Month: January 2013

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Three Things Fast

Three instants of life in Brooklyn. Fresh cream. So thick you can spread it with a knife, we pour this on porridge most mornings. Thank you, Amish cows. Lentil Soup with Sausage and Garlic Oil, my medicine against the nights when everything freezes to the sidewalks. My arch-nemesis on Saturday mornings. It's like someone sitting on our building bouncing their leg. And playing the harmonica. Someday there will be homes across the street, but for now, we track the number of windows that have…

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Not Me!

Last month I was walking through a row of cut pines waiting to become Christmas trees outside the grocery store in my neighborhood, making the sidewalk about 24 inches wide. Awkwardly, there were some loud words being passed from a man with a stroller to a woman standing above him on the ramp to the grocery store. I tried to ease through the little forest without being seen, but as I approached, the man apologized for the arguing. It's not you. he said. And then to my disbelief---she said Yeah,…

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Fresh Year

Happy 2013, friends! Around the corner of our brick residence, the wind is simply throwing itself in our faces; it makes coming home all the more comforting. We traveled to Minnesota for Christmas, and it was 0 degrees on Christmas morning. They plant ice molds for candles in the snow there, and we drove by an entire forest lit with fat, coloured bulbs of light. We pushed cookie cutters into tender dough and dusted silver sprinkles onto warm cookies. We handed gifts into other hands, and…

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Bathtub on Broadway

Just popping in here tonight to share a few instants of New York of late. It's nutso time in the City and I thought I'd share some smiles. Scene 1: About twice a month, Soho has a traffic day that reminds me of every traffic movie scene I've ever seen. People stretching out of their car windows mumbling, everyone stopped in gridlock honking just for the vague relief of it. Today was the lucky traffic day, and as I merrily walked past on my lunch break, what should I see in the street? An…