very simple

This here is a perfectly poured cup of espresso. Let’s see Starbucks do that!

I noticed these popping up out of the ground. I’m seriously hoping this means that winter is really ending.

She seems to like to perch herself on the highest, most unsteady surface. In this case, my printer, which is piled on top of several other things on my desk and which wobbles even when the cat is not trying to balance herself on top of it.

The first thing I should note is that, on the day I took this picture, it was cloudy and pouring rain outside. That’s before we get to the fact that this is occurring inside a not-well lit coffee shop. So clearly, the giant black wraparound sunglasses are an essential wardrobe choice.

another cliche, but I love this subway station (14th and 8th) that is just filled with random Tom Otterness statues.

(Side note first – you may be wondering why I’m not using the lightbox gallery for these – I’ve decided to only use the lightbox going forward when there are 10 or more pictures, so it’ll return eventually!)

A visit to union square and its immediate environs.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

I had a few fits and starts since finishing my last book, attempting to read Griftopia by Matt Taibbi which I just could not get through (I don’t think it’s anything to do with the book so much as the fact that I think I’m burned out on the subject matter for the moment).

But I finally got a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks from the library, and, while it took me a few days to get into, I could not put it down. I mark my progress on goodreads, and when I opened the book this morning, I was on page 148. And then I spent the rest of the afternoon reading, ultimately finishing the 376-page book in one sitting (broken up only once by the fact that I had to change locations).

I’m still processing, but this book, despite a significant amount of scientific material and background, is incredibly gripping – Skloot interweaves the story of Henrietta’s “immortal cells” with the everyday plight of Henrietta and her family, as well as Skloot’s own, painstaking, years-long challenge in getting the Lacks family to trust her enough to let her write the book. As usual, I’m not going to go into too much detail on the actual details of the book (you can click the book title above to get a plethora of that type of information), but I will say that I was moved to tears at points in the story when I wouldn’t have expected to be. The combination of the Lacks’ family’s own dire circumstances and their (rightful) sense of an injustice having been done to their family, combined with their utter generosity at the end of the day is just something to behold. I highly recommend this.

A walk around the west village. I was listening to an interview podcast yesterday with some urban photographers who were discussing the fact that these hanging signs are no longer legal, and recounted the story of a harlem businessman who racked up $50,000 in fines before ultimately losing his case. I guess garages and bars in the west village are more special? In any event, I always love the signs featured in some of these photos.

This kid was so enjoying his bagel and cream cheese that he managed to give himself a full handlebar mustache in the process.

By the way, mustache is one of those words that keeps looking wrong even when I’ve double-checked the spelling in the dictionary.

Another morning, another bottle of fancy italian water at my local cafe. My favorite part is when they run out of the medium sized bottles, and just bring me two or three of the little ones to make up for it (and charge me the same price).