One thing I love about New York City is the layers and layers of history.
Yesterday, we decided to walk around Wagner College after a wondrous Thanksgiving feast.
Barely visible through the trees was an old bell tower silhouetted against the night sky. Of course -- we went exploring.
It was creepier up close -- four stories of very rundown, ivy-covered brick, all covered in graffiti. Overgrown paths. A setting for a horror movie if I've ever seen one. We didn't stay long, but I'll definitely be back to explore some more. See photos here.

Hmmmm... the results of another online quiz are in....

The apartment seems empty now, after a weekend of Broadway love stories and dancing zebras, Babar, the city at dawn and again at night, great meals, Gucci and ground zero, and the company of two kind and beautiful women.
Thanks, Frances and Diane.

She held my hand and wiped my tears, then whispered "come lay your head on my lap and I will comb your hair."
So it begins.
"I cannot part thy hair on my knee" she said "fetch me a billet of wood."
And so I fetched.
And then she said "I cannot part thy hair with a comb. Fetch me an axe."
And so I fetched.
"Now," she said "lay thy head down on the billet whilst I part thy hair."
And so I lay.

And down came the axe.

Liz reports that the December, 2001 issue of Car and Driver has an ad for Honda with this caption next to the picture of their car: "The automotive equivalent of a really hot librarian. Good looking, yet intelligent. Fun, yet sophisticated. All in a very eye-catching 200-horsepower package." Vroooooooooooooooom!!!

While we are busy spreading democracy and freedom around the globe -- how about a little for the 29 Egyptian men sentenced today (from 1 to 5 years hard labor) on charges of "propagating extremist ideas" and "insulting the heavenly religions." Their crime? Some were gay -- and others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time (the wrong place being a popular gay boat dance on the Nile last spring).
This follows the recent sentencing of a 16-year-old teen to three years' imprisonment for admitting to being gay. Amnesty International reports that the teen initially "confessed" to being gay after he was tortured, including being beaten with a stick on the soles of his feet.

• Amnesty International


• BBC


• Middle East Report


• International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

All men were tried under an emergency law which allows no right of appeal.

Which goddess are you? To find out you can take this quiz. (Can you guess who I am? I invented the plow, the rake, the yoke, the bridle, the chariot, and the ship, the flute and the trumpet.)

Every now and then I think it might be nice to go work for a library in Florida -- you know what I'm thinking - flip-flops to work, scuba-diving and trips to the beach on days off, etc. etc.
And then I read about this librarian -- suspended for a month without pay by her institution (the Florida Gulf Coast University) for asking colleagues to take down stickers that proclaimed "Proud to be an American." I don't even know where to begin....

An angel came by the apartment tonight, bearing gifts of mulligatawny soup and naan bread. Thanks, Liz!

No entries for a few days, sorry, rotten cold and, perhaps, bronchitis.
It is a sad fact of these post-September-11th days that I sat down this morning & made a list of where I've been, what train I took & what mail I've received over this last week. It's taped it on the inside of my apartment door.
Off to hang head over pot of steamy water.

Currently reading:
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid and a telling document by Unocom on their oil interests in Afghanistan.

Alarming news from Alaska.
The anthrax scare has made the North Pole post office extra cautious. That's because letters with poor penmanship have been designated by the USPS as suspicious. Can I just say... what kid doesn't have "poor penmanship"??? Santa's Christmas mail is already piling up, at the rate of 100 plus letters a day. The SF Examiner reports that Santa has promised to do his best to answer all letters, but I'm still a little worried. more

Feeling a bit down? Let the auto-affirmer give you some love!