Winter in Battery Park City, New York

Down in Battery Park City, as in much of downtown Manhattan, the wind is on steroids. Strong, and stoked by tall buildings and narrow streets, the winter wind saves its best work for west of the big highway where the Hudson River adds its two bucks.
On any given day, the air feels at least ten degrees colder in Battery Park City, especially in seasons where you need every degree on the your side of the tote board.
The wind whistles through spaces in the windows of our 18th floor apartment; it pounds on our walls and makes us huddle close to the space heater and under a comforter on the couch.
This brutality is payment for the beautiful summers down here when Battery Park City is spared the sweltering stench of the rest of Manhattan, where the same tall buildings create oven walls to contain the heat.
The Hudson River relents, and the mad, mad space makes you close your eyes and spin around without knocking anyone over. Among the joys of summer: The Esplanade, Rockefeller Park, and the North Cove where the yachts are moored, the World Financial Center Plaza where PJ Clarke's and South West have hundreds of outside tables, the fountains, and the places where you can just sit outside, undisturbed.
I count the days until March when I get my annual reminder that March is still a winter month. Okay, I'll count til April then, which for some is the "cruelest month," but not for me!

New Year's Day: The Philadelphia Mummers

photo by Max Lang

New Year's Day holds many traditions for those who wake up intact on the difficult first day of January. Besides football games and polar bear swims, there is a tradition that I have yet to witness, in the land of my in-laws, the Philadelphia Mummers Parade.
The Mummers have a rich and colorful history. The five divisions of the Mummers are: Comics, Wench Brigade, Fancies, String Bands and Fancy Brigades. I can divide my friends and acquaintances into similar divisions, but will never commit those assignments to paper.

Whatever you are doing this first day of the new decade: whether you're sleeping it off; inhaling fat, salt and grease at your local diner or four-star brunch restaurant; toweling off from a dip in Lake Michigan or partaking in other New Year's Day festivities, enjoy!