Sub-Prime Crisis
You call that a crisis? It's a crisis just walking down the street around here. Every two-bit TV station needs to have the NYSE in the background when they're reporting on the current misadventures of American financiers. (As if the tourists weren't bad enough. Janet and I must grace the foreground of dozens of tourists' snapshots in treasured holiday photo albums around the world.)
Nice jacket. But why does he have his shoes off?
Bronx Zoo
We drafted some children today to serve as a smokescreen for a trip to the
Bronx Zoo. Our kind friends K&M joined us with their little boy and girl for a stroll amongst the cute and furry.
Enjoyable as it was, I was struck by the commercialism of this zoo, which not only had snack bars and gift shops aplenty, but also charged extra for certain exhibits like the gorilla highlands, and attractions such as the a gondola ride and an insect carousel (a merry-go-round with painted insects instead of horses). There was an implication that admissions to these things helped pay for research and conservation, in which case, okay. But there was something a little Disneyland about it compared to the Toronto Metro Zoo or even Los Angeles.
Eighth 9/11
I should have allowed more time to get to work this morning. "Ground Zero" is between my home and the Path station, and the memorial ceremonies were planned right on my usual route. Both of the presidential nominees were due to make an appearance, and there were several streets blocked off for all of the media, security and other apparatus needed to manage the melée.
Usually when you hear there were police on every corner it's just an expression, but this morning there really were police, plural, on every corner.
