In a combination of Thanksgiving family obligation and West Coast business meeting necessity, I’m in California through early next week.

Even three thousand miles from home, though, there seems to be no escape: last night, at Palo Alto’s Rose & Crown pub, I struck up a conversation with the people at the next table, only to discover that they, too, were New Yorkers on a brief Thanksgiving jaunt west, and that they, too, live in Hell’s Kitchen, literally just around the corner from my apartment.

Clearly, I’m much less original than I’d previously thought.