You’ve all read about the Sony hack. Words said, opinions shared, salaries discussed, social security numbers breached. And you are exhorted to change your password frequently. Does anyone really think it makes a difference? It just depends how high up the ‘important scale’ you are.
What?
No longer can we in the US of A manufacture a manhole cover?
Buddhist Temple
The building behind the stoplight and under the sign board, is a temple. Rather unassuming. But there it is, none the less.
The Sandwich
Last evening on the subway, a poorly dressed, bleary-eyed man with scruffy face hair boarded the car I was in, as the doors were closing. He immediately began with his pitch that he needed help. He mentioned something about a child, housing, a place to sleep but none of it was particularly easy to follow. When he reached the part about asking for help, it could be money or food, I waited to see what the pitch was. He was clear about that, it could be food or money, anything would be appreciated. So I reached down into my bag, pulled out the plastic bag that contained the neat container holding a liverwurst sandwich with all the trimmings. As he approached, I held up the handled bag to him and said, ‘It’s a sandwich’. He took it gratefully and graciously. What he didn’t know was the trip that sandwich had made. It had been driven in a 2015 Maserati from a swank County Club in Westchester, where it had been made by the Club Chef. It deserved a no more worthy recipient.
Santacon
The quote below [Time] puts it so nicely.
‘People dressed as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus celebrate in Times Square as they gather for the annual Santacon festivities on Dec. 13, 2014 in New York.
Organizers had promised to tone down the annual booze-soaked event this yearUndaunted by the popular backlash against the notoriously rowdy annual gathering, Santacon returned to the streets of New York this year, with thousands donning Santa suits on Saturday for the annual booze-and-Christmas-cheer-fueled bar crawl.’
In theory they are raising money for charity. What it looks like however is a lot of frat boys dressed up in red with hats, drinking as early as 10 am on a Saturday morning and not stopping until someone puts them in a cab to save them from certain death of alcohol poisoning. And what it sounds like is that groups of them find no better place to stand and call to each other than on my street. The saving grace this year, it is cold! And the cold keeps the females from pub crawling, they are more likely to stay put. Only when they all gather in Times Square – I have no information why they do, or what they are hearing –
This link will give you a visual: Time.com/3632806/santacon-new-york-christmas
My Fantasy
The following link is to a story, I find enthralling. The title is: Deathbed confession sends New York family on $4.5m treasure hunt. It is akin to my favorite joke. A wife was sitting for a portrait in her living room. At the moment her son walked in on the session, the artist was painting an emerald and diamond necklace at her neck on the canvas. ‘What’s with that?’ he asked. ‘You don’t own such a piece and besides you aren’t wearing it!’ “I know.’ replied the mother, ‘But if something happens to me and your dad remarries, his new wife will drive herself mad searching for it.’
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/10/deathbed-confession-new-york-family-treasure-hunt
Looks like Rome
This is the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, from the City side, at the end of the Bowery. Such a beautiful structure
Again, No Idea
No Idea
This sign board has the words, ‘adult swim’ in it, but for the rest, I have no idea to what it refers. This is not the first one.
No Excuses
The City has not been erased from the map, but you would never know it by my contributions. No excuses, will get on it. Christmas is in full swing. Other years you have gone through the sequence from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, -which I missed completely as I was away from the City the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center, and even some information on the antique subway cars put into use between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You will just have to accept that all of those things happened as required and are in place. There has been a press this year, to have shoppers go to their ‘local’ small shops and make their purchases. In agreement with that idea, I have been visiting ‘The Golden Dragon” across the street. This shop, run by an Asian couple is the one that I featured during the winter storm two years ago. They are amazing. They sell cut flowers, seasonal plants, – I purchased an 8″ tree and wooden ornaments, cards, ribbons, computer attachments, umbrellas, hats, and on the days one is not home for FedEx or UPS the packages may be dropped off there for later pickup. The owner telephones, leaves a message, and when you finally pick it up – it can be days – the holding charge is $2. Beats Walmart hollow.