I spent much of last week in New York staying at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  Although most of my time was spent in a conference room I can tell you that even when I ventured out to get a late dinner at 11:00 pm on a weeknight I still found myself surrounded by thousands of people.  Cut to last night when Celeste and I went to Charlotte with our friends Bobby and Beth Figuracion to see comedian Brian Regan.  We pretty much had the city to ourselves until right before the show when the few thousand people that could fit in the Belk Theater showed up.  You could roll a bowling ball down Trade Street without fear of hitting an animate object, and this on the final day of a major PGA tournament being held in town. You know a town is sleepy when not even Tiger Woods can wake it up.

New York can make almost any other city in America seem sleepy, but Charlotte is downright somnolent. We got to Charlotte early so we could grab some dinner, but we found most of the restaurants closed and ended up eating at the Champions in the Marriott.  (About the restaurant: on a 1-5 scale I’d rate it a 1.5, but because we were eating with Bobby and Beth it seemed a lot better. Great company forgives a lot doesn’t it?)  I’m sure if we’d kept looking we’d have found some other restaurants open, but I was amazed how many we came across in the immediate vicinity of the theater that weren’t open. We’re talking the heart of downtown, in the midst of all the hotels and they didn’t open their doors at all on Sunday.  ZZZZZZ…..

By the way, Brian Regan puts on a great show, is about as "clean" a comedian as you’re going to find today (i.e. safe for pre-teens and up) and the Belk is a great venue to see a show.