Mind-boggling Canstruction

On a recent weekend my youngest son Tim, who lives in Denver, visited New York City. In reality, he’s not so young anymore and he was celebrating another birthday. Are any of us so young anymore? At any rate he had two things he wanted to do while visiting, besides of course spending quality time with his dad and stepmom. Number one was to visit Ground Zero and the surrounding developments that have taken place there. This led us to the World Financial Center. It provides some great views of Ground Zero, the Memorial and the new towers going up. It was cold and Tim was wearing shorts which made the inside environment more comfortable.

In the common area of the World Financial Center we discovered a mind-boggling exhibit. Structures were on display that had been constructed entirely of canned food that would later go to the needy. They called it the Canstruction Exhibit. What the participating teams were able to accomplish was mind-boggling (see some at the right). I have to say my personal favorite is the replica of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is almost entirely constructed of cans of Spam. I love Spam. Yes I know, disgusting. I learned to enjoy it in Hawaii.

The second thing Tim wanted to do was to go to Times Square. We took the subway up there the next night. Times Square on a Saturday Night just before the holidays is a trip. We had an enjoyable evening with the other 10,000 people and ate ah nice dinner at an Irish Restaurant.

Overall a nice time, almost like a reunion with Tim.

Stan the Man

Mind-boggling Wildlife in the City

Fall grinds on into winter. Temperatures drop then rebound but only temporarily. It is a downward trend. We know what’s coming and it won’t be pretty unless you enjoy snow and ice. Leaves turn brilliant then let go and fall to the earth leaving bare branches braced for the first snowfall.

At the same time the wildlife is more active and makes its presence known. Yes, there is wildlife in Battery Park. Squirrels scurry about gathering their winter sustenance and begging for treats from tourists. Migrating ducks and geese stop to rest and forage. With Thanksgiving coming one would expect the turkeys to hide out. But no, with unabashed courage, at least one resident prances around the park providing photo ops for all.

Meanwhile up the street at Zuccotti Park the wildlife has become extinct through the actions of NYPD. Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were forcefully moved out at 1AM last night. There court order may help them recover. That remains to be seen. Oh, now I hear they are allowed back but without tents and sleeping bags. Brrrrrr!

I’m packing for my evacuation in a couple days. South Florida here I come. Eighty degrees and sunshine sounds delicious, especially on the beach. It will be a great environment for Thanksgiving.

Stan the Man 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Mind-boggling Productions

Feature movies, documentary films, TV series episodes are constantly being shot in New York City. There isn’t hardly a day that I walk in Manhattan that something isn’t going on in that realm. Take yesterday for an example: I’m walking up Broadway lost in my own thoughts which can be dangerous in New York. I should have known better. I wound my way through a gaggle of people, stepped over cables on the sidewalk and noticed some unusual lights sitting there. Then a loud voice yells, “Background.” This was followed by the same voice yelling, “Action.” I stopped, turned to see what was going on just in time to see an attractive lady in some kind of short trench coat, displaying a gun in her holster on her hip. She marched directly towards me and beyond with a cameraman following her closely. Apparently, I had stumbled into one of those TV crime shows being filmed. A guy came up to me and asked me if I was part of the “background.” I answered in the negative and stated, “Just observing.” When I got out of the way, they did the scene all over again.

Last week we were enjoying a Sunday afternoon glass of wine in a historic Lower Manhattan watering hole when the waitress told us excitedly that if we would follow her to the back window we could see the Batmobile. Yes, there it was. Later outside we stood in the freezing cold wind. It had snowed the day before. Sure enough the film crew was getting ready to shoot a scene for the newest Batman movie that will be coming out sometime in the future. See the picture to the right. Mind-boggling! It will be interesting to see the movie when it’s released.

The mind-boggling thing about these scenes is they last all of ten seconds or maybe a minute.  But it takes a huge crew of men and woman along with trucks, lighting equipment, cameras many hours to set everything up and get ready for what must only be a small piece of the finished product. The expense has got to be astronomical. One can begin to understand the incredible cost of these endeavors. It also sheds some light on why it is necessary to make a lot of money off advertizing and movie tickets to even break even. It is providing much needed employment for many.

In fact the Mayor’s Office reports that the film production industry in New York City provides over 100,000 jobs and generates more than $5 Billion every year.  Many actors make their homes here. Matt Damon and Michael Douglas are among them, from what I hear.

Stan the Man

  

Who Can You Trust? Mind-boggling Corruption.

Who can you trust? Can you trust “New York’s Finest?” That’s the New York Police Department. Can you trust doctors? Can you trust Unions? Can you trust politicians? Apparently “no” is the emphatic answer to this question. I do concede that the examples below don’t represent the whole (hopefully) but it does make one stop and think.

Most recently 16 NYPD officers were indicted for fixing traffic and parking tickets of friends and relatives. These indictments came as a follow-up to the investigation of Officer Joe Ramos who was indicted for making a heroin buy and delivering it in a patrol car while on duty.

Making the above corruption worse, reportedly, 500 members of the police union showed up outside the courthouse while their partners in crime were being indicted. They held a demonstration in support of the accused and were apparently quite rowdy with applause and cheers for the accused. They displayed placards saying, “NYPD culture, Not a Crime.” According to one report they then turned their ire on a line across the street where welfare recipients were waiting to report to their caseworkers. They also left a mess of discarded coffee cups and other garbage that the folks at Occupy Wall Street would never even think of.

A few months ago two NYPD officers were accused and went to trial for raping a young woman who had asked for help getting home from a celebration after she had been promoted.

 NYPD officers accused recently of illegal smuggling and sales of guns.

An officer of NYPD, against procedural rules, used pepper spray on several Occupy Wall Street participants. His punishment as announced is the loss of five days of his accrued vacation.

Last week it was announced that the Long island Railroad has many employees or former employees on disability. Some are receiving as much as $100,000 per year. The problem with this is that doctors who examined them to determine eligibility were filing fraudulent reports and getting kickbacks. The union was apparently knowingly involved in this fraud as well.

Twelve people, including three medical doctors, were arrested in Queens and Brooklyn just yesterday for allegedly taking part in a nearly $100 million Medicare fraud scheme. Members of the ring allegedly posed as patients to de-fraud the Medicare System. No wonder our healthcare system is so expensive. This isn’t the first such scheme uncovered around the country in the last year.

Finally, there’s Herman Cain who hasn’t yet found his way to the truth regarding his sexual harassment history.

Again I ask, “who can you trust?”

Stan the Man