Monthly Archives: March 2020

NY Mysteries March 21, 2020

 

Treasuring the things we take for granted….Remember travel? I come from the American Express check era. The first foreign country I spent time in was Italy.  In Piazza di  Spagna  there was an American Express office and I stood in line with many others to cash the check  and to change to lira. 600 Lira were the equivalent of a dollar.  The Italian currency was gorgeous and enormous. The 10,000 lira note was like a billboard. The 500 lira coin was beautiful, heavy metal. Change was scarce so we were often given candies, trinkets instead. Very annoying  at the time but a funny memory. I lived in a Victorian house off Via Salaria. My roommates and I took the octagonal elevator with etched windows and a padded seat to the fifth floor after we had fed a coin machine in the elevator several 10 lira coins and smacked the machine sharply. 

Another travel memory: the Egyptian House in Penzance. This is enchanting. It’s been owned by the Landmark Trust since the 1970s and was built in the 1850s, shortly after Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt. 

The Egyptian House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Egyptian House

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries March 21, 2020

 

God has a sense of humor. In the midst of the corona virus pandemic, the stock market wobbling and the current administration, we have had wonderful weather. Remember 9/11? It too was a perfect day, weather wise.

Books to start reading in quarantine: George Eliot’s Middlemarch. After the first chapter buy the audio. Naxos has a wonderful and pricy edition read by Juliet Stevenson. Years ago, BBC had a wonderful presentation. If you can find it, I recommend that you glue yourself to the TV and watch it.

Another book that’s usually read when stranded on a desert island is Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past. I can read a chapter or two and have tried listening to an audio. For me, it’s deadly. Right up there with Joyce’s Ulysses of which I didn’t understand a word. 

Minister Micah Busey leads a daily meditation group during these troubling times.  It’s on video so I can see everybody’s living interior but they can also see mine. I tune in promptly at 9 am but before I do, I comb my hair, put a sweater on over my night gown and make sure underwear isn’t hanging from a door knob.  It’s a self-affirming 45 minutes. It’s gentle and kindly. That also describes Micah.  

I found Governor Cuomo amazingly down-to-earth when he gave a recipe for alcohol wipes. “So buy some alcohol,” he snarled, “and put it on some cotton. That’s it.” He’s an able politician but I disagree with his  attempt to kill off New York’s Third parties.

Killing off New York’s Third parties – Not Today!

03/13/20 — The New York State Green and Libertarian Parties applaud the State Supreme Court ruling that stopped the Democratic Party’s attempt to assassinate smaller political parties.

Justice Ralph Boniello Thursday tossed out the law establishing a commission purportedly set up to create a system of publicly financed campaigns, but instead deviated into attacks on third party and independent candidates. The Judge ruled that the measure creating the panel was “an improper and unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.”

Officials from both parties vowed at a December press conference that a joint lawsuit against the commission’s overreach would be forthcoming if the State Legislature did not act and the commission’s recommendations became law in 2020. The lawsuits brought by the Working Families and Conservative Parties in state court have now turned the tide against the Democratic Party’s heavy-handed attacks against their independent and third party competition.

“In the age of Trump, it is sad to see the Democratic Party use their control of the state government to suppress political debate and electoral challenges by true national third parties. Democracy is on life support in New York and our country. It was a slap in the face to everyday New Yorkers for Governor Cuomo and the Democrats to unilaterally rig the system in an attempt to crush any political party who challenges them,” said Green Party of New York Co-Chair Gloria Mattera.

The Green and Libertarian Parties are prepared to file a lawsuit in federal court to prevent further attacks on third parties and independents if the lawsuits in state court by the Conservative and Working Families do not ultimately prevail against appeal.

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries March 13, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

Afraid anyone? What’s your favorite flavor  – the coronavirus? the stock market? the current administration? Do you have a combination? 

To set the mood: a man jumped off the Empire State Building. On his way past the 23rd floor someone called: “How’s it going?” 

“So far. So good,” he replied.

Of course Governor Cuomo had to cancel the Saint Patrick’s Day parade. It doesn’t mean people won’t celebrate. My neighbors decorated their door. And I’ve been combing the stores for corned beef. I’ve succeeded! 

 

 

 

 

 

My neighbors’ St. Patrick Day’s Decoration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week a friend and I had such fun at The Morgan. We had an enormous lunch, gossiped for a few hours and then visited several exhibits which featured artists who struggled. One was the very elegant Jean-Jacques LeQueu exhibition. He struggled for ten years to sell his paintings.   LeQueu was born during the tumultuous reign of Louis XV (1715-74).  We also went to a contemporary exhibit featuring the work of the late Al Taylor (1949-1999). He was a quirky artist who used found objects in his art. He did this originally because he could not afford to buy canvas. 

Jean-Jacques LeQueu
Al Taylo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Thompson’s Saint Frances is an endearing film featuring a 34 year old looking for her life, played by writer and actor Kelly O’Sullivan,  a lesbian couple and their two children. It examines life from the view point of the women. 

Killing off New York’s Third parties – Not Today!

03/13/20 — The New York State Green and Libertarian Parties applaud the State Supreme Court ruling that stopped the Democratic Party’s attempt to assassinate smaller political parties.

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college. 

NY Mysteries March 6, 2020

 

It’s been another busy week. Last Saturday a friend and I went to  Essex Market at 88 Essex Street. I hadn’t been in that area of the Lower East Side in years. The new (to me) Essex House is warehouse enormous. We cruised around the main floor which is like an indoor carnival. What’s your flavor? Japonese? Brooklyn? Mexican? Sicilian? In addition to food vendors, you can grab thrift shop clothes or go to the barber. We went downstairs for lunch. The menu featured dishes from upstairs and a neat beer arrangement. For $4 dollars a glass you receive three glasses of any of the millions of beer they have on offer. Nicely tanked, you’re ready to explore the Market again.

Essex Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essex Market

 

 

Roadmap to Apartheid was sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church. It was shown in the annex at 12 West 11 Street. First Tuesdays of every month the Church is brewing up controversial issues shown in screenings. Roadmap to Apartheid showed the influence Israel had in the  South African apartheid movement. It also showed in harrowing detail the brutal similarites in the treatment of South African Blacks and Israeli Palestinians. It was an eye opener for some and for others a reminder of what we Americans support in the Middle East. 

Michelle Y. Thompson, the Director of Arts and Community Engagement at Judson Memorial Church added a new video. It centers on Michelle’s son and his pride in being black. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 
View Video

Governor Cuomo wants third parties to increase their number of votes if they’re to remain on the ballot. I belong to the Green Party and received this disturbing letter from the Green Party. Howie Hawkins, our presidential nominee, is quoted. 

In an open letter, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, and other progressive luminaries insisted that Howie Hawkins and the Green Party vote Democrat for president in battleground states.

They condescendingly describe Green votes as a self-indulgent “feel-good activity” as if Green votes are not votes for urgent climate action, real social and economic justice policies, and peace policies.

Don’t they see that the Democrats have joined the Republicans in supporting pro-corporate economic policies and pro-war foreign policies that have generated growing inequality at home and endless wars abroad?

As Howie said, “The left cannot outsource fighting the right to the Democrats.”

Howie points out that the Democrats have helped to normalize Trump by joining with him to overwhelmingly support military budget increases, the US Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0), and the prosecution of Julian Assange and persecution of Chelsea Manning.

 

 

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college.