Two nostalgia-filled articles in the N.Y. Times caught my eye over the weekend. First, the management of the Empire State Building, looking to complement their historically accurate renovation, commissioned formal uniforms for their guards and other public staff. The design is reminiscent of the 1930s, the same Art Deco style and color of the building and its marble corridors. Although the uniforms are old-fashioned, their distribution and collection system is not. Employees use an ID card to collect and return their clothing from an automated rack. Over at Lord & Taylor, a NYC institution of the retail kind, they continue to play the Star Spangled Banner every morning before opening time. Called “the longest-running daily ritual that can be traced to the 444-day Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979,” the tradition has been kept alive, even after an accompanying coffee service (originally on matching cups and saucers no less) was halted a few years ago.