Tierras del Sol is a fantastic place, the very last "hotel" (really just a handful of rooms and a palapa) on the road before you enter the Sian Ka'an nature reserve, but they are tiny and when I checked their prices have gone WAY up since we were there.

Ana y Jose's is probably where most wedding parties head to, but they too are expensive. Really, all the hotels along the strip south from the ruins are fantastic. We saw weddings there.

Oh, wait, you said "all-inclusive". Ergh. I'm not a fan of all-inclusives, because there is so much more to Mexico than steam-table buffets. But I guess if you're going to the Tulum area it doesn't matter TOO much, since the restaurant options along the beach road are somewhat limited.

Do make an effort to get out of the bubble, though -- the puebla or town of Tulum, up on the highway (just past the turnoff to the beach road) is an interesting place to walk around. I STRONGLY recommend taking at least one organized tour, at the very minimum a visit to a couple of cenotes (freshwater swimming holes opened up when the thin limestone crust of the Yucatan caved in). We also did an amazing walk and float through the three lagoons in Sian Ka'an, arranged out of the Weary Traveler hostel in the puebla. Your hotel should also be able to set you up with something.

As I've never stayed at them, I can't recommend one, but when we went I found the forums at playa.info and tulum.info to be extremely helpful. They're the same people; playa.info is for Playa del Carmen, but gets the bulk of the Tulum discussion as well. They have a whole section for All-inclusives. Do a search for "wedding" and dig around a little. Most of the people who post there heavily are American ex-pats or frequent visitors who really know their stuff.

If you're really bored, you can read my entire "Trip Report" that I posted back in 2005, before I knew anything about anything. I don't actually get to Tulum until Page Three. There's not a lot in there that speaks to your needs, but you might laugh.

http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/12969-where-i-went-holiday-trip-report.html

Nonfiction: Joseph Mitchell, Up In The Old Hotel and Other Stories. Mitchell was a New Yorker writer of oddball portraits for decades. Joe Gould's Secret (included in the above volume) is particularly poignant.

Another New Yorker writer of more recent vintage who has written perceptively about the city is Ian Frazier: Gone To New York: Adventures in the City.

The Luc Sante book mentioned above is an absolute must.

Some off-the-wall genre fiction that is both hilarious and deeply evocative of NYC is the Dortmunder series by Donald Westlake. Comic heist stories get no respect but are really fantastic. You'll learn more about New York geography from getaway driver Stan Murch's meditations on the expressway system than anywhere else. Start with The Hot Rock and work your way through these like candy. Other detective fiction set in New York includes the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout, in which his assistant Archie covers about fifty years of NYC street life. The Lawrence Block "Matthew Scudder" series is super-good too.

Yes. Yes, I do.

Beatles first LP
Ramones first LP

There you go. Also, no one should be allowed to play the drums without getting these two down first.

You might find it interesting to know, and share with your friend, that the novelist Vladimir Nabokov disliked music. He specifically detested "soft music", as might be found in an elevator or other public place as background, but even quality music -- his son was an opera singer -- left him utterly unmoved.

So he's in good company.

I'm married to a 40-something year old woman, and in her case the "chocolate" answer is right on. More specifically, I believe the ticket would be "as much Theo chocolate (made in Fremont) as you can carry". Mrs. Fnarf makes funny little noises when she has a piece of their "Bread and Chocolate" bar.

Was it a law? I thought it was just a distribution and marketing policy of Coors's. When we lived in Texas in the early 70s, my dad bought a ton of Coors from a guy who did exactly that, bootlegged a truckload from Colorado to Dallas.

I still remember the bizarre push-button can top, where instead of pulling off a ring, or lifting a lever like today's cans, you pushed in a big button and a little one. These sucked for drinking out of, but they were futuristic.

The first beer I tasted was Coors, sometime around then, after running out to the fridge in the garage, where those contraband Coors cases were kept, to get another one for my lazy dad in front of the football game.

It means that next Monday you will briefly meet someone who once submitted an article about watermelons to a popular magazine but had it rejected.

You want to search for "paleta", i.e., "little stick", which is what they call the popsicles you can get on most streetcorners in Mexico. I agree, they're fantastic, just the perfect non-overpowering level of concentration. They often have real fruit in them, and that fruit is always super-ripe and heavenly.

Does this look like the thing you had? http://www.flickr.com/photos/ulteriorepicure/2636781451/in/photostream/ (not my photo)

I wonder if that flavor is made with horchata? You could try it. Lots of horchata recipes online, or you can buy it in a store, or you can buy it from a taco truck and take it home and freeze it with pecan bits in it. You might even be able to find pecan paletas in a Mexican grocery.

Or you could make this recipe here and see how it goes: http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=2958

She says it's from a whole book of paleta and agua fresca recipes, which I think I'm going to have to order now.