Friday, December 31, 2010

The Last Bus Ride of 2010

I had to run down to the Apple store this morning (my MacBook Pro is getting wonky), and on the way back I took the M104 up Broadway.It’s was a sunny morning here in Gotham, and the bus was a lovely way to go, much better than the dank darkness of the underground. Thinking about this being the last...
              

Monday, December 27, 2010

"The frolic architecture of the snow"

New York has seen two large snow storms this year, the one in February, that had an O. Henry twist for me, and the Boxing Day Blizzard. This one was particularly cruel to travelers, who had been given an extra travel day with Christmas on a Saturday. Now if they get out by New Year's they'll be happy.As...
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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Doctor Who: Jumping the Christmas Shark?

And so it came to pass in these days, that a decree went out from BBC America that American fans of Doctor Who should not be kept waiting to see the annual Christmas episode until Easter, as they had been in days of old.This was the first Christmas special with Steven Moffat as executive producer and...
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Friday, December 24, 2010

The Hopes and Fears of All the Years . . .

. . . are met in thee tonight, O little town of Bethlehem. And the Word was made Flesh, bringing salvation. It's the human side that has led to centuries of anxiety and destruction. But not tonight.Merry Christmas to all in whatever that merriment means to you.Thoughts on Christmas Eve from the poet...
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Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Very Best Christmas Movie: The Thin Man!

Much of the sparkle and fun of Christmas is for children, even after Santa fades into parents. But one great bauble for grown-up holiday spirits is the 1934 film The Thin Man. I don’t know why it isn’t on best Christmas movie lists across the land. The oddly non-eponymous series (the Thin Man...
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

A New Gerund Enters My Life

Rolfing. And two new nouns: facia/myofascial system, and structural integration.The verb is not the sophomoric slang for vomiting. It comes from Ida Rolf, an extraordinary if mysterious woman, born in the Bronx in 1896. She graduated Barnard in 1916, and then from Columbia University of Physicians...
              

Monday, December 6, 2010

Right Place, Right Time

Our bartender friend Scribbler of Behind the Stick has an amazing story up at his place, recounting his cosmic experience of going to Elaine’s last Friday, following the news of her death. It has to do with a key lost, and a key returned. Go visit to read his strangely magical tale. His story reminded...
              

Saturday, December 4, 2010

I Would Follow Bergdof's Anywhere

My own official kickoff of the Christmas season begins with my visit to the windows at Bergof’s. Midtown is so glutted with tourists that it took me almost 15 minutes to make the 5 blocks journey north on 5th Avenue between my office and BGs.The arduous trek was well worth it. The theme of the windows...
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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Where's M.A.?

I was happily one of 15,000 people on Thanksgiving morning in Manchester, CT, participating in a 74-year-old tradition of running 4.7 miles to usher in the holiday season.The Manchester Road Race started in 1927 when the captain of the Manchester High School cross-country team was sad that his track...
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Counting My Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'll be running in the 4K Manchester Road Race this year. It's quite the tradition in Connecticut. Here are some wise words from Mr. Irving Berlin:When I'm worried and I can't sleepI count my blessings instead of sheepAnd I fall asleep counting my blessingsWhen my bankroll is getting smallI think of when I had none at allAnd I fall asleep counting my blessi...
              

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Tumblring Back At You

I'd like to call your attention to a tumblr of the finest order: "This isn't happiness™" by the talented Peteski. His tumblr is a dazzling, poignant, sexy, beautiful, dark collection of photographs that has an enormous following. Peteski describes his work as "an art scrapbook of links more than images,...
              

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Cross Currents on the Kindle

I’ve entered the world of digital ink, of whole libraries stored in a tablet the size of an old paperback book, torn down to the thickness of the cover with just a few pages.My 6" screen Kindle just came today, so I’m still finding my way around. One surprise was the screen savers that appear when...
              

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Rutgers v. Army at the New Meadowlands

I don’t go to many of my alma mater football games. In fact the last one was decades ago, when I went to the final Rutgers/Princeton game. Rutgers won that, 44 to 13. Rutgers was just starting to make its bid for big time football, and so needed to be in a different league than Princeton. It was...
              

Monday, October 11, 2010

Another Really Important Birthday: Happy 10 Years Andrew Sullivan & The Dish

On the heels of John Lennon's big day comes this very important day in the blogosphere: The Dish is turning 10!! (Making it a Libra blog, uniting John, Andrew, and me :) For all of you who think blogging is a more recent phenomenon than that, take note!(I love his party hat and cake for the dogs. The...
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Saturday, October 9, 2010

Dun-na-nuh-neh-na-nah, neh nuh: THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOO, YEAH; THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, WE'RE GONNA HAVE A GOOD TIME; I'M GLAD IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. I’m SO happy to see the Google animation for John. What a great way to take his 20th century doodles into the 21st century. The Paley Center for Media’s Tribute...
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Friday, October 1, 2010

Dark Days on the Banks of the Old Raritan

Sol iustitiae et occidentem illustraSun of righteousness, shine upon the West also.Irony now swirls around the Rutgers sunburst seal, with its adaptation of the Latin motto of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, connoting the original college’s early affiliation with the Dutch Reformed Church....
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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Crosby's Unexpected Gift to Baseball Fans

It’s a surprise to see Bing Crosby, pop culture’s most important forgotten man, on the homepage of the New York Times online, but there he was on Thursday night, a beautiful black & white picture from 1947.The subject: baseball. A complete video of Game 7 from the 1960 World Series between the...
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