Longtime Voice writer Nat Hentoff once opined that the chief attraction of tennis is "the opportunity it gives to release aggression physically without being arrested for felonious assault." But if you'd like to practice your non-criminal behavior with some more élan, at Manhattan's Midtown Tennis Club you can enroll in "Indoor Adult Tennis College," "Adult Tennis Camp," or "Stroke of the Week." midtowntennis.com
Most people do not consider billiards a violent game. Clearly, they have not enrolled in Tony Robles's Deadly Pool Workshop. Robles, a professional pool player who enjoys the sobriquet "The Silent Assassin," instructs would-be ballers in the esoteric arts of cue ball control, position play, defense play, and killer attitude. tonyrobles.net
Nature
On a depressing day in the city, you can easily find yourself concluding that New York is for the birds. And it is! Pigeons fight for crumbs against ducks, geese, cormorants, sandpipers, egrets, and marsh hawks. The Salt Marsh Alliance has restored portions of Marine Park's marshes and made them an Eden for birdwatchers and their prey. You can get your ornithology on at the Alliance's Saturday-morning birding class. saltmarshalliance.org
Aspirin comes from willow bark, heart medicine from the foxglove, and anti-cancer drugs from yew trees. Natural remedies form the core of Herbal Bear's course in Medical Botany, offered both at its Chelsea location and at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Students will study the medicinal properties of plants and learn "proper methods for herbal cultivation, harvesting, and storage to protect herbal efficacy." herbalbear.com
Photography
In 1825, the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce impressed a natural scene onto a polished pewter plate. You can learn of Niépce's innovation and subsequent advances at Pratt's class in "History of Photography." The course explores photography's "social, artistic, and political contexts" and supplements weekly lectures with museum and gallery visits. Pratt also offers courses in black-and-white photography, portrait photography, and digital photography. pratt.edu
Photographers who long to take Manhattan might consider the New School's "Shadows, Textures, Reflections: Seeing the Light in New York City." In every session, students shoot a new urban locale ("from the geometries of South Street Seaport to the natural beauty of parks and gardens"). Shutterbugs who long to flee our fair isle can temporarily escape with a class in travel photography. newschool.edu
Miscellaneous
Every New Yorker multitasks—answering e-mails while chatting on the phone, proofreading files on the subway, walking while balancing coffee and a bagel. But if you'd like to learn a more literal form of juggling, Juggle NYC offers a weekly class at its 14th Street home. Paris (the "Hip-Hop Juggler") and Rod of the Flying Karamazov Brothers will instruct students in the manipulation of balls, scarves, rings, diabolos, and spinning plates. rodkimball.com/jugglingclasses
Our city boasts a plenitude of smells, both delectable (fresh-brewed coffee, Curry Hill spices) and despicable (gingko blossoms, subway urine). If you'd like to put your New York nose to more remunerative use, consider the Fashion Institute of Technology's Creative Fragrance Development program. The spring semester presents an "Introduction to Perfumery": scientific fundamentals, structure of a fragrance, and techniques of smelling. www3.fitnyc.edu/continuinged/CPS/Perfumery/ABCs&Perfumery.htm
