A room with a view ... normally

My new office is on the 28th floor of a building on Park Avenue South, in the middle of Manhattan. The entire suite is lined with enormous windows that face east, south, and west. The view is impressive, especially for someone new to the city. The Empire State Building is about two blocks over, and the gold dome of the New York Life building to the south is so close it seems like we could reach out and touch it.

We can see some of the city's many bridges, the East River, Brooklyn, and New Jersey. On sunny days we get “sunset alerts” so we don’t miss any of the beauty.

When you inevitably wonder why every post starts with an uneducated weather report, that’s why. It's hard to ignore what's going on outside, but it's one of my favorite things about the office.

Today, though it’s foggy, gloomy, and to the west, the world seems to end at a solid gray wall about a quarter mile away. I hope New Jersey is still there, or else my commute is going to be difficult.

The last couple of days have been busy with writing health guides and news. One of my favorites was a Beyond the Headlines piece about pet allowances in Japan.

My editor told me a story about an actress buying a lamb, thinking it was a puppy, and asked me to research it. It turned out to be an urban legend, but the “accounts” were funny, as was Snopes.com’s report debunking it. All of them are included in the above piece. This is what I enjoy about my job: being asked to research some of the most bizarre and interesting topics.

Another piece is about using a rheumatoid arthritis drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

The case study is about one person, and research is in the early stages, so if it's approved, it probably won't be for a long time. But reading the account of the patient before and after his treatment was compelling, as were interviews with patients' family members.

Today’s musical selection: Simple Kid “Serotonin” from 2