Luke Skyscraperwalker

Playing a game of tag with well-known NY skyscrapers provides a fun way to kill an afternoon. Walk to one "proud and soaring thing," as Louis Sullivan described the tall edifice, give it a good pat, and then walk to another one.

The distance between the masculine Empire State Building and the more feminine Chrysler Building is not far enough for a walking workout. For a more challenging experience, begin at the Washington Square Arch, a favorite among artists, surrealists, folkies, and dadaists, and walk north on Fifth Avenue toward the Empire State Building. You might see it on your left. Continue walking north on Fifth, make a hard right on 42nd, pass the Grand Central Terminal and arrive at the pretty Chrysler Building at Lexington Avenue. That's a little more than 2 miles.

Personal: Walking Off the Big Apple wrote her master's thesis on skyscrapers. This was in the age of High Reagan. I ain't lyin'! The title was and continues to be "A Proud and Soaring Thing: The Idea of the Skyscraper in America." If you find yourself in a major library of a major university in a major state, you could look it up.