Tuesday, January 27, 2004

All along East Broadway there are lots of phone card salespersons. They are there in all kinds of weather in front of little tables selling phone cards. They are the greatest bargains. I don't have long distance on my home phone. I buy the cards at an extreme discount from her and make all my long distance calls using them or my cell phone. She is positioned at the front door of the apartment on East Broadway. 1:10:41 PM    comment []

Every parade needs a Dragon. Here is your New Year's Dragon. 1:06:52 PM    comment []

Some more of the participants in the parade. 1:01:58 PM    comment []

After the parade took the bus to Battery Park City to check on the state of the river. Nice ice floes but there is still traffic on the river. 12:59:25 PM    comment []

My partner, a Pakastani-American was traveling to Albany, NY from NY Penn Station via Amtrak last week. In case you are not familiar with post 9/11 travel procedures on Amtrak you must present photo ID in order to pickup a ticket and in order to board a brain; very soviet in its outlook. I went with him to Penn station to see him off. At the ticket counter I asked the counterman when we had become a Soviet colony when he asked for the passport. He glared and I went on about how it was really nice to see that we have adopted all the things we derided the Soviet Union about. He glared again and said something like it is because of the 9/11 and I asked him if he felt any safer now that we were in a soviet republic. He slid him the ticket and I left my partner to get on his train. I talked with him later in theday and he said that he had missed the train because his name was called out over the public address system and his computer was inspected; an obvious retaliation for our using our first amendment rights of freedom of speech. He was livid even though he is used to being treated as a terrorist whenever he travels. There was one benefit of the event, at his destination, MASS MOCA outside of Albany he was treated like a hero; apologized to for the conduct of the american government and that not all people were as small minded as Amtrak. 12:52:03 PM    comment []