Flat Broke Love

What ????   America's Mayor is flat broke ??

.....and he might be the last to know. 

Since he owes the IRS $1M. They say he owes his lawyers hundreds of thousands, but you gotta believe it's more than that, since a number of them fired him as a client for non-payment. One of his ex-wives's alimony checks have bounced. 

And then there is that pesky $148MM judgement he has to pay two Georgia election folks. Guliani's lawyers claim he is in debt somewhere between $100-500MM.  First off, they can narrow that to $149MM - 500MM.....at the very least. 

g-d love Celebrity Net Worth, though they might be understating it. 

I mean, I hope his ex-wives and the two Georgia folk and his lawyers all saw this coming too. At some point you have to expect not to be paid a dime from this guy. 

It's just his lawyer's rhetoric that is so fucking insulting: calling the Georgia judgement “the civil equivalent of the death penalty.”   Fuck You. 

And this chestnut: “No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount."

....except for the fact that Guliani and his lawyers refused to turn over evidence and court filings that would have determined his net worth.   Hmmmm........who else does that sound like ??

The old adage, "how do you sleep at night" seems to pop up here. There is zero accountability with Rudy or his team, or anyone with whom he associates. 

There was a time Rudy was going to be remembered for 9/11.  It might make the second parargraph of his obit, but the 2020 election and January 6th will be the opener. Bin Laden only tried to take down the country with NYC as the focus. Guiliani has helped carry on that mission ever since. 

Song by: Bachman Turner Overdrive

Remember

For the day, I'll suspend a Sophie / Shep post. 

It felt weird not to acknowledge the 20th anniversary of 9/11, so while initially I fought the post, I finally leaned into it. Kind of. 

I have zero new to say about it. I have no new insight. 

What I can't find are the photos I took three weeks after the event, when I was in NYC. Maybe they're on a jump drive somewhere - or somewhere on my old laptop. 

I can count on one finger the times I've just reposted something, so this won't be that. But it will be a retrospective. 

Below are links to some of my 9/11 posts - be it the actual day/anniversary, visits to memorial sites, etc.......but mostly just the first two. 

I don't think they'll be in any order - not even chronological. Just stuff for you to read, should you want to........or not.  But it's 9/11.  Not to read my stuff is kind of disrespecting the victims.....and the terrorists win.    .........but that's on you. 

Posts

Tower of Learning

Possibly my best 9/11 post. It's 10 years old. It's 10 years out from the original date. 

Tower of Song

No. Maybe this one is better, from five year anniversary

Forget Me Nots 

Ramblings after a visit to the 9/11 Memorial Site. A visit. There have been multiple. 

Speed the Collapse

A slight bit of levity ?

Memorial Visits

NYC - site

This place is still haunted for me, but I oddly love going there. 

NYC - museum

I've been once. Never a need again.

Shanksville, PA

The memorial wasn't completely finished on our visit. I would like to go back at some point. 

Pentagon

It was our final memorial visit. I got in trouble. 

I've said a number of times in some of those above posts that 'this is my last 9/11 post'. Clearly, I lied. But THIS time, it'll stick.  Maybe I'll be around for the 30th, perhaps not. But even if I am - that would be another decade of blogging. I'm not sure I'll have that in me. 

....and yes. That's what she said. 

Song by: John Lennon

Never Forget

Last year I said this year would be my last 9/11 post.  I still think it will be, but one never knows.

15 years seems to be about right.

Even a year ago, I had in mind the image I would be using for said post. Oh, I didn't have the post thought out - just the picture.

But wouldn't you know, I cannot find it. I am using an image I snagged of the internet. While it is clearer than my own picture, it's not as gritty or conveys the day.

14 years and 49 weeks ago, 710 and I took a planned trip to NYC. It was my nephew's 2nd birthday and I had an interview up in Westchester.

New York City was desolate, well as much as Manhattan could ever be. So much so that you could get any deal on any hotel room - including our $110 per night at the Waldorf-Astoria. It wasn't exactly what you thought it would be, but at least I can say we stayed there.

The plan was never to go down to lower Manhattan. But with trains running very sporadically, and stopping before the station - sometimes for more than a half-hour, because every little thing was suspicious and needed investigation - that we did most everything on foot.

I don't know why we were walking south, but we did....and kept walking. 3.8 miles as it turned out being. I'm sure more, as we went here and then there. No set route. No set destination.

Then we were at West Broadway - looking downtown. But somewhere there, police barricades appeared and going south - from that area - was no longer an option. But you could see things. Far away remnants.

We headed east, then south until we got down to Fulton. From a cross-street level it was hard to miss, by sight and smell.

Three plus weeks later, the site was still smoldering. It was hard to look. It was hard to look away.

It was dead quiet. In the middle of the financial district in the middle of the day.

Well, except for one asswipe.  He walks in front of a large group just standing there watching the burning remains, and goes, "THAT is still burning?" and then continued to walk on to wherever he was headed.

I shook my head. It was hard not to watch the news back then. Anyone who remotely watched tv knew it was still burning.

We stayed for a short while and headed back north. We wanted to go further south, but the barriers were too many and it wasn't really worth the effort.

As odd as it sounds, I was glad to see it live and not just a shot on a television screen.

15 years later and it is hard not to remember most everything about that day. And since I'll never forget - until dementia - I see no reason to recreate the experience here anymore. I have learned to avoid all the tv specials on this time of year. They offer almost nothing new. I did my deep dive with things in print or on tv.

I think I'm officially done needed to see those every again.



Song by: Fleetwood Mac

Museum

Well, since we talked about "the towers" yesterday, I suppose I could make it a two-fer.

Last month - was it only a month or so ago? - when we were in NYC, we took the time to go to the 9/11 Museum. We had been to the Memorial back in 2014, but the Museum was not yet open.

A month after our visit, and I am still not sure how I feel about the experience.

The museum is still new(er), so the lines are like amusement park long to get in. We got tickets electronically, which is fine for purchase, but good luck getting their wifi to connect to bring them up when needed. We were taken out that line, to another LONG line only to have someone print them out manually.

You'd think that being a museum of such a tragedy that the line workers would be.....oh, I don't know....not scowl-y, short and rude...........but they were all of those things. Getting in wasn't horribly welcoming.

I suppose I sound callous if I don't say it was sorrowful.........but it wasn't.

I get that we are desensitized to some of this. I get that 374 9/11 specials that run on cable from August 1 to September 12 every single year since 2002 has told the story 4,862 times. I've seen a number of the artifacts in one form or another over the last decade and a half. I have heard the phone calls from loved ones and flight crews.

But now I get to pay $24 to see it.......again. But close up.

Don't get me wrong, some things are just striking. Compelling, even. Some, well, there are only so many damaged emergency vehicles or parts of the antenna one wants to see. Of course, I'm speaking for myself.

I like the above tridents.

I liked the intact slurry wall. It was not all intact, so they ended up building a simulation next to it to continue the entire wall. That I didn't like.

I found the Survivor Stairs to be great. After the North Tower collapsed they remained pretty much intact allowing people to escape. Oddly the damage to them was not from the tower collapse, but from the cleaning and moving them. Crews were ready to destroy them while clearing the site. Preservationists had to fight to not have them demolished. 

It is hard to see, but each of those squares were the supports for the building. A building. I think my biggest take away was that you walked around the parameter of each of the towers and the bases of the above fountains came a few stories down, just as the towers had.

For some reason I think this was the highlight of the visit:

Spencer Finch's "Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on that September Morning"

9/11 had a crystal blue sky. Not a cloud in it - though I'm sure you're all visualizing that morning, and the film clips you saw as, or before, the planes struck.

There are 2,983 panels. One for each of the victims - including 1993.

Finch has the only commissioned artwork on site. And I think it was spectacular.


Oddly, we missed one wall - and I'm not sure how, but it had images of each and every victim. I'm sure that could have made things more sorrowful. I'm not sure if I'm glad we missed that part at all.

As it was, we were inside the museum for over two hours and moving at a good clip. And as it turns out we didn't see everything. Yet it doesn't seem like we missed out on much. One could easily spend many many more hours there - if they so desired.

I kept a look out for all the EXIT signs. The designers built in easily accessible ones for people who would be too distraught at the exhibits and had to make a hasty retreat. I saw the exits, but never saw a person who even remotely needed to use them.

I suppose I'm glad we did this, but I don't see the need to ever return. Once in a lifetime was enough.

...and I'm sure there will be 23 new specials on TV regarding the museum next August.




Song by:  Donovan

Just a Memory

I am guessing this will be my second to last 9/11 post. Just a hunch.

I figured I'd do one for the 15th anniversary, next year. I don't particularly think this blog will be around at the 20th. I've been known to be wrong, but another six years of blogging seems daunting, at best.

 Anyhooo.........

This last December, we made it to the last of the 9/11 Memorials.

We'd been to the WTC site - any number of times - three weeks after the planes hit, a half dozen times during construction and once so far since that memorial opened.

Three and a half years ago we stopped by the Shanksville site.

Finally in 2014, we got to the Pentagon site. It was an over the river and through the woods things. Well - under the river, until the Metro dropped us at the Pentagon. But it was a long long walk around the building to get to the site.  Lots and lots of signs saying 'no cameras'.  I was not that deterred.

The space is nice. Considering.

The "considering" is that it is built basically adjacent to a parking lot. "Considering" it abuts the Pentagon itself. "Considering" you are under many a watchful eye because you are actually next to the Pentagon itself.

Flight 77, oddly enough, came in such a direction it probably did the least damage it could. Had it come any of the other four ways, parking lots, the Metro, shopping centers and freeways could have all been ruined with many more lives lost.  It went through an empty lots before hitting the building.

The Pentagon Memorial might not get a lot of tourist visitors, just due to the amount of walking one must do to get there. It's out of the way.  We were two of a half dozen on a cold December day. I liked that. I wanted to experience it without the throngs.

I love the meaning behind the design of such memorials.

I get that there are 184 "benches" for each of the military and civilian victims. Benches that seem to be facing toward the building are those of people on the plane. Benches seemingly facing away from the building represent victims in the Pentagon itself.

Benches are arranged from youngest victim (3 years old) to oldest (71). Each bench is marked with the victim's age and name. I'm not sure I liked that methodology, as people traveling or working together are split up, but it is kind of hard to come up with another logical way to represent them all.

There are pools of water underneath each bench - the length and width of the benches - and they are lit at night. I'm sure it is quite a site to see, though we didn't stick around until after sunset.

The surrounding wall goes from 3" to 71" - again, in correspondence with the youngest victim to the oldest.

There are free audio tours (download on your iPhone).

Actually, "considering" they did a nice job with the place, though GWB and Donald Rumsfeld's names are listed in the marble at the entrance, so that's a downer.

Oddly, picture taking wasn't truly prohibited. It's just not what I thought it would be, as it's almost impossible to take pics at the memorial without getting shots of the Pentagon itself.

It was this shot for which I got busted.....

The Air Force Memorial just up the hill, near Arlington.

It's not so much that I took the pic of the memorial, as much as it was I took it from the Pentagon parking lot. THAT is a no-no. The fear (?) is that you get a license plate of an employee of the Pentagon.

In the end, the cop didn't make me erase the picture (though I thought he would), so when he wasn't looking I was a dick and just did this......

I'm not a proud man.


But if you ever find your way to DC, I suggest making the trek to the Pentagon to see this.




Song by: Marti Jones

Speed the Collapse

Ok - I'm anticipating a 50% approval rating for this post - tops! The video portion, that is.

This was the year we saw the World Trade Center / 9/11 Memorial . While it was not the experience I had expected, I was still glad we had done it. The next trip to NYC, I will try to see the Museum as well.

There's little funny about 9/11, though as I've said before, Family Guy has tried a few times (and succeeded). Still, it's hard to write about remembrance over and over.

So why not bring a little Star Wars reference into it?







Song by: Metric

Fountain of Sorrow

I expected it to be more solemn of an occasion. I expected silence. I expected reverence. I expected tears.

I expected something. Or at least something else.

The site has changed. Even since we visited three weeks ago.

I worked under the shadows of the twin towers. I saw the remains three weeks after they were brought down. I've seen the 9/11 Memorial and Freedom tower in various stages of construction over the last decade.

When we arrived for the finished Memorial, we were directed blocks away to obtain tickets if we wanted faster entry. Those without would wait hours. Even with, you went through a maze of ropes and lines, then metal detectors, all of this while being under scaffolding with wood planks.

In a mere few weeks, all that is now gone. People can now just walk up and into the site. No security checks. No tickets. No lines.

No doubt to coincide with opening of the Museum.

But then, we were herded like animals for slaughter. At least till you got onto the site. But while in line, people were talking, joking, laughing, taking selfies. Not me. Not us.

Coming onto a site that way, both 710 and myself later discussed that we lost something in the perspective of emotion. It just wasn't there.

I have been so interested in the design of the tower and the footprints that there wasn't much (ok, anything) anyone there could tell me that I did not already know. Not that guides were readily available for questions or direction. I actually had to use the 9/11 Memorial site app to locate Kit's panel number.

We had seen so many broadcasts and read so many articles on the design and construction, we probably knew more than any guide. Maybe that is why we felt so little. It actually took us weeks to admit that to each other.

People milled around and chatted. When 710 and I did, it was in very hushed tones.

I pointed out that people had thrown things into the pools, clogging the flow and disrupting the streams going over the edge. I was mortified. Apparently people throw coins in as well, as if it's a wishing well of some kind.

I used the time for remembrance: the stories I've seen, the tales I've read. All coming down to these two footprints. I don't know what others were thinking or felt. I wanted to care, but didn't.  Or couldn't.

I did flash back to the dozen or so times I've been to the Vietnam Memorial. It is so quiet there, you can hear a pin drop. I expected something more along those lines when it came to the 9/11 Memorial. It was not meant to be.

Perhaps it is harder in the heart of the city versus the Mall in DC, but I don't think so.

We expected to be down there a few hours (minus the wait time) but in reality we were done in less than one.

People are lazy. You entered at the south side of the South Tower and that's where people stood. Crowding. Pushing. Waiting for a view.

Walk to almost any other side, or over to the farther North Tower imprint, and you had complete freedom to walk up to the panels and to the pools.

I am glad we went, but I feel a tinge of guilt for not feeling more when being there. Maybe it was the combination of crowds and the way you entered that took away from the experience. I'm sure I'll be back. Crack of dawn or at twilight seems a good time for that.

That all said, I have always been impressed with the design of the footprints and pools. They are so aesthetically pleasing, at least to me.

I'm also a fan of the new WTC 1 building.

Song by: Jackson Browne

Forget Me Nots

Her name was Kit.

Or at least that's what she went by. She always had as long as I knew her.

Of all the people I knew who worked in and around the World Trade Center, I am kind of amazed that I only knew one person who perished, or was even injured, on September 11th.

The irony being that Kit lived in Colorado and had a training session in New York, that happened to be on the 106th floor of north tower.

Her remains have not been found.

Kit was younger than I, but I was really friends with her brother and have known him since the 4th grade. She would hang around whenever we would play - as kid sisters tend to do.

When we were in NYC a few weeks ago, we purposefully made our way down to the 9/11 Memorial site. Besides wanting to see it (thoughts on that in another post), I was really wanting to see Kit's name.

Of the almost 3,000 names on the panels, you start to think of how many people just look over them as a blur. The printed names are to remember them - and as I looked at them, I started thinking. And probably too much.

Outside of family and friends, how many people ever saw Kit's name there? Or looked at it twice?

Kit was not married and had no children. Her brother had his children after 9/11 (even naming his son 'Kit'), though her sisters had some kids prior to her death. Kit's father just passed away a few weeks ago, her mother years ago.

It kind of hit me that in another generation or so, anyone who knew Kit would be gone. Anyone else would cease to know her as a person, and only a name on a panel.  That is, if they took the time to even look.

Of course, then I started thinking, that this is true of all of us.

Save some remarkable people, we are just passing through here, with few people to remember us shortly after we are gone. We might be a name on a census or somewhere on ancestry.com, but we are blips in time.

Deep down, I already knew this. I've been watching Cosmos!

Still, I think that is what made it more important to head to the 9/11 Memorial and see Kit's name and to touch the letters.



Song by: Patrice Rushen

I'm So Afraid

"Weren't you afraid to fly today?"

If I got asked that question once, it was asked two dozen times yesterday.

The answer was "no", I was not frightened.

While 9/11 is permanently ingrained in history, the day was an arbitrary one 11 years ago and I hold no sense of dread that the events of that day will repeat itself on the same date and day of the week.

I get that some jackoff might try a copycat thing on or around the same day (see Waco, Oklahoma City, Columbine), but I have a job and I can't be looking at every history marker to decide whether I'll get out of bed in the morning.

I knew which date I booked. I'm sure it was my imagination, but the skies seemed emptier today. Maybe coincidence, maybe not. The first leg of my flight was only about 30% full in coach - not that I was in coach, but I heard it was. Hell, I was asleep before the plane taxied out. It was a 05:50 flight. I was tired.

The second leg wasn't much more full. I had all three seats to myself (ugh, yes, I was back in steerage!). The biggest tragedy was a movie with Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton and Diane Wiest. It was about a runaway dog. If I were that pooch, I'd have hit the highway too. Horrid. Horrid.  If people are forced to watch that shit on planes, the terrorists truly have won!

I will say, there was one disconcerting moment of the travel. Sitting in Houston's airport, appropriately named 'Bush" (though for 41, not 43), at 08:46 they had a moment of silence (announced!) and then played the Star Spangled Banner.  They did it again 11 minutes later. You know, when the North. then South towers were hit.

If 9/11 wasn't on people's minds before, it was now.



Song by:  Fleetwood Mac

The Memory of Trees

On our way back from MD, we went about 17 miles "out of the way" and headed to Shanksville, PA to stop at the Flight 93 National Memorial.

....the red-headed stepchild of the 9/11 memorials. Unfortunate, but true.

Not in a metropolitan area and woefully underfunded, it doesn't receive the spotlight that the Pentagon or the World Trade Center memorial sites garnish. And that's a shame.

With truly little around it, one has to make the extra effort to visit. This is my third time past the area and finally we carved out the time to drive there. I'm glad we did.

While there is nothing special or glamorous about this memorial, it is simple and serene. The plane went down in a field and that is really all you get - or mostly.

After the investigation identified remains of all on board (not retrieved) and got what they needed from the debris, the impact site was filled in and the field looks like it did before September 11th.

Yes, there is some information and a "wall", but currently that is all that exists.

As you walk to the panel walls, you go down a path of black stone. I asked a park ranger, why some black panels had diagonal lines (see lower left portion of above photo) through them. It was told to me that they represented the branches of hickory trees. And a gate we would soon see was made out wood of a hickory tree. 

The black walkway ends into 40 white marble panels - one for each passenger and crew member.  The direction of the wall follows the flight path of Flight 93. The wall ends at the hickory gate.

I"m not a fan of the gate as it is. You can only see through slats, which means four or so people can be at the gate at one time and others back-up behind you and on a crowded day you'd struggle to get out for others to get in.  You also get a very limited view. It is not an optimal design.

The boulder you see though the gate in the image through the slats and in the one above of me standing on a bench, is the actual impact site. Save the boulder, the field has returned to what it once was.

As this is a gay-ish blog, and for the fact that I knew none of the names other than Todd Beamer ("let's roll"), I took a picture of Mark Bingham's panel.  While he wasn't the only passenger not to have a token placed at his panel, I thought someone should remember him - and I'm doing so here. 

But lest you think that all is sacred at or near this memorial - think again. As you approach the entrance, you get to pass by this...........

Always fun to tie 9/11 to abortion. Jesus and the 3-D plane coming out of the billboard is a nice touch. I don't think Fred Phelps has anything to do with this, mostly because he can't afford it, but it's still odd at best. 

One or two other cars pulled over to see it and take a pic.  710 said, "what are the chances anyone is taking the pic with a sense of irony?"   My guess?  0.  Besides me. 

Song by: Enya

Empire Building

I'm tired. It's been a long week. I have nothing horribly original to post. ...and we have no heat. I'm freezing.

So this was on CNN - and making the rounds at other sites, and it's just a very cool video, if you ask me. Not all time-lapsed videos work, but it is safe to say most are somewhat emotionally invested in the raising of the new Freedom Tower - or whatever they are calling it now.

I'm still getting used to this new editor, so excuse any formatting issues - I'm not 100% sure how all this is working or looking.




 Song by: Tears for Fears

The Tower of Learning

Ten years.

It may as well ten minutes.  Or 100 years.  Time is stagnant. Time flies. 

Everything changed.  Somethings changed.  Nothing changed.

I was lucky enough to be in, and work beneath, the towers.  I was humbled enough to see what was left three weeks after that day.  I was enthralled at seeing the beams of light months later.  I get excited when my friend/ex-coworker John, sends me a picture a month from his office in the World Financial Center, which overlooks the building and memorial site, to show the progress.

As change goes, sure there are the little things we get annoyed at like full-body scans at airports, carry fewer liquids and well.....you know really not tons else, especially when you consider had those been in place in 2001, some folks might not have made it through Logan, National and Newark and made it onto those planes (seriously, you should see what never gets caught).  I have to remember that when I have to get a pat down and take off my belt.

And yeah, when buying a house, for some reason I need to show my passport and SSN card to secure financing.  The G-men don't want money laundering by buying unique fixer-uppers, I guess.

What has changed is the political landscape. National and International. All of it fairly obvious and divisive.  The littlest issues have become ugly, territorial and downright mean.  They probably always were, but no one even attempts to hide them much anymore.  It's quite sad.  The first ones to say to not politicize 9/11 are always the first one to do so. Holier than thou, and full of shit.

It is tough to watch all the tv specials about that day.  There are tons of them, most of them rehashes and not very good at that.  Then of course, some are just painful.  There is only so much of that one can take in without being overwhelmed, and it don't take much.

I am a reader of events like this.  I can't help it.  I've talked about these things before. Most of these articles, books and tv specials try to be respectful while hyping things that should not be hyped.  The days leading up to each anniversary is overkill. It just is.  There are like three exceptions that I feel should be pointed out.


Ric Burns' Center of the World.  It became part 8 of an already released 7 part PBS series on New York that aired about the time of 9/11.  With new footage, it was released after the DVD release.  One entire episode dedicated to two buildings.  From design to demise, it is quite a moving few hours.  It can be purchased without the other seven disks.

9/11.  Shown shortly after the events, it was two French filmmakers who happened to be doing a documentary on a fire station - which ended up being the first rescue unit after the first plane hit.  No other film is so inside the action and shows such heartache, hope, despair and downright gut wrenching video and emotion.  It is a very very difficult film to watch and yet they do it so well.  Especially considering that was not what they set out to create.

102 Minutes.  You know how the story goes.  You know how the story ends.  And yet two New York Times writers take you from the time the first plane hitting to the second tower falling - and I was on the fucking edge of my seat the entire time.  That is how good of a job they did chronicling that time frame.  A hard read, and yet one I'd highly suggest.

And yes, most of these take into account the people who survived or the people who were documented on the way out of the buildings who did not.  Everyone talks mostly about the rescue workers.  I feel for them - I do.  But I focus on the ones that no one talks about.  The ones on the planes (not necessarily Flight 93).  I think about the people on the floors who never had a chance and probably knew nothing of what happened.  I think about the people above the impact zones, who had no chance and did know.

I think of Kit Faragher, whom I knew in grade school, with who was in the WTC for a day meeting on one of the floors above the impact zone.

It's important not to forget, but I don't want to linger, which seems to be the easy thing to do.

These days, I'd much rather see/hear stories of moving forward.  I like the ones about designing and building of the memorial.  I love the story about the lone tree saved from the WTC site.  I'd rather play with the interactive map with multiple 360 degree cameras that show the entire site along with it's renaissance and parts of lower Manhattan (scroll down  to find the link if you choose).

....and I like the newer logo.

Writing on a decade gone by was harder than I imagined.  Not in emotion, but in focus.  Where does one start or stop? 

The tv doesn't allow you to not watch - like it was 10 years ago.  You have to force yourself to stop or you just don't.  Or can't.

I would like to think in those days after the attacks, we would have pulled together as a nation.  That first month was great - and it just fell apart.  We are more politically and religiously intolerant. We hate more easily.  At least it seems to me.  And that came quickly after.  And 10 years in history is a blip.  A nanosecond.  Does the aftermath mean anything - in the big picture, that is?

I would venture to guess 'yes', but by the time that is decided, I'll be long gone.  Much like the towers.



Song by: Rufus Wainwright

The Tower of Learning

You know, nine years later and it is still a painful memory. The images, the thoughts, the grief is still palpable.

...and I'm not talking about mosques being built near the site. For the record, I'm ok with it. Not all people of Islam are terrorists, just like all catholics are not pedophiles. It is ludicrous to hold millions of people responsible for the actions of 19.

And while I am not for the burning of the Qur'ān, I am a fan of free speech, even if I don't like the sentiment, words or actions - and there is so much of that in free speech.

Just so that douchebag pastor in Florida realizes that his precious new testament can be torched too. There are prices to pay for that kind of free speech, and we'll see them and live through the actions of others who hide behind it.

Of course now that man of g-d, says he won't burn the Qur'ān ever, even if a mosque is built near Ground Zero, but he's done his job hasn't he? He will wash his hands of it all, even though he's put out the idea and someone else takes up the actual task, and you know they will.

My take on stopping the burning of the Qur'ān was similar to the above image. Not so much the NYT best seller list, but to imply to the group that they were funding Islamic terrorist, since of course to burn the book, they'd have to go buy the book - since it is doubtful they had a copy laying around like when they torched Slaughterhouse-Five.

The one thing I have seen with 9/11 is that, except for these someecards, and a Family Guy/fake James Woods snippet or two, there are no jokes about it. I'm not saying there should or shouldn't be, but just hours after the Challenger blew up, there were jokes all over the place and that was before the internets. I don't know where the tragedy/joke line in the sand actually exists.

The image at the title, I have sent to my man-date, Scott for the last three or four years. His birthday is today. I was almost so horrified to hit 'send', since I wasn't 100% sure what his reaction would be. I said 'almost'. He loved it. And I don't ever need Facebook to remember his birthday. .....still, it sucks to be him.


Song by: Rufus Wainwright

Tower of Song

They are gone. The towers.

For anyone who'd never been in/to the World Trade Center, it is hard to say what you were missing other than the view of them and from them. I'd been in the concourse dozens of times, but I'd only been at the observation deck twice and at Windows to the World only once. All of them hazy days. The first time was my inagural trip the city - my high school graduation present from my parents. I still have the pics I took w/my Pentax K100. The second time was with a friend which was her first visit to the city. That meant a little more to me - as I knew the city at which I was now looking. I pointed things out that weren't the Empire State or Chrysler bldgs, which was about all I could identify that first time.

My one time on Windows to the World was just an office outing with the library staff @ Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. The WttW experience was only drinks, no dinner, but it was with a fun group of people, that unfortunately I have fallen out of contact with over the last 22 years. Hands down, that was the best summer ever (thanks Ade!) ! At that time the firm was located at 1 Wall St. Literally the office existed within the shadow of the towers. Actually, not much down there didn't. The thing that strikes me now is that without the towers how light downtown has become.

My first time back to the city post 9/11 was only a month after the fact. We had already had a trip planned to DC, then directly up to NYC. Both cities were in flux. In DC, the Metro was free, as the city was practically begging anyone to do anything around town. If it weren't for Becky and Andrew, we would have skipped DC. Jon and Tommy did. (yes, they were the ones that let the terrorists win!).

Driving into Manhattan was most unnerving. The approach to the Lincoln Tunnel was disturbing for two reasons: one being the jet that was approaching Newark and low in the sky over the Hudson. Never has a jetliner make me stop and think "OMG" - (unless I was on it and it had screaming kids, but that is a differnt kind of OMG). The other was curving down prior to entering the tunnel - where you get a great view of the city - and what was missing. The downtown skyline is so packed, that in a weird way, from that angle, if you'd never seen the city before, there did not look like any building - let alone two - were missing. But they were - and the loss was palpable.

Subway lines in NYC were sporadic at best. Waiting on platforms for trains that never came b/c of suspicous packages left behind. Or worse, stuck in trains for 40 minutes while they checked out said packages. On a day out, we actually walked from mid-town to Battery Park with no real intention to see the site....but there it was. Unavoidable. And still burning a month later.

I know many people who found the WTC an eyesore. Personally, I liked the buildings. I never worked in the WTC - but they served such a useful everyday puprose. For anyone unfamililar with the island and attempting to navigate Manhattan, all you needed was to spot the towers, which were visible from just about anywhere, to figure out which direction you needed/wanted to go or at least were headed in.

I actually made my first trip to the Empire State Bldg. I never felt any need to go. This time I did. It was a few nights before they turned off the beams of light that shone into the sky from the WTC site. I don't know that I've ever been colder. 20 degrees at street level became 20 below eighty-six flights up. Literally, I could stand outside for about 30-60 seconds at a time. And it was all worth it. Those spots were a better tribute and memorial to the towers than any Freedom Tower, which I find to be completely self-indulgent.

When my OCD kicks in, it can kick in hard. If I get on a subject, I can read and/or watch everything on it. This wasn't too much the case for 9/11. I watched a number of PBS specials on 'why the towers fell', but in reality, most of them are just too painful to deal with. Even in Farenheit 9/11 when the screen goes black and doesn't even show a plane hit, I turned away from the movie screen. But there are two WTC things I recommend:

Ric Burns' eighth part of his New York series: Center of the World. It is a three hour history of the WTC and doesn't completely focus on 9/11. Actually parts 1-7 on city history are great.

For something a bit more harrowing: the book 102 Minutes. As best of a reconstruction of what happens in the towers from the time the first plane hits until the second tower falls. It is both an easy and uneasy read. I don't know how else to describe it.