Culture Junky, my niece (26 years old) lives in NYC. She and friends queue for last-minute, discounted Broadway show tickets at the TKTS booth. They post a list each day of what shows they have tickets for, and what the prices are. People get in the queue before the office opens. The line sometimes looks long, but after the office opens it goes really fast. I don't think the TKTS booth takes charge cards, but that may have changed since my niece and friends last got tickets there. I do know they have a first, second and third choice in mind when they purchase tickets from TKTS. Not every show is available every day, or sometimes the show they want has run out of tickets before they get up to the window. Don't buy them from someone on the street; the last thing you want to do is buy counterfeit tickets. The one at Times Square doesn't carry tickets for musicals or dance performances, but only for plays - use the TKTS at South Street Seaport for those.

I'm not exactly sure why, but if you want a bagel and cream cheese at a New York Deli, they refer to it as a bagel and a schmear.

My niece told me it's really hard to get tickets for Saturday Night Live but you can get rehearsal tickets, and those are not as difficult to come by.

And Moosmom, just name the date and I'm there. My niece LOVES living there. She doesn't even have a car but gets to wherever she needs to be via public transit or sometimes a taxi.