Sure, it's too bad the Penguins didn't sweep the Rangers, but as the Greek dramatists would say, it's better to temper success with a little becoming modesty rather than engage the envy and wrath of the gods.

More writing in the morning, then off to join some of the PG group for lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant in Central Park.

Some of the PG group gathered by Alice in Wonderland, which is to say, Central Park.

One of Paul and Jackie's skills is to vary events on our theater tours, and they always plan an optional walking tour of a different section of Manhattan -- this time, Central Park -- with a luncheon somewhere of note to follow. I don't usually have time for the tour, but I seem always to make the luncheon,

In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours at a favorite spot, the NY Public Library, one of the greatest institutions in a great city. I was researching some local R.I. history on behalf of a historical society I belong to, and there's enough of the scholar in me to enjoy digging around in old papers, especially when it's facilitated by someone with the knowledge and good humor of Thomas Lannon, the archives and manuscripts specialist on duty this day.

But I also just like the majesty of the NYPL's two main reading rooms, with their soaring stained glass ceilings, handsome brass lamps, ample oak tables and lovely oak chairs. I even have one of those chairs at home -- purchased, not spirited away in my briefcase.

More Broadway posters at the Marriott: "Frog and Toad" is just about to be done at Point Park.

Tonight's play was "A Catered Affair," a new musical, one of the recent openings, by Harvey Fierstein, with music and lyrics by John Bucchino. In truth, it's something of a misnomer to call it a musical -- that raises misleading expectations of something bigger than this modest, affecting piece with a company of 10, where the music accompanies rather than dominates and there are few of the bells and whistles a musical usually employs. Call it a play with music, just 90 minutes long.

Over a post-show drink at Sardi's, the ShowPlane group enjoyed a good discussion. Normally we discuss all three shows we've seen at that point, but we concentrated on "Catered Affair," partly because we'd just seen it but mainly because we had a guest, Matthew Scott, CMU '04, who understudies the young man in the show.

He hadn't been on that night, but he's been with the show since it premiered in San Diego and then moved to NY, and he proved an articulate, sensitive discussant. I'd bet that everyone came away with an enhanced appreciation for the modest but distinctive show we'd just seen.