what about the plastic animals?

Construction Begins at St. John the Divine

Nearly a year ago, I mentioned that the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine had leased a portion of its land to a developer for a 20-story apartment building.  Clearing of the land started within the few weeks.  I didn't realize this earlier, but much of what looks like a rock outcropping is actually loose rock brought to the site when the cathedral was built a century ago.  With all the scraggly trees gone the corner looks better already.  We'll see how it looks once the building is up.  The developer is AvalonBay, which is best known for utterly awful-looking suburban communities around the country.

I think the photos on this site need to be bigger.

Selena and Tito

On a wall, somewhere in East Harlem.

Van and Bus

The photo of the Sin City van doesn't do it justice.  It was glowing at 7:45 this morning.

Rings

I was going to tell a humorous and insightful anecdote here this evening but I've forgotten what it was.

On the bus ride home this evening I was listening to a 1966 Jean Shepherd show.  He read a short news item about Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. telling a graduating class of FBI National Academy recruits that "the doctrine of civil disobedience is supported by bigots, fanatics and extremists".  To which Shepherd replied, "Only in America would a guy who plays an FBI man address the graduation group of FBI men.  This will be known as the age when fantasy and showbiz begin to slowly take over from reality."  Shepherd went on to explain his theory of how certain types  of actors are becoming successful in the political world.  He specifically pointed out actors like Ronald Reagan, who always plays the nice guy who never gets the woman or the responsible husband, would be successful politicians.

Not my humorous and insightful anecdote, but humorous and insightful.

Bear and Faun

Bear and Faun, aka The Seligman Fountain, Morningside Park

Back when photographs were much smaller I put a picture of the Bear and Faun sculpture up here.   The sculpture was erected in memory of Alfred Seligman, a vice president of the National Highways Protective Association, who met an ironic death in a 1912 automobile accident.

TriBeCa Mailbox

I wonder how many freestanding mailboxes like this are in Manhattan?

As the Clouds Roll by

The last few days I've felt like I've been coming down with something.  I came home last night, ate dinner, put together the animated gif linked below and then fell asleep on the couch around 8:30.   Woke up around 11:00 only to climb into bed.  Woke up around six this morning only to fall asleep until 10:00.  It still feels like I'm coming down with something but so far no cold has arrived.

As I watched the clouds roll across the sky Monday night I thought they might make for a good animation.  Take a look at the resulting time lapse view.  There's ten photos taken over a 5-6 minute period.  Each picture is a 15-second long exposure, with 17 seconds between the start of each photo.  In addition to the moving clouds you can see the constellation rotate.  The reddish thing at upper left, the thing that looks like a jellyfish, is either a lens flare or a major astronomical discovery.

in a NEW SIZE!

ConEd is so proud of their new bill size!  For those readers who are not ConEd customers, our fine local utility sent a post card to all their customers a few months ago proudly announcing the NEW SIZE of our bills.  I don't know what I was expecting, the information presented in a different manner, a new font size, but something that would take advantage of the NEW SIZE.  What we customers got was the same old bill, printed at the same width, but with a one-inch margin on both sides.  Yes, each new bill now comes with 22 square inches of extra paper.  Now, for the second month in a row the envelope containing our bill, actually I pay directly so this is just a statement, proudly proclaims the fabulous NEW SIZE.

ConEd has approximately 3.4 million customers.  That works out to an extra 74.8 million square inches, or nearly 520,000 square feet of blank paper produced each month for no reason whatsoever.  That's enough paper to make approximately 8000 100-page notebooks or 6000 300-page paperback novels each month.  Nice way to use our natural resources ConEd.

Three More

Three more photos from Aunt Helga and cousin Jörg. 

The bottom photo is of the kitchen of my father's deli in Smithtown.  My father's on the left and my mother's on the right.  I may or may not be in the room.  I've told this story before, but now I have a photo to go with it.  When both my parents were working at the deli they would need someplace to keep me.  Properly arranged, the cases of soda and beer at far left made an excellent crib.

Three of Me

Mom and month-old me.

Big sister Liz and six month old me.

Judy and me.

Photos from my Aunt Helga, scanned by cousin Jörg.