I too used to think traveling sounded more stressful than it's worth, but going overseas with friends who are veteran globetrotters helped me see the experience through their eyes, and I eventually got infected with the travel bug. Somewhere along the way I figured out how to embrace the discomfort. yrmv of course; there's nothing wrong staying home.
Queens and Brooklyn are both enormous and border each other, so that price depends on where you're traveling to/from. e.g. a car from Bushwick, Brooklyn to Ridgewood, Queens might cost you $10. Also, taking the J train from Crescent St (Brooklyn) to Woodhaven Blvd (Queens) would be 5-10 minutes on the train.
Thanks for posting this. In addition to his children's books, E.B White's letters and essays are all wonderful. He was a big contributor to the New Yorker for over 50 years. Reading the thoughts of such a great observer of the world always picks me up when I'm feeling depressed.
I agree that one can pay for something without exchanging money. What I took issue with was your emphasis on paying with personal information, while not mentioning that the personal information was being used in service of the advertisement exposures.
As far as I know, the reason they want my information is to make the actual revenue-generating thing work better. The advertisements would still make Google (far less, but still significant) money without my personal information. My personal information presumably wouldn't generate much significant revenue at all were it not being used in service of advertisements. That's why it seemed odd to me to say that I'm paying with my personal information, and not mention advertising exposures. Perhaps I'm quibbling though!
Anyway, I'm starting to feel like a modern jackass[1]; sorry if this wasn't very clear.
That makes sense. Paying with personal information was the statement that I was responding to. The personal information is worthless without the exposure to advertisements.
The reality of the NYC dating scene might be more complicated, as documented by Jonathan Soma (you can just read the findings if you don't like enabling Java):
"The switchover from extra men to extra women starts at 35-39 for most big East Coast cities, but doesn't hit New York until 40-44"