I know.  I’m a terrible terrible blogger.  And I’ve already posted this pic on twitter, but I was so struck by how it looked when I was waiting for the train home tonight that I felt compelled to take a picture of the sunset and save it somewhere with a bit more permanence than my twitter feed.

While 2011 was certainly a better year than 2010, what with becoming a gainfully employed member of society again, I’m strangely glad for it to be over. Here’s looking forward to 2012, when we can finally disprove those mayan calendar prophesies once and for all!

But today, I took a trip down to the 9/11 Memorial. I got my ticket a few months ago and had almost forgotten about it, but I didn’t want to let it go to waste (even though it was free, there is a lengthy wait since they’re limiting entrances). It was a little jarring to be in the middle of what is, essentially, a giant construction zone, but the memorial itself is just…beautiful and moving. And my ticket was for 4 pm, so i got to see the lights go on at dusk.

Some pictures…

The tower was actually quite fun. The beefeaters who give the free tours are clearly chosen for their personalities, because our guide was a complete blast. As usual, pictures of the full days will get posted when I’m home, but here’s a sampling of a beefeater guarding the jewel house and an entrance at covent garden.

So then, in search of something to see and/or eat, we ended up walking all the way down Thames walk to black friar bridge, back across, and taking a tour of LSE, before having a classic pub lunch.

Again, more pictures will follow once I arrive home, but today’s photo of the day is the view of the millennium bridge and st. Paul’s. And I didn’t even edit this. It’s really this beautiful out here.

So anyway, I’m in London, ostensibly to visit my brother, and to see a few other folks, including meeting some people I actually work with but have never met in person, and catching up with a few former colleagues on this side of the pond.

Today, since my brother had a conference to go to, I took myself to the British museum. A full set of photos will get uploaded once I can edit them properly on my computer, but I thought I’d start off by testing my camera to iPad adapter by showing photographic proof that I’m actually here.

But that started me down a wonderful journey of discovering that there was some sort of script error in my blog installation, which forced me to spend the last three hours venturing further down the rabbit hole of wordpress reinstallations, backups, “emergency” password fixes after wordpress decided to no longer recognize me…fun stuff.

it all appears to be (hopefully) working again, at least insofar as I can actually log in and write a post, but I had to delete a lot of plugin customizations particularly around stats. Not that anyone reads this thing anyway, so I guess that’s no great loss!

Anyway…on to the original point of this post. Labor Day weekend, as usual, was spent in the Berkshires. This year it was very rainy, so we ventured up to The Clark in Williamstown to check out some of the art. The coolest thing was an exhibit by El Anatsui, a Ghanaian artist who refashions the multitude of liquor bottles foisted upon the local population into beautiful wall hangings. So this is mostly that. As always, click on the thumbnail to get the full image.

But that was early in the morning. I pulled myself together for my day of running errands downtown, from getting my hair cut to buying shoes and doing all sorts of things that I end up doing when I have any reason to go visit my old neighborhood between Union Square and the Flatiron…

And as I was walking through the greenmarket, making my way up towards that same Flatiron building, I looked up and saw a giant billow of smoke going up to the sky. Only a few people seemed to notice it, but the screaming fire engines and cop cars and…smell…of burning air just about caused me to lose it again. Particularly when I realized that I was standing almost exactly in the same spot…on 20th and Broadway, that I was standing when the first plane hit the first tower 10 years ago tomorrow (back then I was walking down 20th from Broadway to Fifth, and saw the first tower on fire, not on TV but with my own naked eyes when I reached Fifth Avenue). I had such a sense of deja vu, and I realized almost an hour later, even though I had managed to get on with my day, that I was still visibly shaking.

And I say this as a person who, on that day, was safely several miles uptown from ground zero and didn’t lose a single person that I knew.

Tomorrow is going to be rough for a lot of people in this city, and I just hope that everyone gives people the space they need to get through the day.

I’ve seen a lot of people doing “where were you” pieces, but I wrote mine 5 years ago. I can’t say it better now than I did back then, so I’ll just link.

(oh, and the fire today? apparently just a transformer on the roof of a building)

Some pics from the ride (as always, click on the thumbnail to see the whole image):

To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island.

Gentlemen,

While I receive with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and happy people.

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

it would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington

Sure, there are a load of inherent contradictions, not the least of which involving the fact that there were plenty of people (slaves, women) who were not citizens at all, and obviously were not thought of as equal. But again, the ideals of the founders, even if not always lived up to, were a road map toward a more perfect and equal society, and we still struggle and strive to reach that ideal today.

I particularly like his dis of “tolerance” – that to tolerate something’s existence necessarily implies the majority group giving permission for the minority group to exist, when the minority group doesn’t ‘need’ to be tolerated because it has the inherent right to exist in the first place.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

As a bonus, this is my view walking to and from the cafe/my apartment.

Her other favorite activity (which she also did when living at the vet) is staring out the window at all the people that go by. In fact, the vet wanted to make sure that I had a window onto a busy street because Sadie liked people watching (and bird watching) so much. I particularly like how she perches on the radiator cover and windowsill to get the best comfort/vantage point, as if she’s parked herself at the neighborhood bar.

Our seder plate – the plate itself is beautiful, a gift to my stepmother from someone she knew who was an Iraqi jew. We, of course, never have all of the proper ingredients, so we do things like replace the hard-boiled egg with a purple marshmallow peep.

I can’t even estimate how old this bottle of Manischewitz is. It’s got a modern label, so it can’t be that old, but I do know that we dig it out of the basement every passover, use about 3 oz of it for the actual seder (and Elijah’s cup), and then drink good, non-kosher wine with our actual dinner. Then the bottle goes back in the basement for another year.

And finally – our passover table. This one is pretty traditional, including the deluxe edition Coffees of Maxwell House Passover Haggadah.