Random

There's a great post on Jezebel (I found by way of David Byrne) that shows their favorite (not!) airbrush/re-touch magazine cover (of Faith Hill) from a couple years ago. Man, wasn't her arm already thin enough? And you must read the extended entry with the annotated picture whereby they imagine the comments of the photo editor to his photoshop-monkey. Great.

We were trying to get a cab home from midtown today, and since it was a bit before 5PM, all the cabbies begged-off as they needed to get back to the garage soon (we don't usually have any trouble getting a cab to Brooklyn, especially since we live pretty close in). But the doorman-guy at Bed Bath and Beyond got this interesting character for us: He handed me his card when we got in his recent model Buick (no TLC plates, mind you). I thought that this could be a very interesting ride home... but he was cool. He said call any time, except Sunday, as he has services. Good rates on airport trips, and he knows the best place for ice cream in Connecticut. Oh, did I mention that he also performs exorcisms?

This story happened a couple weeks ago. I was riding the subway uptown from City Hall when a group of four Italians boarded and sat near me. I gathered from their chatter and map reading that they were trying to figure out which stop to get off at. We soon stopped at a station and they belatedly decided to get off the subway. As the Italians quickly passed in front of me, I saw a glove drop on the floor. I leaned over to pick it up and say something to the woman who had dropped it, but when I got up they had made it through the car doors, and the normal small crowd of people was now pressing it?s way in. Being tall, I could see the woman walking away over the entering people, but didn?t know how to yell anything useful in Italian. So I made a quick decision and tossed the glove at her, managing to hit her in the back with just enough force so she would notice. Satisfied that I had helped her out as best I could, I turned to sit down again. When I sat down, a woman who had been standing near me held out the matching glove and said ?she dropped both of them.? So I tried again ? I quickly jumped up with the second glove, turned and looked over the crowd and saw the woman just standing up from having picked up her first glove. I lobbed the second glove at her over the crowd, nearly striking her (lightly) in the face. She managed to catch it, and looked at me with a bewildered look, mouthing what I can only hope was 'grazie' (probably more like WTF??). I sat down again and shared a laugh with the woman who handed me the second glove. I figured the gloves were better off with their owner, even if it required an unorthodox method of return.

I'm not sure why i'm surprised, but there's a day for every food, pretty much. I remember dragging (well, I think they were all pretty willing, but going was my idea, anyway...) my work colleagues out to a hot dog place for lunch on national hot dog day. Now I've found out that my birthday falls on National Potato Chip day, and within National Chocolate Week. Mmmmm, salty and chocolate. Find your day of interest, there are many…

Flickr has a great section of historical photos out of copyright called The Commons. Collections from the archives of the Brooklyn Museum (1893 Columbian Exposition), Smithsonian, National Archives... Just tons of great stuff to look at.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Through the interesting site Bearings which a friend pointed out to me, I found this amazing set of pictures: Modern Military Ruins of San Francisco. Some of the best pics are the then-and-now pairs - I love looking at historic photos, and the comparisons to today that show the decay, change, or similarities. (The NY Times also does this on a weekly basis with a cool drag-slider).

If you're in the Scranton area (fan of The Office, perhaps?), I would highly recommend taking a swing by the Olde Good Things Warehouse.

I'm a light sleeper, especially in the mornings. Unfortunately I live close enough to a highway (the BQE) and some major arterials to end up getting woken up or kept up by helicopter noise occasionally. I'm not close enough to these things to hear traffic noise, but helicopters don't have to be very close to make lots of noise.

I used to live near midtown Manhattan, and every holiday season would bring the daily drone of helicopter noise as the mechanical birds hovered over midtown for long stretches filming the throngs shopping and skating and just walking about.

Take this awareness test. It's good. It's short. It's better with sound - there's voice narration, but it's not loud or crazy or anything.