I’m no good with puzzles, but I’m forced to do a moderately challenging one the night before every trip that I bring my Bike Friday on.

It’s been a while since I’ve travelled with the bike so I was a bit rusty at the packing tonight. It took about forty-five minutes to get it right. (I think my personal best is twenty on a lanai in Honolulu.)

The photo inside the suitcase is nominally for TSA so that they can get the bike back in. But truth be told, I use it too. It gives me confidence that I’ve solved the puzzle before.

It’s been raining all day in NYC. But to paraphrase one of my neighbors, it’s a mediocre rain — not a dramatic downpour that inspires awe and not a pleasant drizzle that lifts your spirits. It’s just average wet.

Just across the street from Stewart’s, the mighty Arlington Diner has dominated its corner for as long as I can remember.

I haven’t been here since I was a kid so I can’t vouch for the food these days. But the exterior is delicious.

Bo Jiang, who was indicted March 20 for allegedly making false statements to the U.S., was charged yesterday in a separate criminal information in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Jiang unlawfully downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop, according to the court filing. A plea hearing is set for tomorrow.

Along with the misdemeanor, the government said it had resolved the false statements case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg said in a filing today.

I read this article two weeks ago and have struggled all this time to articulate my thoughts about it. The collision of politics, race, paranoia, stupidity, and plain old horniness practically begs for some kind of analysis that’s both insightful and funny.

Unfortunately, that essay is going to have to come from somebody else. After two weeks, all I can say is

1) Assuming this is the whole story, this is epically embarrassing for everyone involved.
2) Even if this isn’t the whole story, what we do know would make for a pretty cool movie — documentary or narrative.

Once again, real life has left me speechless. I hope my betters can come up with something coherent and interesting to say about the situation because I’d love to read it.

If there’s one place that always makes me a little worried about the future of Chinatown, it’s Kenmare Street between Mott and Elizabeth.

Here at the very northern edge of what you’d consider Chinatown, you can see the neighborhood’s past — and its potential future. On a low-key street mostly known for traffic coming from the Williamsburg Bridge, new luxury apartments bump-up against working-class walk-ups.

What’s next? I don’t know if anyone really knows. Gentrification may be an unstoppable force, but that doesn’t mean its impacts on neighborhoods are identical. I’m watching eagerly to see how Chinatown handles it.

This was my Mom on her wedding day in 1968. Twenty-one years old.

Thank you Mom — and all the Moms in the world — for all that you do.

I’m no expert on turtles, but these not-for-sale guys and gals at the Alpine Nursery in Belleville, NJ look pretty chillaxed.

And even if they weren’t, I know I certainly was after stumbling upon them there.

Usually, the only turtles I see are those in the fish markets of Chinatown — and those guys sadly are not chillaxing.

If I look at them too long I have to fight the urge to buy them all. Not too chillaxing for me either.

Growing up, I always wanted a really nice globe but the only one we could afford was a cheap metal version that had a big raised seam at the equator. The seam was so big it looked like the Earth had a Saturn-like ring.

I was a little embarrassed that our globe was not as nice as the ones some of my friends owned, and certainly not as nice as the ones in school.

I wish I’d seen the Daily News Globe when I was a kid.

I would have realized that the best globe in the world is free for everyone to enjoy — and it can’t be bought by anyone.

For reasons unknown, I’ve found myself using chillax and its derivations more times in the past month than I can count.

And as it happens, it’s also been a pretty good month.

Does correlation equal causation? I think it does in this case. Try saying chillax out loud right now and see if you don’t smile or feel better right after.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Am I right? It’s like the word is its own chillaxative. Just the act of saying it seems to work the muscles in your jaw in a massage-like fashion that radiates chillaxation throughout your body and mind.

And this is just in English. It might even be better in other languages but unfortunately I don’t know any other tongues well enough to find out.

Drop the word in conversation today and do your part to make the world a more chillaxed place. The timeless wisdom of this old-school term needs to be shared.

It’s hard to describe how much better Columbus Circle is today compared to just about any time in living memory. It’s actually a place you’d want to visit and even linger instead of just pass through as quickly as possible.

Prior to the Time Warner Center and the 2005 renovation of the circle, the best thing I could say about the place was that I saw Nirvana play an earth-shattering set at the New York Coliseum in 1993.