Getting One's Ducks In A Row . . .

Yesterday I made a supplies run to a great cross stitch shop in Clifton NJ. I'm a hardcore New Yorker (no car), so I jumped onto the No. 1 train and headed to Times Square; then to Port Authority to catch a bus to The Garden State.

I'm starting to notice all things Lincoln -- the No. 1 train stops at 66th Street, Lincoln Center. Times Square is the eastern terminus of the 13-state Lincoln Highway, the first major memorial to the 16th President. Travellers on the original highway (completed in 1913) would travel west from Times Square, take a ferry across the Hudson to Weehawken NJ -- then across the U.S., to the western terminus, Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The Lincoln Highway is the nation's first transcontinental road, nicknamed Main Street Across America.

That Weehawken ferry service -- now a busy commuter line with a fleet of ships -- made headlines last month, when ferry captains chugged to the rescue of a downed U.S. Airways airbus floating in the icy Hudson River. Captain Sullenberger's virtuosic landing made us cheer. Sully wanted to land close to a vessel, to maximize the chance of a quick rescue. Don't you want to shake his hand and buy him a beer? And those fantastic ferry crew and first responders -- they make me prouder than ever to be a New Yorker .

At 42nd Street, it's on to Port Authority where I caught the NJ bus which barrels through the Lincoln Tunnel. Later last night, a supermarket radio (permanently tuned to the oldies station) crackles with the "Name Game" song: "Lincoln, Lincoln, bo binken . . . banana fanna . . "

Do they still make Lincoln Logs?