By now everyone and their grandmas know about the grand opening of the Red Hook Fairway. I must admit that I was intrigued, and was oh so curious as to what was the big deal with this Upper West Side institution. What could possibly be better than my once beloved, pre-sellout Trader Joe’s? The C-Town on 9th street was adequate, albeit a bit pricey. So yesterday, we decided to head on over to Red Hook and join the throngs of Fairway followers. About $50 and several bags of groceries, junk food, and bounty towels later, karen and I were asking ourselves, Trader Who? We have our fingers crossed that Fairway didn’t lower the prices just for the grand opening.

Way up near the New York State-Canadian border in a town called Croghan sits a general store that’s up for sale. Unlike other general stores scattered around the country, the 135 year old E.M. Marilley and Co. hasn’t switched over to selling touristy junk and gourmet coffee to survive against the assault brought on by megamalls. In fact, their business philosophy pretty much runs counter to any profit making methods. Every item in the store stays on the store shelf until it’s sold.

Now if you can’t see yourself purchasing the store, perhaps you might be interested in laying down some hard cash for turtlenecks from the 1980 Winter Olympics. Or maybe the 95 percent polyester flare-leg jeans are more your style. Surely you will look stunning with a pair of rubber boots from B.F. Goodrich. Now that’s HOT!

Surprise, surprise! A new housing trend is starting up. This time however, isn’t the unearthing and hipster-izing of some forgotten post-industrial neighborhood in the city. It’s not even mish-mashing and jamming of letters from the names of surrounding areas to create a name for the cool, new, up and coming area. In fact, it’s not even urban at all. The new phenomenon is urban flight to the exurbs where for $250,000 to $300,000 can score a nice big house with acres of land.

Karen and I have been discussing on and off about leaving apartment living and the pavements of New York City since 2003. Ideally, we’d move abroad, but if we must be confined to the land between the US borders, a great big house far away from civilization, and close enough to grab a good bite and still see our friends would suit us best. We’ve driven to Beacon, Westchester, Peekskill, and even to Connecticut to explore potential digs, but nothing has bowled us over. There was always something missing about these NY metro areas. An exurbia setting sounds mighty interesting, as it will satisfy our need for some open space for us to stretch our arms and Neena to run without having to be in a strip mall surburb. Maybe when we log in a few years in our 30s. For now, we’ll enjoy the conveniences of walking distance 24hour diners, YMCA, dozens of Mexican joints, and Prospect Park.