A-Musings

You’re late.  You’re stressed.  Not even 9am and you’re already overwhelmed.  Tired and cranky from not enough sleep, never enough sleep. Hungry, harried, hostile. It’s noisy.  Shit – only 5 minutes before you’re officially late for work. The line seems interminably long, and it’s moving slower than a snail’s pace. But you’ll risk the wrath of your boss and the raised eyebrows of your co-workers because, at this moment in time, nothing matters more than the rich dark fragrant steamy elixir of the gods.  Finally, you make it to the counter and bark out your order for a latte, macchiato, americano, cappuccino, espresso, double, regular, black, whatever. You impatiently wait, lost in your own world of deadlines, duties and distractions.  And then it arrives.  Coffee .  You go for your first sip.  And in the cup you see etched into the foam a flower, a leaf, a heart.  And just for a moment, you stop, look up, and for the fi...

Summer in the city, how do I loathe thee?  Let me count the ways:  The fetid, funky stench of days-old, sun-roasted garbage wafting down the avenues.  The oppressive, relentless, inescapable heat that turns on a tap of sweat, melting make up in one block, soaking through shirts in two … New Yorkers’ already short tempers, further truncated by 90+ degree temperatures that feel more like triple digits, flaring at the most minor of infractions … the urine-infused, sauna-eque subway platforms … sharing the sidewalk with frolicking rats and roaches … the cute but clueless polyglot tourists around each and every bend, blocking the way as they marvel at the sights that no longer move us, that we barely still notice… Calgon, take me away!  Every summer I experience the same impulse:  to get the hell out of Dodge.  Immediately.  Permanently.  Forever.  And never, ever, ever come back.  Leave for points north, west, east, or be...

April used to be known for spring showers bringing May flowers.   But April has a checkered past.  T.S. Eliot called it the cruelest month.  He had his reasons, as do we.  When one does a quick tally of some of the tragedies and environmental disasters, precipitated by the hand of man, which have occurred in April just over the last 150 hundred years - April 14, 1865:  Abraham Lincoln assassinated April 15, 1912:  Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 1,500 April 16, 1947:  nearly 600 die in Texas City, TX when a tanker full of ammonium nitrate (used in fertilizer) detonates causing a chain reaction of explosions in nearby ships and oil refineries  April 26, 1986:  Chernobyl nuclear meltdown results in untold deaths from radiation exposure and environmental devastation April 19, 1993:  Waco shootout April 19, 1995:  Oklahoma City bombing, 168 killed including children April 20, 1999: ...