A casino with Alexander Calder sculptures? Only in Queens! (Genting)

What happens when you throw two strangers into a Subaru and ship them out to Queens to check out the new convention center site?

The Times grabbed Barbara Buzzell, 75-year-old interior designer from Long Island and Gerald Yuska, 30-year-old owner of Breakwater Surf Company from Rhode Island, and put them up for the task.

"Unless you want to look at cockroaches or something, there’s no night life here," Ms. Buzzell said of the prospects of a convention center. Having attended four conventions a year for the past 30 years, she commented that "participants generally wanted to go to Broadway shows and the best restaurants."

Mr. Yuska, who couldn't care less about theater, was considerably more optimistic about the plan: "The only way to make a place better is by going in there and developing it." Even after a person in the Toyota next to them on the parkway gestured an obscene sign at them, he thought it was "pretty awesome."

Cue trip to questionable Chinese and West Indian restaurants and shared fantasies about a Disney-esque monorail linking Manhattan and Queens. (Does the A-Train not count? It even has a song after it.)

Are their glasses too full?

Yes, too full of alcohol! The duo found themselves at the Resorts World New York City casino center in which Ms. Buzzell raised her Blood Mary and toasted to their friendship.

Lesson learned: it only takes a little alcohol to bear the fast food wrapper lined streets of Queens.

mewing@observer.com