"Metropolitan Diary is the collection millions of fans have been waiting for - the best selections from the beloved New York Times column that has gathered together the quirks, foibles, and laugh-out-loud moments of everyday city life for the last two decades.".

"Longime editor Ron Alexander has culled the column's archies for the most amusing vignettes, conversations, and observations heard in movie lines and on buses, in restaurants (in delis, in particular) and cocktail lounges, and on escalators. City humor has distinctly urban, sly, sassy, and feisty characters, and that's captured here in these short anecdotes sent in by everyday readers, giving the Diary its authentic and cosmopolitan feeling."--BOOK JACKET.