What made Saturday even more enjoyable was the postgame cavorting with Casey and her friend Erin, a grad school acquaintance from Chicago in NYC for a week of work here. I met them at Erin's company-provided Lower East Side apartment (near Union Square) and we walked up to Gramercy Park to visit Pete's Tavern for no other reason than the awning promotes it as "The Place O. Henry Made Famous." So I needed to see why.

First, inside it's a charming neighborhood pub, with a 30-foot bar in the front and booths and tables along the opposite side. There's a more intimate dining room in the back. Behind the bar, a sign declares this the oldest continually operating bar in the city, having not closed its doors since 1864.

But the best part is the display above one of the booths, one near the front door leading out to 18th St. (the bar's on a corner, and we entered through the door off Irving Place). It features a photo of O. Henry, several newspaper articles, and mentions that this was his favorite booth, and the one in which he sat when he wrote "The Gift of the Magi."

When we left, we walked west along 18th and came to another bar, the name of which now escapes me, but they had fabulous shoestring fries. Framed on the wall is an autographed cover of Nick Hornby's About A Boy. It was another warm, inviting, comforting tavern with a long bar, some tables, and room in the back for bigger groups and some dart-tossing.

Now I want to head back to the West Village and visit the White Horse where Bob Dylan (the first "Dylan" mentioned in the link) frequented and Dylan Thomas got drunk.

I think I'll spend a lot of free time during my time living near (and maybe someday in) New York visiting the watering holes frequented by famous literary figures. I'll get drunk where Kerouac did.

As I said to Casey and Erin on Saturday, I prefer these landmarks remain as they are. Down in the Financial District, near Federal Hall and the World Trade Center, is Fraunces Tavern, the place where George Washington bade farewell to his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War. Back then, the only inhabited part of Manhattan island was the lower tip, with little developed north of what is now Houston or some similar east-west lane. But today, Fraunces Tavern is a museum and no longer serving drinks. I have no desire to step inside.

Yet at a place like Pete's or the White Horse, stepping inside you can almost feel the history there.