Though photos with Maria Bartiromo cost $10

CNBC was camped out all day yesterday across from the NYSE on Wall Street covering the continued economic collapse of the free world. Well, it was a long day. And there sure were many pesky -- no, we love you! -- tourists milling about. So the tourists asked if they could have their photo taken inside the CNBC van.

Tourists on hand to document our nation's economic collapse

Can't wait to show the kids! These photos were taken minutes after the Dow closed down more than 500 points yesterday. With the NYSE and Federal Hall right here, this is a heavily traveled area for tourists. Still, there were a lot more tourists milling about yesterday. Could have been the lure of the media trucks and lights...and blood.

Meanwhile, down the street. A few people in Tiffany's.



Not so many people shopping for BMWs. Except some dummies.

New York has lovely skylines, stylish and diverse people, great art galleries, and we're really expensive and not too fucking friendly

According to Travel + Leisure's annual America's Favorite Cities list...New York received the most No. 1 ratings -- 11 in total! We're tops in classical music, theater, diversity, style, people-watching, skyline/views, art galleries, local boutiques and luxury boutiques. That's only nine. Whatever!

And NYC was dead last for "peace and quiet" and "relaxing retreat" and — shocker! — "affordability." And NYC was 24 out of 25 for "friendliness." That's fucking bullshit! Fuck you!

Had to go to Times Square today -- please send help

"How to not be a douchebag tourist in NYC"

That's the headline to a post on joshinthecity, a blog by a 36-year-old Sydney, Australia, resident. He starts: "I didn’t write this, but do the right thing, read up. As someone who has spent quite a bit of time there over the years, trust me.. ALL of this rings true."

Among the advice for tourists that he's passing along:

Dress: First, don’t f**king wear Crocs, don’t let anyone you’re with wear Crocs and don’t tell anybody you own a pair back home. They’re uglier than pretty much anything else in the city, and that’s saying something. New Yorkers don’t wear shorts and only chicks wear sandals, so stick with long pants, jeans, and dark color shirts–light colored button-downs are ok–dress shoes or Nike Dunks. Avoid Hawaiian shirts and NASCAR apparel like your life depends on it. Pastels suck, and fanny packs and passport lanyards scream “douche” from a block away.

Don’t stand in groups at street corners, subway entrances or in front of doors. Basically, just make sure you’re not in anybody’s way, ever, and you’ll be good to go.

Oh, and don’t ask us to pick you up or take you to the airport. We have plenty of cabs, trains and buses to do that for us, and we don’t want to, anyway.

Update: It was written by Andrew at Hunter College in a post that appeared last Thursday.

The thrill of victory, the agony of the tour bus

At Wall Street and Water Street.

These are a few of the photos you'll find when you search for "Carrie Bradshaw" on Flickr

(Forgot to add this with the original post.) Part of the Sex and the City tours includes a stop at this Perry Street townhouse in the West Village. Yes, this is the stoop that the Carrie Bradshaw character sits on in the show. (Actually, five different stoops were used; this one most frequently, I'm told by someone who really likes and knows the show.) According to Forbes: The show, which made a fifth character out of New York City, attracts fans to the Big Apple in droves, and locals cash in. Location Tours offers a three-hour bus tour that stops at shops and bars that have appeared on the show. The tour costs $40 a head, and its owners say it attracts as many as 1,000 people a week. Destination on Location Travel offers "set-jetting" weekends in New York, where groups of up to twelve women are shuttled around town and given the fantasy that they're one of the four Sex characters. The price: a hefty $15,000 per person.