"The Nativity story of nearly twenty centuries ago is known by all faiths
as a hymn to the brotherhood of man. For Christians, it is the fulfillment
of age-old prophecies and the reaffirmation of God's great love for all of
us. Through a generous Heavenly Father's gift of His Son, hope and compassion
entered a world weary with fear and despair and changed it for all time. On
Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Christ with prayer, feasting, and great
merriment. But, most of all, we experience it in our hearts. For, more than
just a day, Christmas is a state of mind. It is found throughout the year
whenever faith overcomes doubt, hope conquers despair, and love triumphs over
hate. It is present when men of any creed bring love and understanding to
the hearts of their fellow man. The feeling is seen in the wondrous faces
of children and in the hopeful eyes of the aged. It overflows the hearts
of cheerful givers and the souls of the caring. And it is reflected in the
brilliant colors, joyful sounds, and beauty of the winter season. Let us
resolve to honor this spirit of Christmas and strive to keep it throughout
the year." ---Ronald Reagan (http://Reagan2020.US/)

92%DRUNKARD

Looking for payday loan?

A very cool palindrome.


GATEMAN, sides reversed, is NAMETAG

A long sunset climbing down the tree
Goodnight to the good day.

The night brings magic!
with nativities and good cheer!

This Bear pond, one of my favorite places.


There is this little park off of
Hylan blvd on Staten Island.

This is a test.
I have a new digital camera
and it takes videos.
This is the same turnpike
ticket booth that
Tony Soprano drives
through in the opening of the show.

I had a measure today on the 20th floor of 20 Vessay st. NYC
It is right next to ground zero.
I took these pics from the offices I was measuring

The dark building to the left in the first pic is the Duestche bank building.
Which caught on fire and other issues,

Saturday Morning in Brooklyn

Its November.
Before Thanksgiving.
So much for global warming.

The sun sets
the leaves alight with the setting sun
I sit in awe of it.

Proof That 2 Does Not Exist

2 is the only even prime.

But the total number of primes is infinite.

Therefore the probability that a given

prime number is even is 1 over infinity, or zero.

Hence it's impossible for a prime number to be even

— and 2 does not exist.

via- Futility closet

Midnight Sun


Click pic to enlarge

via Militantplatypus

Shades of grey



Just before dawn,

At the crossroads of two back country lanes.

Everything is grey with fog,

Broken up only with darker shades of grey,

Across the way, a tree lined lane,

The outline of the trees is almost black,

and at the very end of the lane,

A small patch of light grey,

On the corner, a street sign silhouetted in black,

behind it a fence runs off to the left and disappears into the fog,

Off in the distance three small lights twinkle through the fog,

Like some distant constellation,

All I see are just shades of grey,

Muted,

Hard to tell where light and dark begin,

The world is quiet and indistinct,

I know that the coming light will bring out details,

Add color and depth to the world,

Part of me does not want this to happen,

No complications to this simple scene,

Not wanting reality to play its part,

to become apparent,

So, For these few moments, just before dawn,

I loose myself in the grey,

Not caring what names are on the street sign,

Not knowing what that farm house in the distance looks like,

A small curiosity tingles inside me,

To know what is at the end of that tree lined lane,

But knowing, deep in my heart,

That what actually is,

Is nothing compared to the possibilities,

Of not knowing.


By Neil

As the Sun comes up on the meadow,

The mist starts to roll away,

Anticipation!

I can feel the coming warmth,

Then, a figure in the meadow,

A tiger lily,

just one,

standing alone,

waiting for the sun,

the warmth,

The day.

I reach out,

As if to say,

The day is coming.

Hang on

Unfortunate marital grave inscriptions,
collected by Susan Darling Safford in
Quaint Epitaphs (1895):

Sacred to the memory of Anthony Drake,
Who died for peace and quietness sake.
His wife was constantly scolding and scoffing,
So he sought repose in a twelve dollar coffin.

Here lies my wife a sad slatterned shrew
If I said I regretted her I should lie too.

Within this grave do lie
Back to back my wife and I.
When the last trump the air shall fill,
If she gets up I'll just lie still.

Here lies the body of Obadiah Wilkinson
And Ruth, his wife.
Their warfare is accomplished.

Here lies the body of Sarah Sexton
She was a wife that never vexed one.
But I can't say as much for the one
at the next stone.

And:

Here lies Jane Smith,
Wife of Thomas Smith, Marble Cutter.
This monument was erected by her husband
as a tribute
to her memory and a specimen of his work.
Monuments of this same style are
two hundred and fifty dollars.

September 22, 1984 in History

Event:
Brussels princess Astrid marries arch duke Lorenz of Austrian-Este
Trenton Girl Bonnie marries South Jersey kid Neil.


BUSINESS DIGEST SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1984


(NYT); Financial Desk
September 22, 1984, Saturday
Late City Final Edition, Section 1, Page 39, Column 1, 688 words
The Economy Morgan Guaranty cut its prime rate to 12 3/4 percent from 13, the first decline in the key lending rate since February 1983. No major bank followed but they are expected to do so soon, based on the assumption that the Fed has eased its monetary policy. ...

Its also the Autumnal Equinox.
The begining of fall, my favorite time of year!

September

September 2 - Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in a bikie shootout between the rival gangs Bandidos and Comancheros, in the Sydney suburb of Milperra.
September 4 - The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, led by Brian Mulroney, wins 211 seats in the House of Commons, forming the largest majority government in Canadian history.
September 4 - The Nicaraguan general elections are held, Sandinista Front is the winner.
September 5 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.
September 5 - Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment.
September 14 - The first MTV Video Music Awards are held in Radio City Music Hall, New York City.
September 20 - Hezbollah car bombs the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut, killing 22 people.
September 26 - The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Some views from my car yesterday.

The Bronx

Hunts point

An unlikely place to find the best BBQ!

But I did! I got an oil change, Front brakes
and a Rib platter,
which included 5 huge ribs, baked bean,
corn bread, mac & cheese.
All excellent!


The best ribs I have EVER had!

All of it for only $34.99 !!!!!

A Physics Problem

You're in a rowboat in a swimming pool,

and you're holding a cannonball.

If you throw the ball into the pool,

will the water level rise or fall?

Hears the answer,

Solution:

The water level will fall.

When the cannonball is in the boat,

it displaces its weight in water.

When it's in the pool,

it displaces only its volume.

Best Actor?

John Cazale is not a household name, but he should be. When the actor died at age 42, he'd made only five films, but every one was nominated for best picture:

The Godfather
The Conversation
The Godfather: Part II
Dog Day Afternoon
The Deer Hunter

That alone would have made him unique in Hollywood history, but he added a hat trick. In 1990, 12 years after his death, Francis Ford Coppola used archive footage to include Cazale in The Godfather Part III (as Fredo Corleone).

That too was nominated for best picture.

Thoughts on this 9/11

Driving on the BQE heading for the Brooklyn Bridge,
I sit in traffic, rain coming down,
I look out my window at lower Manhattan,
And it struck me,
The skyline didn't look strange any more!
No longer did there appear to be a huge blank space
where the towers stood,
A sadness came over me,
Was I forgetting?
On the radio, NPR was asking the question,
"What have we learned from 9/11?"
Their answer was Fear,
distrust of our government,
Better ways to build skyscrappers!
Not that we face an enemy,
That we are in a war for civilzation,
A clip of a congressman asking General Patreus,
"Why are we there?"
and "Is Al Qaeida a threat to us?"
As I drove past ground zero I heard the
bagpipes playing Amazing grace,
People walking out of the hole in the ground,
was it tears or just the rain on their faces?
On that day the sky was a brilliant blue,
Today, as the memory fades,
The sky is crying for us all.

Fall, coming around the corner,
Quietly as if we would not notice,
School has started,
A red leaf here and there,
Cool evenings make us sleep better and forget.
The memory of summer is already getting foggy,
Soon to be a distant memory,

Do you remember the last dive into the lake from summers past?


I want to remember it all,
the first,
the last,
and all those dives inbetween.
I strain to remember,
even as it fades into past

I saw a sign in a hardware store to-day 'Cast iron sinks.'
As though everyone wasn't wise to that.

Some of our trip to Corning.

our Bed And Breakfast at the sheep farm


Margan blowing glass



Bonnies favorite piece



Uranium glass



My kids great,great,great,great,great,great Grandfather
A revolutionary war hero.

Farm at dawn.
Yes, NJ still has farms!

And you thought you were having a bad day!

We went to Hershey park a couple of weeks ago.
I have been remiss in posting pics.

I am not one for cheap thrills like roller coasters.
Here is the most eXtreme ride I went on.

Notice that I did not even put on the seat belt!
CRAZY!

At exit 14 on the NJ Turnpike tollbooth airplanes landing at Newark fly
low right over your head. I used to think this was cool but now,
with 9/11 still in my thoughts, its not such a cool thing anymore.

Going in and out of the Holland tunnel today.
It's hard to close one eye, look through the view finder, frame the
picture and snap the shot while driving through this narrow tunnel.



Just kidding

Our Day in New York

We went into the city early Sunday morning to wait on line
for tickets to Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare in the park.
We set up for a long wait but soon found out that we were
unlikely to get them. We were just to far back in line.




So, we decided to explore central park.


One rule we made was that we would not pass
a single water fountain without taking a drink!



We made our way to the Metropolitan Museum of art.


We saw alot of great art including knights armor and weapons!
Heres a sample of what we saw.

Yet more art...


Here I am explaining Vermeer's "Alegory of faith" to the kids.
Enough Fine art, it's back to the park and the heat!

Alice in wonderland in the middle of the park.
A very cool sculpture.

The Bethesda fountain




The "Afrobats"
Incredibly entertaining!

Beethoven.


But, as with all good days, this one came to an end as well.