Vote!

I’ve spent way too much time reading Twitter, hoping for puppies and kittens, babies and creativity, only to become immersed in political dialogue. To be fair, there is profound kindness in the twittersphere: people reaching out for reassurance, condolences or just a virtual hand to hold.

Many of the Twitter thoughts these days lead up to tomorrow: November 6 is Election Day here in the United States. I urge everyone to vote. Even if my beliefs and knowledge are different from yours, I want you to vote.

When you don’t vote you choose to silence yourself. However, your voice matters, not just online but on the ballot as well.

On Fear

Bob Woodward‘s Fear, a best-seller from the moment of its release last week, is a hard book to read.

It should be easy: the cast of characters is as familiar as family if you follow any form of current events. The problem is that as I read the book, I am reviewing the past couple of years’ history while simultaneously living with the updates.

Nine Tips And Reflections on Painting

Moving house is stressful but not far behind that is the work of having your home painted.

I have spent the last three weeks getting my apartment’s first paint job —and some serious plastering —  in over a decade.

The real work for me was packing up each room, then unpacking so the next room could be addressed. The bedroom moved into the living room, the kitchen into the dining area, the dining area into the living room. Entryway decorations lived in my car. It gave me time to think:

Will Grocery IDs Become A Thing?

What started as the funniest news tidbit of the week has given me the creeps:

Trump said at a rally in Tampa, Florida that you need to show identification to buy groceries. (We have to show proof of age to buy  alcoholic beverages.) My reaction was the usual eyeroll, followed by mild horror: Any regime that would confiscate children is not above restricting access to food.

Midlife Isn’t Scary If You’re In An Abba Musical

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon than to escape into a musical? Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is set in an idealized world of bright colors, music, choreography and kindness. And in this alternate universe young and old play nice, care about each other sing and dance in some over-the-top costumes, where the characters reminisce even as they move forward in their glossy lives.

In this sequel, we’re still on the Greek island of Kalokairi. Sophie is grown up, in love (with one guy) and she transformed her home into a high-end hotel. It’s time for the grand opening, with family and media invited.

The Bucolic Fire Island Light

When a friend suggested a midweek drive to the Fire Island Lighthouse, I gleefully jumped at the opportunity.

Fire Island is a barrier island off the south shore of Long Island. The south shore of Fire Island faces the Atlantic Ocean, hence,  the 19th century lighthouse.

Weekly Prompt: That Upcoming Heat Wave

The new challenge site, Weekly Prompts, issued a challenge: depict heat wave.  

Challenge accepted: Here is a Long Island Rail Road train heading eastbound to suburbia on a hot summer night in 2016.  I hope a nice cool beverage awaited each passenger —and there were surely many — when they arrived home!

We’re expecting a heat wave here in New York this weekend. Nothing unusual; it is, after all, summer.

Be The Media. Be There For The Kids

There are were only two newsy personalities I follow(ed): the late Anthony Bourdain and Rachel Maddow. Maddow breaks down the political news of the day on cable TV’s MSNBC, an unabashedly progressive network.

Back in the day she used to mix cocktails once a week at the end of her show. She is funny and smart and presents the facts, however hard and complicated, in a way that makes them understandable. She connects the dots. Last week she broke down and cried when she tried to read the late-breaking report that the ICE opened prisons for babies and toddlers. That was too much even for Rachel.

They Organized A Photo Challenge

Weekly Prompts is a brand new blog site, run by two veteran bloggers, offering word and photo prompts to rally other bloggers. Bloggers are social people; we like to comment, share and “like” each other’s posts. That makes sense: We exist in this form of digital media because we all have something to say, either in words or pictures. (Or both!)

Pro Publica Reports From The Chain Link Fence

In case anybody is ambivalent about the confiscating of children coming over the United States’ southern border, taking them from their parents and warehousing them in kiddie prisons:

https://youtu.be/PoncXfYBAVI

 

 

Father’s Day Movie Mashup: A Wrinkle In Time & Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

It’s Father’s Day here in the United States, and I’m pondering two movies I wish I’d seen.

A Wrinkle In Time was one of my favorite books as an adolescent. Mystical and scary, it follows 13-year-old Meg Murry as she works to rescue her scientist father using a tesseract.  It’s all astrophysics and, to be honest, I didn’t understand much of the science behind it. I still don’t, but the story is great. Meg, her brother and their friend are assisted by three angelic women from another dimension.  Their brave collaboration and perseverance help make the story. One image that never left my head: they visit a “world” where everyone is the same and everything is done in unison as decreed by some government types. Scared the hell out of me!

So here we have a hit movie directed by a woman, starring three woman and a teenage girl, from a book written by a woman, about saving a good man.

Columns and Commuting

The massive Farley Post Office in Manhattan now serves an additional purpose: The underground level provides increased access to overcrowded Pennsylvania Station.

Oddball: Beer and Flowers

This display made me laugh right on Second Avenue in New York City.

CFFC: Arches and Domes On The Other Side of Town

I think you can tell the more affluent side of the neighborhood by the prettier architecture: nicer doors and courtyards, domes, arches and non-standard roof lines,  “no parking unless you can prove you live here” signs, and  gardens.

So in response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, here’s what I found in that area:

8 Other Places to Play In The Blogs

Hey blogging buddies, many thanks to everyone who weighed in on my previous post. Here are some other challenge options now that WordPress closed our playground:

A Challenge to Bloggers as Community-Building Comes to a Screeching Halt

I learned today that WordPress, who hosts this blog and a bajilion others worldwide, will no longer run their weekly photo challenges and writing prompts. By participating in the photo challenges, I have been privileged to view beautiful photography from around the world and right in my city. Many of us follow each other’s blogs so we don’t miss a post. I am lucky but new and future bloggers won’t have that opportunity.

One last time, here is my contribution to a challenge: Twisted. We were asked to show something that is rounded. This subway station connects the E and M trains with the 6. It was an efficient transfer point while I was commuting for a late-night short-term project. I don’t recall ever using that station much; indeed, I initially forgot about it and took a more time-consuming route.

Delights Behind The Woodhaven Gate

I should have been grocery shopping but instead, detoured to the park on a beautiful, clear Sunday.

Forest Park, in the middle of New York’s largest borough, is  a 500-acre woodland with playgrounds, trails and horses.  At the Woodhaven Gate entrance (one of many for this huge park) the only horses were part of the beautiful carousel, the centerpiece of the tiny Amusement Village. This carousel is originally from Massachusetts and dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, replacing the previous one which was destroyed in a fire in 1966.  It’s a gentle ride, as are all the amusements in the village.

7 Diversions for the Overworked

*Here’s a gratuitous picture of beautiful Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on a snowy afternoon.*

Lots of work leaves little time for blogging, but here are seven things I’ve noticed lately:

I’d Rather Be Laughing In The Warm Sun

The WordPress Photo Challenge asks what I’d rather be doing:

• Laughing
• With my daughter
• Someplace warm. I’m damn tired of winter.

Have A Chipper Pi Day

March 14 is Pi Day, the day when math and science geeks fans geniuses get to celebrate their intelligence. I’m not one of them  but I’m grateful that they’re so much smarter than me that 3.14159 has profound meaning to them. I know that it has to do with the relationship between a circle’s diameter and its circumference. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

Grammar for Non-New Yorkers

On this National Grammar Day, let’s reflect on how those of us from New York City use language to define our geographical lineage.

Probably the most popular New York-ism is how we queue up: The English-speaking world stands in line, except us. We wait on line.

We Are Judged By Our Jobs, And Those Jobs Play Hard-To-Get

Amazing how we self-identify — and are identified by — our jobs.

Storytelling Without Expression

Photo challenge accepted: A Face in the Crowd. “Without facial expression, can you tell how someone is feeling?”

Still Not Silent: Scenes from the Second (Annual?) Women’s March

Early reports estimate that 120,000  attended the 2018 Women’s March in New York City, less than a third of last year’s turnout, but the ideals and anger were no less powerful.

5 Reasons To Do Laundry In A Snowstorm

1. All my warmest socks needed to be ready for the record cold expected for the next few days. Note that I live in a building with laundry rooms, so we don’t have to venture outside.
2. Cabin fever: Interact with the neighbors who are in the same position. Actually, the best way to meet your fellow residents and get to know a new neighborhood is to find an excuse to be in the laundry room and common areas.
3. I’m grateful for the building’s heating system but the air is arid. I dry damp items on and near the radiators to bring a little moisture into the air. (Kind of like the old school dish-of-water-on-the radiator trick.)
4. In the unlikely event of a power failure you at least have clean clothes to wear and clean towels to block any drafts. I don’t know that I’d like a breeze blowing in through stinky towels.
5. During Hurricane Sandy the wind was so strong that I could hear the elevator bang around in the shaft. Eventually the elevators stopped working during that storm although we, thankfully, retained power. Lesson learned that day: be prepared for high wind.

Of course, the long-term solution is to move somewhere less snowy but then I’d have to learn all new life hacks.

The Linda Life’s Best of 2017

Christmas and finishing up my coursework kept me from blogging for a while, so imagine my delight when the WordPress Photo Challenge was announced: Favorites of 2017!

The post that created the most dialogue was about my participation in the Women’s March on the day after the coronation election.  I’m so proud of every participant at every march location.

Serenity Across from the Casinos

Atlantic City, New Jersey, is usually associated with noisy casinos, the lively boardwalk and the sandy  beach.

Transformation on the Hudson

The daily transformation of day to dusk to night for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge:

The Experimental Construction Door

I examined each corner and surface of the doctor’s office wondering what to furtively photograph for the WordPress photo challenge.

Then it occurred to me: It’s all one big experiment. You’re born, you die, and in between you find things to be amused by.

Ten Tips For Middle-Age Job Hunting

My life changed the day I lost my job last year, but not in the way I anticipated.

Although I miss the cash and that feeling of usefulness and being with my coworker friends, I recall the long days and the dismissive behavior of some management. What should have been exciting work became daily headaches and nausea. There was no time to learn new skills or look for another job.

That changed this year. I changed this year. Here’s what I know:

Autumn Beauty is a Temporary Joy

I just love when a WordPress photo challenge sparks fond picture-memories: 

Rounded at the New York Public Library

I often find myself in Midtown Manhattan near the iconic main building of the New York Public Library. So, for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge featuring the word “rounded,” here are some shots taken in June, 2017 of the interior.

The Glow of City Construction

It was too beautiful a night to go straight home after class, so I walked to the next subway station. What I saw made me audibly say, “What the hell?” The office building I worked in for many years is under renovation; an entire section is open, with no walls or windows. The interior lights glow in the night sky.

The Hollywood Sign and Tiny Houses

WordPress photo challenge fun:  Another view of my trip up the Los Angeles hiking path that leads to the back of the Hollywood sign. Ironically, my initial post was for another photo challenge.

The Pedestrian at the Walkathon: Weekly Photo Challenge

I recently took part in a little two-mile fundraiser walkathon in Northeast Queens, New York. It was on a beautiful pedestrian and bike path, with Little Neck Bay on one side and a busy highway on the other. 

In Praise of Caffeine

coffee

Happy National Coffee Day! Coffee has been my blog muse on several occasions; each of these three images is attached to a different post. Coffee made it possible for me to juggle multiple jobs while I was a student, to be a fully functioning wage-earning mother, to utter coherent words each morning.

Coffee Day 2017 is on Friday, September 29. I will be happily caffeinating for the weekend.

Sadness from the Puerto Rican Diaspora

Hurricane Maria triggered a sadness that almost makes no sense: I am a second-generation New Yorker but most of my grandparents were from Puerto Rico.

Layers of Architecture in Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan shows how buildings old, new and under construction can coexist.

Photo Plagiarism: On Stealing Images

I’m astounded that so many people won’t comprehend that they cannot use pictures and illustrations that they just find on the Internet. The thinking is that if they see it, it’s free to use as they see fit.

Each of those pictures was shot by someone for some particular purpose. That they are visible on the interwebs simply means that they exist. One would hope that some politically odious site — or porn site — would not use your pictures, right?

Waiting at the Tate

In 2012, I ditched my travel buddies to spend an afternoon wandering around the Tate Modern art museum in London. The exhibit I most remember featured a caravan (That’s camper to us Americans.) surrounded by personal belongings. I kept returning to it, finally deducing that we were supposed to think about what we really need in life or something like that.