2016 January 25

(AM) Trudged through the snow to go to DR around 03:00 to buy D cells for the flashlight I’d bought the day before thinking the D cells I already owned would still work. I didn’t bring my proper camera and had somehow forgotten that my smartphone was too full to take any pictures, so I was unable to take pictures of the lovely snowbound local scenery, the bending and kneeling DR employee working in an aisle, and the very well‐lit and thus photogenic late‐night shoveling of snow on my block in the headlights of a standing car that would have been blocking traffic had the block been open to it.

Partial fast day. Eating about 18:00–00:00.

(PM) Photos: 72nd St. snow (1783–85). Dog with pink jacket in front of the Salem (1786–88). Bruson Building ready for leasing (1789–90). Woman gingerly stepping onto the curb at 75th St. (1791–93). Food Dynasty with absent sign (1794). Drawings on Samudra chalkboard (1795). Awning snow at Mario’s and Craft Décor, 78th St. buildings in background (1796). Woman in purple scarf passing tilted Gay City dispenser (1797–98). Couple passing post office, man in large scarf (1799–1800). Colorful clothing for sale at SOS (1801–02). Failed photo presumably of man passing Perfumania (1803).

My block was finally open to traffic again. As I was walking to EHC, a pillow inexplicably fell from the top of one of Galleria’s outside displays at the very moment I passed it, although I hadn’t touched it. A worker {…} come out to pick it up. I continued bounding over snowbanks and intersection wading pools to get to EHC. For the first time, I felt very prepared: I had my authorization letter, the managed care department sent me upstairs right away, and I registered after only a brief wait, very different than my previous experiences. They kept me in the next waiting room for about half of an hour. That very friendly West Indian nurse who always calls me “my dear” called Adam and stressed it, surprisingly, on the second syllable. Mocking their usual policy, I told her my date of birth without her asking me therefor, and then she told me to go into examination room 1991, giggled, corrected herself and said 91. They kept me waiting in the exam room about twenty minutes thereafter. Then that {…} surgeon came in and asked me a few questions, and it turns out they didn’t realize I needed to be seen by the same surgeon who will later cut my tumor out, something I certainly knew and expected. However, he had not been able to return to the US due to the snowstorm and wasn’t on the premises, and if they knew this, they should have telephoned me and told me not to come in. They rescheduled me for Wednesday and sent me home. It was certainly an unreasonable and negative situation, but I was unfazed by it. In fact, the whole day, I was in an extremely good mood, smiling and having fun walking around.

Photos: Sign on closed Jackson 1 2 3 (1804). Animal World plastic figures in Sam 99¢ (1805).

I stopped in Sam 99¢ to kill some time so I wouldn’t start eating too early, and I was shocked to find they had cans of solid light tuna in water! They were three dollars a can, but I bought ten of them. There was also a big disgusting customer there who blew his nose from a standing position onto the floor.

Photos: Awning snow at Casa Rivera and 82 Market (1806–07). Worker unloading boxes from van (1808–09). Corn and meat vendor, 82nd St. and Roosevelt Ave. (1810). Serious woman in playful winter hat in McDonald’s (5379–80). Girl in McDonald’s in large odd pink hat with hearts (for Valentine’s Day?) (5381–82). Casa Rivera awning again (1811).

In M to N thereafter, {…} I was dancing in my seat to the Latin music they were playing and giggling loudly looking at the photos I’d already taken that day. (There was also a procession of attractive men on television, most Jewish: Daniel Hazan, Andrew Hœnig and Baruch Shemtov {…}.)

Photos: Working bear in Capitol One Bank (1812–13). Man in front of Casa de los Antojitos (1814–17). Just Made 4 U sign with Just M lit (1818). Blurry man shoveling snow outside Apple Bank (1819–23). Blocky, chunky snow at 75th St. (1824–25). Signs at future Plus One Restaurant (1826–27). Man seemingly fighting with stuffed bears in Duane Reade (1728–31). Cute Rajbhog “samosa and tea” chalkboard (1832).

Right near 72nd Street, I saw Manni B. again, with his spiky lightened hair and looking very sexy. I greeted him as we passed one another, and he heard and looked at me, but said nothing to me.

Commentary

(my post of a public‐domain illustration) – I have my share of ailments, but nothing modern medicine and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act can’t handle. 🙂

– Alan, please don’t use my pretty illustration to spread misinformation about Israel that originates with fanatically religious right‐wing Islamists who want to see Israel eradicated. There is no ethnic cleansing; there are no concentration camps. Life can be a bit tough with the checkpoints and all, but Israel must protect her citizens against terror. Before the barrier wall went up, there were bus bombings every few weeks. The Palestinian Arabs can get an independent sovereign country for the first time in world history if only Israel had a partner with whom to negotiate, because Ḥamas refuse to negotiate and Fataḥ reward and praise terrorists. …

– Oh, and I see you’re mean too.

– The caption is simply “Almond. Amygdalus communis.” It doesn’t specify what spot in the Land of Israel is being depicted in the woodcut. The artist isn’t even credited and I’m curious to know who it was.

(a friend’s post) – I disagree that it has “no meaningful definition.” Atheist and atheism are succinct and descriptive words. That we don’t identify as non‐astrologers says something about the context in which a word becomes useful, i.e., that we live in a world so dominated by theistic thought that there is resonance in having a word to indicate our lack of participation in it. I also identify as a Humanist, freethinker, Bright, skeptic etc., but an atheist I remain.

(a video in a closed group) – It gets harder and harder for me as well. 😉

(Faisal Saeed Al Mutar’s text post) – When Muslims do bad things in the world, apologists are embarrassed by it, but since they cannot bring themselves to even criticize, let alone condemn, another Muslim, they find scapegoats…and they’re often the Jews. That’s how the ludicrous conspiracy theory that Israel created ISIL came about. “A true Muslim would never do anything as bad as that. Clearly, the Jews are responsible for it.”

Wiki activity

(“Benjamin Button,” Public Domain Super Heroes) Added an illustration depicting the character.

“It was impossible for Mr. Button to ignore the fact that his son was a poor excuse for a first‐family baby.” Illustration by James Montgomery Flagg, 1922.

… by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Collier’s, vol. 69, no. 21, 27 May 1922. (Google Books)

Reprinted in Tales of the Jazz Age, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1922. (Internet Archive)