Read a book.

I'll say this more than once: Facebook is lovely and Facebook is grand. It helps me meet strangers and keep up with people that I didn't know that I missed.

It's nothing like a book.

The printed word is right up there with the electric light and indoor plumbing. It civilizes us and keeps us from misery.

A good book, put together with thought and care and, yes, a scattering of words that perhaps we don't know? That book ennobles us.

It asks us to care enough to push through the difficult parts.

It feeds our imaginations.

It gives us something clever to say.

It makes our brains a little bit bigger.

And, I hope, it does the same for our hearts.

Conversations on Facebook are mostly disposable. The same goes, doubly, for exchanges on Twitter. Most news published online is barely coherent -- just enough to get the point across. And if we're lucky, that Wikipedia article gets all its facts straight.

If the Internet is all you read, then almost certainly you're a little bit dim.

Please. For the sake of your mind. For the sake of your soul. For the sake of conversation, if for no other thing:

Read a book.

Sprawl of Blot

 

It spreads across the sky and I like its shape.

Gold Fish

 

Koi are carp. Goldfish are carp. But koi are not goldfish.

Baby Sunflower says "Shana Tova Umetukah"

 

May you have a good and sweet year.

Big City

 

Four days ago, a fire broke out at Danken Auto Parts. I took a lot of pictures. This is one.

During the main part of the crisis, the Police and Fire Departments closed Fourth Avenue in both directions, with perhaps fifty emergency vehicles in attendance. I asked a firefighter if this was typical. He said that because of the danger of collapse in the building, and because there were accelerants present, they weren't taking any chances.

(While "the FDNY said the fire was placed under control at 3:17pm," there was at least one fire truck, ladder extended, parked in front of the building until daybreak the following day.)

Oxygenation System

 

Another view of the Gowanus Canal: the temporary oxygenation system that will help reduce odors during sewage overflows.

Just an Airplane

 

Sometimes, an airplane is just an airplane.