• General Information

    The Island at the Center of the World

    Once upon a time I bought a book in my favorite little bookstore in Manhattan (The Strand, a few blocks away from Union Square). The book was about the history of the earliest settling of Manhattan, by the Dutch. I agreed to let my brother read it first and therefore have only just finished it, nine and a half months later…The early part of the book was a little slow. It detailed the very early history of the settlement (including the eventual city of Albany and several NYC boroughs) so it took awhile for me to get into the book. But as the city filled in and more of the…

  • General Information

    The Word is Re-Run

    After watching, and posting about, part of the MSNBC re-airing of the news on the morning of 9/11 (see the ‘As It Happened’ post) I found Stephen Colbert’s take on it particularly amusing.

  • General Information

    9/11 As It Happened

    So yesterday was the 6 year anniversary of 9/11 and I came across this show, “9/11, As It Happened” on MSNBC. I’m trying not to watch anymore 9/11 stuff. It’s not good. Like watching a car accident only it’s the biggest one EVER. However, I broke my rule and turned it on because my 9/11 experience was actually spent far away from a TV. I walked into the office and heard about the first plane. Heard about the second plane at the coffee shop. Heard about the Pentagon 2 seconds before I went into class (and I still don’t know why I went to that class because at that point…

  • General Information

    New York, New York

    Went to New York this past week. I have been several times now but of course the city is still fascinating (an amusement park for adults). The only difference is that now, as I begin to figure out my way around, and things are familiar, the city becomes more comfortable- which is a strange sort of feeling for NYC. Interestingly, however, I have recently had cause to ponder the (unfortunately) defining moment of the city: 9/11. In my class, we spoke of the “Falling Man”; an article and a series of photos of a man who fell or chose to jump from the North tower on September 11th. This photo…