Assorted

Perusing some happenings in our fair to middlin’ metropolis, I see that William Shatner and Suze Rotolo are reading from their memoirs tonight. Are you telling me that Captain Kirk – who, you realize, isn’t even born yet, technically – and the “ex-ragazza di Bob Dylan,” as those Romantic Italians say, to cite only the most glorious moments of their public careers, haven’t written – or, ahem, had someone write – their memoirs before??? Rotolo actually sounds interesting, since she was a red diaper baby, a member of CORE, and traveled to Cuba in the good ol’ days before El Fid sank into despotism.
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Did you know there were hundreds of cross-dressing women who served on the armed forces of both sides in our Civil War? Private Frank Thompson, 2nd Michigan Infantry, for instance, was really Sarah Emma Edmonds, the most famous of the lot, because she wrote a book about it (Nurse and Spy in the Union Army), and ultimately received a pension for her service to the Union. This historical note brought to you by my employer, but I’m sure they’ll find this kind of stuff too hot for the advertisers who control them.
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There was a sun dog today around 5:45. I was heading west through the Valley of the Gowanus. Cool, but it's no fogbow, which I've only seen only once; that was pretty magically. The royal paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa), or princess, trees at the Union Street Bridge are in bloom. Usually, the blooms are pretty high up, but these are close, within reach (as I type, I can smell the slightly peppery, citrusy perfume from a couple I snagged). You should check them out (there’s also one on Union between 3rd & 4th Avenues, amidst the car junkies, and an amputated giant in the parking lot next to the Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park, among, obviously, other places). The flowers are lavender trumpets about an inch and half long with a very, very faint yellow interior, especially on what I call the landing strips, those slightly longer sections that lure in the pollinators. Step into my chamber, o bug. The tree is named after Anna Paulowna, a Russian “princess” (I’m very much an anti-monarchist) who is an ancestor of “Queen” Juliana of the Netherlands. They like rough ground, are fast growing, and kick the ass of those other sturdy colonizers, the Norway maple and the ailanthus. Um, I mean the tree, not the royalists.
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I arrived home, turned on the radio and heard someone praising H. Clinton to the moon. And I recognized the voice, John Edwards, and I thought, holy shit he's endorsing her? How is that possible? Whew, turns out he was just praising her, but actually endorsing the other guy.
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Stimulated: purchased this city owners manual today, The Works: Anatomy of A City. Should be mandatory reading.