Will endorsement-happy Trump cost GOP the Senate?

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DRIVING THE DAY

BREAKING OVERNIGHT — A shouting match erupted on the Senate floor after the vote to delay the debt limit crisis for two months. Sens. JOHN THUNE (R-S.D.) and MITT ROMNEY (R-Utah) confronted Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER after he lambasted Republicans in a floor speech immediately following the vote. They thought Schumer should have been more gracious after they threw him a small lifeline. (Though Romney voted to filibuster the extension.) Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.), appearing to sympathize with Republicans, put his head in his hands as he listened to Schumer's tirade (scroll down for that image). Afterward, Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) chased the Democratic leader into the cloakroom to chew him out. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) told Playbook it's all sour grapes: "Listen, they kicked our ass and we have no one to blame but ourselves." As for Schumer, a source who knows him well said, "He's not gracious, he's from Brooklyn!"

SPOTTED: Caddy-turned-senior Trump White House official DAN SCAVINO, surrounded by hundreds of law enforcement officers and ERIC TRUMP on Wednesday at the funeral for Dutchess County, N.Y., Sheriff BUTCH ANDERSON. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot has struggled to locate Scavino for over a week to serve him a subpoena.

FUNDRAISER CRASHER — As fundraising season approaches at DONALD TRUMP's Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago, expect the former president to crash the events for 2024 candidates and let donors know that he's also planning to run. "He's going to have a more careful eye about who is going to raise money on his front porch," an aide said. The club was the de facto hub of Republican fundraising in 2021 and will likely be again in 2022.

OOPS, HE DID IT AGAIN — It's no secret that Trump's endorsements have been impulsive, and it looks like he jumped the gun again by giving an early nod to SEAN PARNELL in the open Pennsylvania Senate race. Republicans we talked to in Washington and Trump-world are clearly worried since the news broke this week that Parnell requested a gag order on his estranged wife LAURIE and her lawyer during their custody battle. Shortly after Trump endorsed Parnell in September, rival JEFF BARTOS revealed that Parnell's wife filed two protective orders against him in 2017 and 2018. Both were expunged, but some Republicans worry that there may be more shoes to drop.

It's happened over and over: Trump endorses a seriously flawed candidate early in the primary race, even though he's been accused of domestic abuse already — in the case of HERSCHEL WALKER in Georgia — or faces such allegations soon after, in the case of MAX MILLER in Ohio. Miller and Walker deny the accusations. There's also ERIC GREITENS in Missouri, who Trump hasn't endorsed but has a team stacked with former Trump staffers and loyalists, including KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE.

But Parnell may be in a tighter spot than Walker or Miller, whose opponent, Rep. ANTHONY GONZALEZ (R-Ohio), recently dropped out. JOE BIDEN won Pennsylvania by just over a percentage point. Parnell has some tough competition in the primary — not only Bartos but fundraiser and former ambassador CARLA SANDS. And he lacks the star power of Walker, an NFL legend.

"Sean Parnell can't score touchdowns, so this is a little different," said one Republican operative.

Parnell, 40, was recently endorsed by Rep. DAN CRENSHAW (R-Texas) and Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.). He raised $1.1 million in the past quarter. He was also dubbed one of the top House Republican recruits in 2020, and the NRCC named him one of their "Young Guns."

Trump endorsed Parnell, a former Army Ranger, last month in the midst of the Afghanistan withdrawal, when Parnell was a regular on Fox News. It also helped that DONALD TRUMP JR. was pushing for him.

"Sean Parnell is one of the most impressive candidates of the entire cycle and is above all else a bonafide American hero," said Trump Jr. in a statement.

People close to Trump say the problem is two-fold: He's not putting enough money into his vetting operation, and he ultimately does whatever he wants. Trump also seems to think that other politicians share his "Teflon Don" ability to shed scandal.

Trump's team said they did a full vetting of Parnell, including a criminal background check, but added that divorce issues wouldn't surface in such a check because of the privacy of those records. An operative on an opponent's team, however, said they discovered the protective orders within three days.

"They make hasty decisions that are not thought out or well researched," said a source in Trump-world. "All it does is confirm lessons that we've known all along: that no one is in control."

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IN OTHER TRUMP NEWS — There's a new book out next week by TED OSIUS, the former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, recounting his experiences in the job. He tells one story about preparations for Trump's 2017 trip to Vietnam for an APEC meeting. The planning included an upcoming White House meeting with Vietnamese PM NGUYEN XUAN PHUC. When Trump heard the name, he responded with a racist joke.

"You mean like FOOK YOO?" the former president said, according to Osius. "I knew a guy named Fook Yoo. Really. I rented him a restaurant. When he picked up the phone, he answered 'Fook Yoo.' His business went badly. People didn't like that. He lost the restaurant."

On Thursday night, Trump made another racist remark, telling Fox News that there are "hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti" and "many of those people will probably have AIDS." This is something of an obsession for Trump dating to the 1980s. And lest we forget, the president in 2018 infamously referred to Haiti as a "shithole country."

Happy Friday, and thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.

PUSH IT TO THE (DEBT) LIMIT — What actually happens if the nation defaults on its debt? Planes fall out of the sky, the streets run red with blood — OK, not literally. But the reality could be economic catastrophe: "Market chaos, economic chaos, all for absolutely no good reason," explains POLITICO's Ben White. After a week of debt-ceiling drama in D.C., Ben joins Eugene to unpack the partisan fights, the doomsday hypotheticals and one of the most absurd twists so far: a trillion-dollar coin. Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep Dive

A quote from Ben White is pictured.

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BIDEN'S FRIDAY:

— 9:30 a.m.: The president will receive the President's Daily Brief.

— 10 a.m.: Biden will sign the HAVANA Act of 2021 and K-12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 into law.

— 11:30 a.m.: Biden will deliver remarks on the September jobs report.

— 1:45 p.m.: Biden will deliver remarks on restoring protections for national monuments and conservation.

— 2:30 p.m.: Biden will receive the weekly economic briefing.

— 6:15 p.m.: Biden will depart the White House for Wilmington, Del., where he is scheduled to arrive at 7:10 p.m.

VP KAMALA HARRIS' FRIDAY:

— 9:35 a.m.: The vice president will depart D.C. en route to Newark, N.J.

— 11:45 a.m.: Harris will participate in a roundtable conversation on the importance of federal investment in child care at the Ben Samuels Children's Center at Montclair State University.

— 2:40 p.m.: Harris will tour a vaccination site at Essex County College.

— 4:35 p.m.: Harris will depart Newark to return to D.C.

Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at 2:30 p.m.

The SENATE is in. The HOUSE is out.

 

THE MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2021 IS HERE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the largest and most influential gatherings of experts reinventing finance, health, technology, philanthropy, industry and media. Don't miss a thing from the 24th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, from Oct. 17 to 20. Can't make it? We've got you covered. Planning to attend? Enhance your #MIGlobal experience and subscribe today.

 
 
PLAYBOOK READS

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are pictured.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) puts his face in his hands as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks about raising the debt ceiling. | C-SPAN screenshot

CONGRESS

BENEATH THE SURFACE — Burgess Everett writes that an actual default on the country's debt was never going to happen — it was simply the scrim for a power struggle between Schumer and Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL to determine who has more power in the evenly divided chamber. Schumer came out slightly ahead Thursday, but senators are exhausted and the leaders' relationship is threadbare. "As the final agreement took shape, Schumer and McConnell appear to have held no personal conversations. Aides and emissaries handled the details."

DONALD VS. MITCH — WaPo's Felicia Sonmez and Mike DeBonis write "Thursday's debt-limit deal has prompted a new round of attacks on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by former president Donald Trump and his supporters, highlighting McConnell's beleaguered role in a party where Trump remains the most powerful force. … The attacks reflect McConnell's contradictory, difficult role in the Republican Party."

PRAMILA'S PRICE TAG — In an interview with the AP, Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) "said she has pushed Biden to hold the line and keep his ambitious social spending plan closer to $3 trillion instead of the $2 trillion range that he has floated to Democrats in recent days."

FEUDING FOR HOUSING FUNDS — The White House is considering cutting $300 billion in housing aid in the proposed $3.5 trillion spending plan, and Rep. MAXINE WATERS (D-Calif.) has vowed to fight for the full figure, Katy O'Donnell reports. The debate comes as the White House works to cut down the funding proposal's top line to move the bill through Congress.

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

TOUR DE CONGRESS — French Ambassador PHILIPPE ETIENNE returned to D.C. last week after being recalled to France amid the Australian submarine debacle with a mandate from President EMMANUEL MACRON: reengage with the U.S. — not just with the Biden administration, but with Republicans and Democrats on the Hill. So Etienne immediately lined up back-to-back meetings with lawmakers on the Hill from both parties.

His first round of meetings were on Sept. 30, with national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN and Sens. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.), TIM KAINE (D-Va.) and RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-Conn.). The following days of his diplomacy marathon included huddles with Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN, USTR KATHERINE TAI, Rep. ELAINE LURIA (D-Va.) and Sens. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.), JAMES RISCH (R-Idaho), BILL HAGERTY (R-Tenn.) and JOHN BOOZMAN (R-Ark). Etienne's spokesperson explained his féroce charm offensive like this: "There is a crisis and it will take a long time to heal. We don't want to be aggressive, we don't want to underestimate, but the way forward is to see what concrete acts can be made by this administration and to have good relations with Congress."

CUTTING THE TENSION — After this week's meeting between senior Chinese foreign policy adviser YANG JIECHI and Sullivan, AP's Ken Moritsugu writes that the U.S. and China "finally appear to be trying to ease tensions that date from the Trump administration — though U.S. complaints about Chinese policies on trade, Taiwan and other issues are little diminished."

ALL POLITICS

YOUNGKIN'S TRUMP DILEMMA — In the closing weeks of Virginia's close gubernatorial election, AP's Sarah Rankin writes that Republican GLENN YOUNGKIN's "murky answers" on Trump's false election claims "underscore [his] dilemma. … False claims and misinformation about the results are so widely believed by Republican voters that disputing the lies can be politically risky. For months, while running for his party's nomination, Youngkin declined to say whether Biden was legitimately elected.

"Now, in a general election, vying for votes in a tight race in left-leaning Virginia, Youngkin has tried to resist being branded as an election denier or letting Democrats tie him to Trump's false claims."

 

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THE WHITE HOUSE

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: PROGRESSIVES TO WHITE HOUSE: RELEASE THE MEMO — Earlier this year, White House chief of staff RON KLAIN told us that within "weeks" the Biden administration would make a decision about the president's authority to cancel student debt. Biden was just waiting for a legal memo from the Department of Education to help guide him.

More than six months later, the administration has yet to announce a decision.

The lack of clarity has annoyed progressives agitating for Biden to cancel all student debt, and today a group of 15 House members, led by Rep. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.), will be sending the White House a letter demanding "the release to the public by October 22, 2021 the memo that the President requested from the Department of Education to determine the extent of the administration's authority to broadly cancel student debt through administrative action." Full memo and 15 signatories here

BIDEN PUBLIC LANDS ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY — Biden is expected to announce today the restoration of two Utah parks — Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante — as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts of the New England coast, NYT's Coral Davenport reports: "Trump had sharply reduced the size of all three national monuments at the urging of ranchers, the fishing industry and many Republican leaders, opening them to mining, drilling and development."

TV TONIGHT — PBS' "Washington Week": Katie Benner, Nancy Cordes, Cecilia Kang, Marianna Sotomayor and Eamon Javers.

SUNDAY SO FAR …

CBS

"Face the Nation": Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) … Fiona Hill … Scott Gottlieb … Chris Krebs.

Gray TV

"Full Court Press": Anthony Fauci … Jeanne Marrazzo.

FOX

"Fox News Sunday": Panel: Jason Riley, Jacqueline Alemany and Harold Ford Jr. Power Player: Alec Lace.

ABC

"This Week": Panel: Donna Brazile, Chris Christie, Julie Pace and Maggie Haberman.

NBC

"Meet the Press": Panel: Donna Edwards, Yamiche Alcindor and David French.

MSNBC

"The Sunday Show," guest-hosted by Tiffany Cross: Michael Li … Phillip Atiba Goff … Jacqueline Charles … Yvonne Kwan … Versha Sharma.

CNN

"Inside Politics": Panel: Tamara Keith, Eva McKend, Lauren Fox, Jeff Stein, Michael Warren and Leana Wen.

 

BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.

 
 
PLAYBOOKERS

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff takes down Stephanie Grisham's takedown of Melania Trump.

Cory Booker seemed to truly enjoy presiding over the Senate more than … maybe anyone we've ever seen.

Kamala Harris will be rooting for her San Francisco Giants as they take on the L.A. Dodgers in the NLDS, which starts tonight. But the Naval Observatory will be a house divided: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is a true-blue member of Dodgers nation.

Doug LaMalfa video-chatted into a committee meeting from the driver's seat of a working combine harvester to question Tom Vilsack.

Taylor Swift-themed merch trashing Glenn Youngkin was quickly pulled from the Democratic Party of Virginia's online store — and it's a mystery why.

Comedy Central announced the cast for its upcoming animated feature "Washingtonia," executive produced by Stephen Colbert, which includes new "SNL" addition James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump. There are too many characters for us to list here, but they include everyone from Pete Buttigieg to Madison Cawthorn to Hunter Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Ron DeSantis to Kristen Welker.

SPOTTED: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in Manhattan to fundraise with former New York Gov. George Pataki, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), Adam Weiss and Jeff Miller.

OUT AND ABOUT — Friends of American University in Afghanistan held Leslie Schweitzer's annual fundraiser for the school at the Four Seasons in Georgetown on Thursday night with honorary chair Laura Bush, who sent a letter to be read, followed by a VIP reception. SPOTTED: Hillary Clinton, Tom Freston, Carey Lowell, Qatari Ambassador Sheikh Meshal Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Susanna and Jack Quinn, Jamie Dorros, Adrienne Elrod, Elizabeth Thorp, Kelly and Roy Schwartz, Melanne Verveer, Huma Abedin, Gayle Lemmon, Katherine and David Bradley, Rick Klein, Jon Karl, Jennifer Griffin, Gen. John Nicholson Jr., Peter Bergen and Autumn Hanna VandeHei.

— SPOTTED at a screening of the first episode of "Dopesick," a new Hulu series about the origins of the opioid epidemic in America, at the Aspen Institute on Thursday night with writer and executive producer Danny Strong, Warren Littlefield, Beth Macy and cast members Michael Keaton, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, John Hoogenakker and Will Poulter: John Brownlee, Rick Mountcastle, Randy Ramseyer, Alison Kodjak, Dana Bash, Mike Isikoff and David Corn.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Stew Boss is joining Sen. Jacky Rosen's (D-Nev.) office as deputy chief of staff. He previously was a senior comms strategist at DSCC, where he will be succeeded by Patrick Burgwinkle. Burwinkle was previously an account director at Sunshine Sachs and is an alum of End Citizens United, the DCCC and Hillary for America.

TRANSITIONS — Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is joining Browne George Ross as a name partner and a member of the executive committee. Announcement Matt VanHyfte is now press secretary for Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). He most recently did opposition and comms research for the RGA and is a Trump 2020 campaign alum. … Jordan Colvin is now legislative director for Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). She most recently was a VP at Platinum Advisors, was involved with the Veterans and Military Families for Biden movement and is a former undercover D.C. police officer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) and Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) … Adrienne Watson of the DNC … Rev. Jesse Jackson (8-0) … Steve Coll of the Columbia Journalism School and The New Yorker … Bill Schneider … National Journal's Mackenzie WeingerDan DunhamDan Gallo of MSNBC … Kirk MonroeBrianne Gorod of the Constitutional Accountability Center … Caroline Nonna HollandAaron Hiller of the House Judiciary Committee … David BursteinShripal Shah of Left Hook … Sean KennedyLarry Calhoun of Rep. Kat Cammack's (R-Fla.) office … Kirk Schwarzbach Joe Gilson of Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) office (3-0) … Nicole Schlinger … Bully Pulpit Interactive's Ivanka FarrellBlain Rethmeier of 76 Group … Tom SheridanAbdul Dosunmu ... Micah Morris ... Facebook's Riki Parikh ... Dennis AlpertJennifer Allen of the League of Conservation Voters … former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) … Quinn Nii … former HHS Secretary Tom Price Anna Levin

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N.Y. Today: Another vaccine mandate

What you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

It's Friday. We'll look at the new mandate that covers some 250,000 home health care workers. We'll also look at an opera by and for trees.

James Estrin/The New York Times

Representatives of the home health care industry are worried that the new state vaccine mandate will prompt thousands of workers to quit their jobs, curtailing care for patients who are recovering from hospital stays or who rely on long-term aides for assistance. I asked my colleague Sharon Otterman to discuss what the mandate is likely to mean.

This is the second phase of the mandate for health care workers in New York. What's different from the first round?

The first round of mandatory vaccinations for health care workers required people who work in hospitals and nursing homes to get vaccinated by Sept. 27 — doctors, nurses, orderlies and technicians. This round covers home health care workers; people who work in adult care facilities and dialysis centers; and hospice workers.

How many are vaccinated?

The state has been keeping track of vaccination data for hospital workers and nursing home workers. It's also keeping track of vaccination status at adult care facilities, where there are around 30,000 workers. But the state has not been formally tracking vaccination status among home health aides. So, in a sense, the state doesn't know how big the mountain is that this industry has to climb to get to 100 percent.

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Some industry representatives think that as few as seven out of 10 home health care workers — a category of at least 250,000 people in New York — have been vaccinated.

But there was also some evidence that people rushed to get vaccinated as the deadline approached. The Visiting Nurse Service reported a 90 percent vaccination rate on Tuesday and 94 percent on Thursday.

Industry representatives say that even a 5 percent loss of staff could be serious because the field is already short about 100,000 workers. No one's waiting in the wings to take these jobs, and there are many other fields that pay approximately the same. A home health aide could change to a different, less grueling job where there's no vaccination mandate, like a retail job.

Or that person could switch to something called consumer-directed care, which is another class of home health aide. Around 30 or 40 percent of the health aides working right now are consumer-directed, which means the patient hires you directly, without going through an agency. Those aides don't have to be vaccinated.

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Gov. Hochul declared a state of emergency, which gives her the authority to deploy the National Guard to cover staff shortages. Is that the best option?

The National Guard is not well suited to being home health aides, industry officials told me. You don't really want your National Guard recruits going in and helping Grandma bathe.

Why does there seem to be vaccine resistance among home health aides?

This is a diffuse work force. A lot of them have had Covid and feel that is protecting them, and some of them who haven't had Covid feel that if they haven't gotten Covid yet, they're not going to.

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Some also feel that their patients are protected if the patients are vaccinated. That's in part a messaging problem. The public messaging on breakthrough infections hasn't been clear. The message has been that if a person is vaccinated, he or she is safe.

The public health messaging needs to do a better job of making clear that that's not necessarily so.

WEATHER

There's a chance of showers this weekend, so try to enjoy today's partly sunny weather. The temps will again be in the mid-70s.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

In effect until Monday (Columbus Day).

Tell us about a New York moment you've had recently. Write it down (in 200 words or less)! Then email us at diary@nytimes.com or DM us at @NYTMetro on Twitter.

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She talks to the trees, and maybe they listen to her

Yuvraj Khanna for The New York Times

Kamala Sankaram composed an opera for and about trees. Humans are welcome to listen in.

The composition, "The Last Stand," is billed as "a public sound installation and experimental opera" by the arts organization Creative Time, which chose it from among 400 applications for its Emerging Artist Open Call initiative. The last three performances of "The Last Stand" in Prospect Park — where it has been staged several times a week since mid-September — are scheduled for today, tomorrow and Sunday. (Use the entrance on Ocean Avenue at Lincoln Road and look for a wooded area near the Music Pagoda.)

At just over 10 hours, "The Last Stand" is longer than Wagnerian epics like "Die Meistersinger" and "Parsifal," which clock in at just under 5 hours 45 minutes apiece at the Metropolitan Opera.

Sankaram — who also wrote the music for "Interstate," a production that the Minnesota Opera will stream starting on Saturday — said no one had stayed for the full 10 hours. Except for the trees in the park, of course.

Unlike Wagner, who wrote for singers and an orchestra, Sankaram used field recordings that captured sounds like water and wind. One white-throated sparrow makes repeated appearances, and she said there are frogs that sound like a berimbau, the Brazilian instrument with one string and a resonating gourd.

She found her protagonist, a 280-year-old tree, in the Black Rock Forest in the Hudson Valley. She said she talked to researchers about "what might be music for a tree" after she was inspired by the work of Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. Simard's research pointed to a kind of communications system — fungal networks that channel water and nutrients from the largest trees in a forest to the seedlings.

But Sankaram opted to record the forest sounds a tree might experience after deciding that she could not mimic those networks without projecting "my own human idea" of what they might sound like.

What we're reading

  • What has it meant to be a dancer who can't perform because of a pandemic? We followed three New York City Ballet dancers as they made their way back to the stage.
  • What we're watching: Katie Glueck, Metro's chief political correspondent, and Jeff Mays, a politics reporter on Metro, will discuss New York politics — from Eric Adams's City Hall agenda to next year's gubernatorial election — on "The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts." The show airs on Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m. [CUNY TV]
METROPOLITAN DIARY

Drinking alone

Dear Diary:

I believed — as single, lovesick 20-somethings who have read too much Joan Didion tend to do — that there was nothing more New York than getting a drink by myself.

Maybe I would swap intimate stories with a handsome bartender while he mixed me a custom cocktail. Maybe I would lock eyes with another lonely patron who was nursing his own nightcap before heading back to his own empty studio.

So, one balmy Friday night in late August I decided it was time to go out for that solo drink. But where?

My first stop was a new restaurant that had opened on my block, a place that I knew catered to a younger, artsier clientele and served tasty cocktails.

But as I glanced through the window, I saw that almost all of the bar stools were occupied and that most of the people were drinking in pairs. The lone bartender looked harried, and she was buried in her phone. I didn't even make it to the hostess stand.

The second bar seemed more promising: darker lighting, lively atmosphere, extensive wine list. But to my disappointment, there was already another girl enjoying a nightcap by herself, and she had captured the bartender's full attention.

Get over yourself, I thought as I headed toward a wine bar around the corner. This time I marched right inside and clambered onto a stool.

The bartender came right over.

I lifted my gaze to match his, ready for my New York fantasy to take off.

"Sorry," he said breezily. "We're closed."

— Julia Liebergall

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.

Melissa Guerrero, Rick Martinez and Olivia Parker contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com.

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