Four years in New York today. The sun is shining. (Perfected video via JTA.)

I had a story and photo in yesterday’s New York Times City section about the blogger behind Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York.

Walking the Lower East Side with Jeremiah to research the story was a lot of fun considering I was with the prophet of doom.

On a related note, there was a great story in last week’s New York Times magazine about the Second Avenue Deli, which closed last year.

The good news is the deli is slated to reopen soon. The bad news for the Lower East Side is that the new Second Avenue Deli will open in Midtown.

Some foul language makes this a little unsafe for work. But still, utterly briliiant. (Via Anorak.)

More oddities over at Charlie Shopsin’s blog Modern Mechanix. (And yes, it is those Shopsins.)

I came across this on YouTube last night as I was researching the Smothers Brothers for one of the latest projects I am working on. Quite amazing really, considering how prudish CBS was in those days. Then again, I suppose if you don’t have a clue what they are talking and singing about, it’s quite hard to be offended.

I have a story in today’s New York Times Thursday Style section about tennis racket customization. Look out for the sidebar too.

…If I stand on the windowsill. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Work is frantic. And getting this new apartment in order is gobbling up most of my free time. I spent eight hours at IKEA on Sunday and about 12 hours on Monday building furniture. On Tuesday, I discovered I’d pulled muscles I never even knew existed. My two remaining wisdom teeth are being pulled tomorrow, so I expect to be out of it for a couple of days. Thanks for being such an understanding bunch.

Around this time last year I took a ride to the Hamptons with one of the editors of the Forbes book to get some color for a chapter on conspicuous consumption. We zipped around the Long Island countryside on a beautiful fall day, snooping on various McMansions and gaudy homes. But nothing, and I mean nothing, beat Ira Rennert’s mansion-by-the-sea, Fair Field.

Next time you read a story about a billionaire plonking down $30 million or $40 million for a house, bear in mind that Rennert’s home was valued last year at $185 million. That’s $50 million more than Forbes’ official World’s Most Expensive Home Updown Court, in Windlesham, Surrey. (Rennert’s home doesn’t make the cut because the Forbes list only includes property on the market.)

Rennert’s five building, 63-acre beachfront compund includes a 66,000 sq ft Italienate mansion and sports 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, a two-lane bowling alley, a 164-seat theater, and parking for between 20 and 200 cars, depending on which articles you read. The house even has its own power station. You can click on the image above for a closeup.

Fittingly, Ira Rennert is the man who had the bright idea of turning the military Humvee into a consumer car. His net worth this year? $3.5 billion.

You can hear my editors Annalyn Swan and Peter Bernstein talking about the book “All The Money in the World” on the Brian Lehrer Show on Monday at 11am.

Of all the homes I saw that day, I liked this one the most. When I make my first billion…