This and that from the weekend:

• Great food weekend. Dinner Friday night was at a Japanese noodle place, Honmura An in SoHo. After splitting a few tasty appetizers, I had an excellent hot udon dish packed with fresh seafood. Dinner Saturday night was at Mancora, a Peruvian place in the East Village. I had a red snapper entree loaded with fresh vegetables and rice. We split a dessert whose name I can't remember, but it had the consistency and appearance of jelly and was served warm. It was extremely dense and none of us could have more than a couple of spoons.

Finally, you just can't say enough about the red leaf lettuce from C.P. Yang's deli at 73rd and Columbus. This lettuce is orders of magnitude better than anything I've found at Fairway or Whole Foods; it bursts with flavor and stays fresh (if properly stored) for several days.

• It seems that clothing stores are not that interested in business from guys. I've noticed an increasing trend of men's clothes not being located on street level. This is true at the Banana Republic on 8th Avenue at 15th, at Zara on Broadway in SoHo, at Hilfiger on West Broadway in SoHo, and the Banana Republic at 59th and Lex. Eddie Bauer, presumably associated with a somewhat rugged, outdoors theme, showcases women's apparel on the ground floor of its Lincoln Square store. Then there's Gap, which seems to have just about given up on guys entirely. At the Lincoln Square store, men's apparel has been squeezed into a space about the size of my bathroom, and even the Chelsea location at 23rd and 8th is two-thirds dedicated to women's wear. I guess any hope is now futile that "Queer Eye" might inspire some widespread male fashion literacy or interest.

• On the downtown D today, I had one of the more assertive conductors. "Ladies and gentlemen: stop what you are doing, and listen to your conductor." It worked. Everybody, in silence, heard the announcement that the E was running along the F line and that you could not transfer to the E at 53rd Street Station.