How to quit your job and travel around the world

Photo: Players line up in shooting gallery at the Shoot the Freak game in Coney Island, July 21, 2007.

And all it takes is an errant clam. Many moons logged traveling in the far east, and one measly bi-valve from Nathan's on the Coney Island boardwalk sets me back a summer weekend. Ok, in any other country eating raw seafood on a dirty boardwalk would call for one of those special boxed notes the Lonely Planet is so fond of. But we thought...anyway, we went for our send-off of Coney Island As We Know It on Saturday. Earlier this year news came that the Manhattan condo-frenzy has spread to the once-sketchy shore of Coney. Fundraiser were had, Save the Freak show stories written, but it's going to close up after this summer. Some amusements will remain, the Wonder Wheel, the Cyclone, Nathans - but for the most part, the seedy underbelly of Coney is going bottom up. Call in the roller of big cigars...we started off the afternoon at the Siren Festival, really only to hear M.I.A - the Sri Lankan hip-hop (?) superstar. Then we cruised some rides: the Break Dance, Wonder Wheel, Thunder Bold and Saturn Upchuck. In lieu of the Cyclone, which is terrifying, we thought we might Shoot The Freak but it was just too discomforting to pump off several rounds at a Live Human Target for shits and giggles. So we watched other people do it instead. After a little siesta under the moonlight on the beach and listening to the murmur of the crowd we ate some raw clams and deep-fried frog legs at Nathan's, washed down with a two-foot long Pina Colada ($10). It tasted so good at the time...

I should mention that I also went to my first court house wedding. My dear friends Rebecca and Seth got hitched old-school style on Friday morning at 9 a.m. which was followed by the lovely reception of all 6 of us on the Brooklyn Promenade and mimosas. It was exceedingly great.