Clippings: The cattle call meets the big city

I took off for New York earlier this month, cutting out of work a bit early on a Friday afternoon to make the trip. Almost all of my dearest college friends flocked to the city after graduation, so an outing to New York is a bit like one-stop shopping at a big-box store: Somewhere, in a city of 8 million some odd people, are a half-dozen friends waiting for me; I just have to elbow my way through never-ending aisles of strangers, knick-knacks and two-for-the-price-of-one deals to find them.