Author: Stacy Horn

I used to keep small tubs of Play-Doh around my apartment, just to open them up and smell them from time to time. The scent is very comforting. I stopped doing that years ago, and I’d totally forgotten about it, but I was shopping yesterday and there they were, so affordable and friendly.

Coming up next weekend, my big yearly holiday cleaning. I’ve decided to get a tree this year, probably artificial. The hell with the cats knocking it over. I just won’t put any ornaments on it. Or tinsel. Or garlands. Or anything they can chew or choke on, or break. I will chance lights, however.

This is Britlin Losee conducting her piece, Pieta, at the Women Composer’s Recital on October 11, 2013, at the Aaron Copland School of Music. (The singers and musicians are magnificent as well.) This piece gives me chills. Britlin also has a new website, which I suggest everyone bookmark! She has a link to a new piece there, which also titled Pieta, I see.

When two cats want to sit on your lap but refuse to sit beside each other.

You have to hold one above the other. And it’s always the heavy one.

For some reason the other day I was remembering Ann Romney on the last election night. More than anyone else, her demeanor really showed how taken by complete and total surprise they all were by Barack Obama’s win.

Everyone around her was positive she was going to be the belle of the ball that night. She was so carefully put together, her makeup couldn’t have been more thoughtful, something between day to evening but not too evening, her hair so victoriously up, but every dangling lock arranged just so, the red dress that was the most flattering thing she’d ever worn, the very stylish statement necklace, all dolled up for a party that never happened. She was just so completely unable to hide her monumental shock and deep disappointment. Her face was so determinedly frozen in what I think was meant to be unreadable and calm, but came out as stunned and uncomprehending.

She was supposed to be the queen that night! The next first lady! They were all so sure they had it in the bag and she was so ready for it, with every atom in her body and just the right and carefully chosen shade of nail polish. I will always remember her look of this-can’t-be-happening. Like a woman who was expecting a marriage proposal and instead got dumped. And then had to go on national tv.

Anyway, I just saw her for a brief second on tv, looking absolutely lovely. She’s probably just fine now of course.

Here is not very great shot of a deer that I took on my way to my Tedx talk. I was so nervous, maybe I have this shot of a deer and I remembered Ann Romney because something of me identified with her predicament that night. I’m sure I wouldn’t have handled it any better (and I’m not saying she handled it badly, she handled it like any normal, feeling human being would).

Yesterday I posted about giving historical photographs from the Municipal Archives, The New York Public Library, The Museum of the City of New York or Shorpys for holiday gifts. And I wanted to be more clear about one cool thing you can do that I only briefly mentioned.

In the 1930’s through 1941, pictures were taken of every building in the five boroughs of New York, and they were taken again in the 1980’s. This was done for tax purposes. I have the 1930’s shot of my building (I was less interested in the 1980’s shot) and I’ve given 1930’s shots of buildings to others as gifts in the past. Another cool thing about this is you never know what else is going to be in the shot. The one of my building has this great old car in it. The Municipal Archives has these photographs and everything you need to order them is here.

Also, it’s worth it to go to each of the places I have links to (except Shorpy perhaps) and type in your address. You never know if there might be other photographs of your building (or street) in there. Your building might have been the site of a murder or something else! It’s also worth it to go to the first Municipal Archives link I posted, because there might be other photographs of your building besides the tax photographs.

While I’m at it, another fun thing to do it to go to the New York Times website, type in your address in the search box, and when it comes back make sure the “All Since 1851” date range is selected. If your building has ever been in the news, all the articles will come back.

Even better, go the the New York Public Library and do the same thing in the Proquest Historical Newspapers database. This searches all the newspapers they have online (and they have a lot now). FYI, a lot of very cool databases are accessible from home if you have a library card, but not the Proquest Historical Newspapers database. But other cool Proquest databases are (as well as many other databases, journals, etc.), it’s really worth exploring. You can start looking around here. If the resource has a little house next to it, you can use it from home. But if you live in New York, the 42nd Street branch of the library is a beautiful place to explore from.

I’ve done this for my building and have learned about some interesting people who have lived here, and died here, and other things that have happened here (crimes, but nothing very serious).

PS: There is much much more you can do to learn about the history of your building. I could go on. Actually, the NYPL has a nice page about it. Christopher Gray has great instructions. These are the ones I used when I researched my building.

A couple more shots I took the last time I was at Ft. Tryon Park. Which I love.