New York City Icicle

I am calling this a New York City icicle, although it could occur in other cities, I guess.

Any city-dweller surely will bemoan the phenomenon of plastic bags, usually from grocery stores, getting stuck in trees.

They are an eyesore, to say the least. The writer Ian Frazier wrote a piece (abstract here) about it in The New Yorker about four years ago.

Anyway, take a bag in a tree, add snow, then heat slightly causing said snow to melt. Preferably there is a small hole in the bag, causing dripping snow to freeze as an icicle. Behold: the New York City icicle. Any icicle on an awning or dangling from a gutter could be from anywhere. There is something ugly and special about this one.

A lovely glistening shard of ice clinging to a plastic bag, twisting in the wind, trying to break free of the tree that refuses to let go. Nature and litter's bastard child.

It made me smile.

Humpday Housecleaning

I want to send a thanks and a link to the site Hickory Creek. They linked my post about icicles in Switzerland and I had a huge spike in traffic. Bloggers like that stuff. Check out the site, they seem to find a lot of cool, interesting stuff out and about. May be worth a return visit or two or six or fifteen.

Returned to the scene of the crime today, Burgers and Cupcakes in Chelsea. Dragged a co-worker who likewise raved about the awesomeness of the burger. I went for the bison burger with grilled mushrooms and stilton cheese. Simply fantastic. We split their Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow cupcake. Likewise, phenomenal.

A little bit of Bookpeeping on the subway last night:



Lifeguard by James Patterson and Anrew Gross



Et Apres by Guillaume Musso




The Rules of Engagement: A Novel by Anita Brookner



Rudolph's Fundamentals of Pediatrics by Abraham M. Rudolph



The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil

In May, I posted about the amazing chalk drawings of Julian Beever here. Someone sent me some more amazing examples, so I thought I'd share the link to the old, and pics of the new.

Cool Stuff People E-mail Me: Icicles in Versoix, Switzerland

I thought last week it would be cool to take some pictures of icicles hanging off cars in Brooklyn.

Then I got an e-mail that humbled me.

Passing it on:




















Thanks to Lee Bujold for the drop!