Month: December 2015

I know I’m late to address this, but here is the video of Justin Trudeau welcoming Syrian refugees to Canada. This should have been us, this is supposedly what we stand for, but I’m glad there is someone and a country and people like this. Thank you Canada for picking up the ball we dropped. Good on you, as they say.

P.S. I think we might have to steal Justin Trudeau. I’m pretty sure he was actually born in America. First there was that cabinet and then his comments about women and now this. Yeah, pretty sure we can find some proof around here somewhere that he’s American.

Update: Now I’m just getting upset about this after seeing Trump’s ugly face on the front of the Times. Canada puts out this wonderful welcoming, tolerant, embracing face to the world, and we put out Trump’s ugly hateful face bleating on about shutting down the borders to all Muslims and calling Mexicans rapists.

The Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum, taken from the point of view I had when my choir sang beside it.

I know a lot of people hate SantaCon, and I am not happy with some of the participants (like the people who were assholes towards the Black Lives Matter protestors last year) but I do enjoy seeing kids dressed as Santas and Elves and some creatures I couldn’t identify. I think they’re mostly adorable.

But I am home and in bed before they get really drunk.

Being nice to the police is always the way to go. I wonder if cops think this is a fun detail to pull.

So this guy on the left is firmly in the category of “what the hell is that??” And the Bumble!

I did hear, “Let’s get drunk,” and “I want to get drunk,” a lot as I walked around, I must admit. Every bar was packed.

Elves texting Santa. “Do you really need us back at the North Pole? Because we want to get drunk.”

Santas and the Chrysler Building, my favorite New York Building.

This one made me laugh. Some girl begging a bouncer about something. A familiar site from my younger days.

I kept trying to get shots which capture just how many Santas are out there. I thought maybe three shots in a row might do it.

One of the best holiday traditions for city dwellers are all the Christmas tree stands. You’re walking along the same sidewalks you zip through every day, but now they are filled with trees! That smell like pine! And they are all over the place. The concrete jungle turns green. Ish.

I went inside Tiffany’s for a walk down memory lane. I’ve worked there as Christmas help twice, many years (decades) ago. The store was empty! In December! When I worked there it would have been insane this time of year. It would have been an absolute mob scene with people crowded around every counter, especially this one, the Elsa Perretti counter. That’s where I worked both times, and the reason why it was always the most crowded was it had a section of affordable jewelry in addition to a high end selection.

It’s like the Apple Store where I went last week. Empty. I know people shop online now but still. Where are the tourists?? And, if nothing else, jewelry is so much prettier in person.

Doesn’t this shot have an Edward Hopper feel? Not just the emptiness, but that Hopper sense of loneliness and isolation.

There must be something to do when a Supreme Court justice goes off the deep end. These words of his should get him removed, there has to be some minimum standard, like racists not allowed, due to the monumental conflict of interest:

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well,” Scalia said, “as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school … a slower-track school where they do well.”

An interesting change I’ve discovered about aging. My favorite museum to go to is the Met, for sheer variety. Whatever I’m in the mood for is there in some form or another. But it used to be there were tons of pockets that were boring to me. I’ve noticed though that over the years less is boring to me. Now, pretty much everything is of interest.

Like this thing. I didn’t write down what it is or where it came from and of course I’ve forgotten, the other side of aging. But I walked around it, fascinated. Look at that little guy climbing up the … whatever it’s called.