 145.

Weather couldn't be more perfect for a day outdoors,
as we spend a couple hours waiting for the show taping.

So we walked the neighborhood for more than an hour.  Our time-killing excursion included a stroll through Central Park with some people watching and a whole lot of browsing at the flowering trees that were just showing signs of blossoming.
Confronting hundreds of people back at the Ed Sullivan Theater, all intent on lining up outside, seemed an indomitable task.  But it was actually fun!
"Thirty-two? Oh, we have to go a long way back down the sidewalk."
"Ninety-seven?  Getting closer!"
"No, we're looking for the one forty's. We should be getting there."
"One thirty-seven? Ok, and you sir?  One fifty-two?  We must be in between you guys.  We'll just squish in here if you don't mind!"

In line numerically, we are ready to
enter the Ed Sullivan Theater,
where history is made and Stephen
Colbert tapes his nightly show.

By 3:45 p.m. the lines stretched around two corners and we were friends with all our numerical neighbors.  Unlike Fallon, Colbert kept us standing inside the theater lobby for more than an hour.  Then we filed in order into the theater for the show.  It was another half hour before the taping started, so restroom use was not prohibited. Stephen Colbert interviewed a cartoon Donald Trump; visited with Eric Stonestreet of Confirmation and Modern Family. Stonestreet is the American actor, best known for portraying Cameron Tucker in the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which he received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. In the following segments, Colbert interviewed both Jason Jones, who plays Nate on The Detour, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who commented about the race for the Presidential nominations.  Then the sets were changed and he introduced the band Flaming Lips for a performance of "Space Oddity" that aired on Colbert's TV show on April 19.
A couple scenes were re-taped when the hysterical cartoon Donald Trump--only visible on the TV screen--leaned too far to one side of the empty chair next to Colbert, and when Colbert mispronounced the name of an upcoming guest.
The whole process was amazing.  We were only two of probably four hundred in the audience, but our screams and claps contributed to the fun.
Only in New York..."It's a hellluva town!"