The View From 103

This blog has been folded into Bay Ridge Blog. Meet me there!!

Posted by The Phantom at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

In the past year, I've had some fun running this blog, which deals with various political and other things, and a companion one, Bay Ridge Blog, which deals with Brooklyn's great Bay Ridge neighborhood.

I have a small but treasured group of readers on each site. I've liked running the two sites, but have often neglected both. Why? Because I work lots of hours, because I try to live my life, because I spend time reading on commenting on other people's blogs.

So, here's what I am going to do. I am going to leave this blog up, but will rarely or never post on it. I will focus my attention on Bay Ridge Blog. It will continue to be a Bay Ridge-centric blog, but I will include comments on the other things of interest. There will be no more or no less blather, so nothing is lost or gained by this change.

Happy July 4 to one and all. See you on Bay Ridge Blog.

Posted by The Phantom at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

We'll Print Any Classified Information We Want!!

Some here have hectored on the point " Why is everyone picking on the NY Times, when the Wall Street Journal and LA Times printed the story also"?

The NY Times printed the story first. They had been snooping around asking questions on SWIFT, and it became known that they were going to push the privacy angle. In news and editorial pieces ( hard to tell which is which ) they've repeatedly made the point that both the Wall Street Journal and LA Times printed essentially the same information.

Today, in a furious editorial, the Journal indicates that it does not like the NY Times hiding behind the Journal in its responses to criticism.

The Treasury Department didn't ask the WSJ not to print. They came to the Wall Street Journal, and apparently only did so when it was clear that the NY Times was about to go to press with this. The WSJ speculates that the government felt that the information was soon to go out anyway and that the WSJ " would write a straighter story". They said that if asked not to print they probably would not have.

The NY Times has said that their breach of security was in the public interest The WSJ begs to differ:

"Just as dubious is the defense in a Times editorial this week that "The Swift story bears no resemblance to security breaches, like disclosure of troop locations, that would clearly compromise the immediate safety of specific individuals." In this asymmetric war against terrorists, intelligence and financial tracking are the equivalent of troop movements. They are America's main weapons."

The WSJ says:
"We suspect that the Times has tried to use the Journal as its political heatshield precisely because it knows our editors have more credibility on these matters."

The WSJ knows that this is wartime. It's been wartime for over 4 1/2 years. Pity the word never made it to West 43rd Street.

Posted by The Phantom at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Always, I have loved blueberries. Now that they come in from Chile in our winter, you can get them almost all time time in New York. But the Chilean blueberry, like those from Florida and California, tends to bitterness, and is merely tolerable product. In early spring, they come from North Carolina, and they're just OK.

But I am in my glory in June and July when the New Jersey blueberry crop floods into New York. They're plump, and sweet and cheap as hell. I buy them in large numbers and inhale them a pint at a time.

Posted by The Phantom at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments

The internal demolition of this building is well advanced. the exterior structure will be coming down before long.

Posted by The Phantom at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

A much-beloved resident has returned. Removed for safekeeping after 9/11, "Double Check" is now back on a bench at Liberty Park, still checking the contents of his briefcase, nervous as ever. He's at the northwest corner of the park, affording him a nice view of the WTC reconstruction, if he ever looks up from his briefcase. Pardon my ratty gym bag on the next bench.

Posted by The Phantom at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

They've done a fine job at restoring Liberty Park, which reopened recently. It's a block away from the WTC site, two blocks from the Firefighters Memorial. . Back in the old days, I used to enjoy eating a Sam's Falafel sandwich in this park.

Posted by The Phantom at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

Yesterday, I went to lower Manhattan to visit the Firefighter's Memorial. If's a fine work, and I recommend that anyone who can do so comes over to see it.

Posted by The Phantom at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

I've seen the Firefighter's Memorial three times now. It's on the side of the Engine Co. 10/Ladder Company 10 firehouse on the corner of Liberty and Greenwich Streets.

SS
The bronze images are not of supermen. They're firemen doing their jobs. Here in one of my favorite images, of an exhausted fireman washing his face, from an open fire hydrant.


The second plane hits Two World Trade Center.


The lower part of the memorial is of marble. It contains the names of the firemen who died.

See the very good NY Times article ( Click on the "interactive feature" to the left )

Also, beautiful nighttime photos from Test of Will. Like the man says, click 'em to make 'em bigger. There are other good photos on that site, and I may link to it.

Posted by The Phantom at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Springtime doesn't last long in NYC anymore. In recent years, it's been a quick transition to summer, and its certainly summerlike today. Now where did I leave my shorts?

Posted by The Phantom at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments