Touching the Monolith: In a scene straight out of the opening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, thousands of Expo attendees reverentially walked up to several pillars with iBooks stuck to them and -- touched them. Whoever designed these pillars and the associated lighting should be rewarded; it looked almost religious.

Contemplating the Future: Without a doubt, the hit of the show was the iBook. Apple had several dozen in their booth, set up for Internet surfing and general playing around.

Digital Art: Continuing an old tradition, MacWorld sponsored an art exhibition. The only common theme among the top pieces seemed to be a "non-computer" look, with dense textures, soft lines and other elements not normally found in computer artwork.

iMacs Abound: As Steve Jobs noted in his opening address, it seems hard to believe but the iMac wasn't even a year old -- yet they are everywhere. Hundreds of them were at the Expo, including dozens in Apple's booth.

Global Village People: The sales department of Global Village set up a stage and then did "Village People" takeoff numbers, in costume. By the last day of the show, few of them could do more than whisper, their voices shot.

Massive Blue Horsepower: The National Macintosh Gaming Championship area was cleverly redone this year. Instead of a maze of box-like booths, the area was surrounded by a low barrier, allowing you to see a vast expanse of blue-and-ice Power Mac G3 computers and blue-and-ice monitors.

People, People Everywhere: Attendance at this, the second MacWorld held in New York City, was up sharply from the year before. There were also more exhibits and vendors.

Banners Everywhere: The Convention Center has an outstanding lobby, much more open and uncluttered than almost any other convention center lobby. So much open space just begged to be cluttered with banners, and the vendors were up to the challenge.

Flat-Panel Envy: Silicon Graphics, best known for their high-end supermini graphics computers, was at the Expo, showing off this incredible flat-panel display. It has stunning color fidelity, and an equally stunning price. Radius is selling a version of the monitor with a blue-and-ice case.

Get on the bus, Gus: We don't know if Gus made it on the bus, but four dozen Pi members did. One enterprising soul made Pi name tags for everyone, using artwork "borrowed" from the Pi Web site.

Curbside service: The Pi chartered bus pulled up right outside of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Those who made the journey some other way usually had to walk eight to ten blocks to the Convention Center, conveniently located near none of New York's hotels.

Garden Replanted: Madison Square Garden, about a dozen blocks from MacWorld Expo, seems to have recovered nicely from its battle with Godzilla. Still a mystery: in most cities, a "square" is an unoccupied piece of land, usually used as a park, but several "squares" in New York City are occupied by large buildings.

In the city: Many Pi members had never visited New York City prior to last year's MacWorld Expo in New York. This year, the Pi's bus trip enticed even more to make a first journey and, while they were there, some escaped to see some famed sites, such as Macy's department store on Herald Square.