THE FAMOUS PLACES TO VISIT ARE SO MANY: Yet another in our occasional series of ALOTT5MA Travel Desk requests--one of our readers writes:

I have two and a half fast days in NYC with my 8 year old in October. She is dying to see the Statue of Liberty, but would love thoughts on other kid-friendly activities in the NYC area. I will have just subjected her to four days of museum overload in DC, so move-around experiences are particularly welcome. Kind of an aside, but has anyone had luck with Craigslist apartment listings in NYC? There are some cool listings on there but I'm not sure where good deal becomes too-good-to-be-true deal.

As a general rule, Craigslist (like pretty much every other sales site) is governed by the idea that if you think it's too good to be true, it probably is. My family's always had good luck with Priceline, especially on weekends, though it's easy to wind up getting stuck downtown, which is not the most convenient place to be.

As for activities, in a lot of ways, September and October are the best time to visit NYC, because it's usually warm enough to be outside without being oppressively hot, as it frequently can get in the summer months. As for activities, Central Park is the obvious one, but I'd also suggest hanging out in Union Square Park or Times Square and people-watching, and Madison Square Park for Shake Shack. In connection with the Statue of Liberty, it's been years since I've done the trek, but I'd also suggest Ellis Island, which is very well done. I'm sure the rest of y'all have suggestions, so weigh in.

THE BATTLEMENTS AND BARLEY REVUE: For his 60th birthday/25th-ish anniversary of going solo, Sting is doing a stripped-down-band-in-smaller-venues tour this fall.

added: Okay, here's a question: while I don't believe it's true of Sting himself, surely you can list artists who were, indeed, produced their best work after going solo. I'll start the list with Michael Jackson, Neil Young and Annie Lennox.

100% PURE UNNECESSARY!  A greenlit Point Break remake set in the world of "international extreme sports," written by Kurt Wimmer (Thomas Crown Affair, Salt, unnecessary Total Recall remake), is going out to directors soon. No word on whether Clinton or Bush rubber masks will be added to the rotation.

A LITTLE ... DONNY OSMOND FLAIR?  Trey Parker and Matt Stone will helm a film adaptation of The Book of Mormon, but not anytime soon.

YOU'RE AMAZING, VINCE:  Go ahead, I dare you: find something nice to say about the Entourage series finale, a fantasy of wish fulfillment perhaps not seen on tv since the days of MTV's My Super Sweet 16.  Seriously: who thought this made for good television?

GOODBYE, BILLY:  IKEA is redesigning its signature bookshelf to account for a world in which people aren't buying books.

Speaking of which: the WSJ is reporting "Amazon.com Inc. is talking with book publishers about launching a Netflix Inc.-like service for digital books, in which customers would pay an annual fee to access a library of content."

WE REMEMBER: The enormity of the day, even ten years later, still staggers me. Two thousand, nine hundred seventy-seven innocents, from the busboys at Windows of the World to Pentagon workers to those heroes forced into action on Flight 93 and those who knowingly risked and lost everything by choosing to enter the World Trade Center because of a sense of duty, three hundred forty three firemen among them.

Since the fifth anniversary we have regularly paused on this day -- sometimes as cultural consumers, sometimes as parents, sometimes as citizens (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010). Remembering the good people of Choteau, Montana, is just one of the many stories to be told of selflessness and heroism which we'll be telling our kids and our grandkids. We can be funny again, and we can be divided again, and we can be normal again. We're just never going to be quite the same again.

This is an open thread for whatever reflections and reactions you have today.