CANstruction: Canned Food Art at the WFC

Canned! Mr Potato Head

When everyone seems to have their hand out, how does a city food bank grab a New Yorker’s attention?

I can’t think of a better way of engaging people in charitable giving than the CANstruction® competition. In CANstruction®, teams of designers, architects or engineers create exhibits using canned [...]

Tribeca Grill becomes a Standard

My first visit to Tribeca Grill was sometime during my first year in New York, in 1992 or 1993.

I was overly impressed that Robert DeNiro owned the restaurant that I WAS EATING IN. I really  thought DeNiro might be standing quietly at the end of the bar, notice me and my friends and [...]

The Confines of New York City

At some unidentifiable point, after I lived in New York City a long while, I started talking about leaving. I would say, if it weren’t so cold in Wisconsin in the winter, I would have already moved back to Milwaukee.

The sore point and source of my complaints always boils down [...]

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) Bloom

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The Cherry Blossom

Blink and you miss them.

Cherry blossoms bloom for only a week, but that week bestows upon me a glorious view from my apartment window in Battery Park City.

Americans associate cherry blossoms with Washington DC and the annual Cherry Blossom Festival at the Tidal Basin.

Most of the thousands of cherry blossoms the Japanese gave the United States in 1912 were planted in DC.You also can find cherry blossoms in several other areas of the United States, including San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. And some ended up here in New York, and a few outside my window.

But this 18th floor window isn’t the first to afford me a view of cherry blossoms. Growing up on an army base in Japan, I could see a single cherry blossom tree from my window. The small tree didn’t hide the chain-link fence and the gravel field beyond, a field of broken tanks, row after row of tanks waiting for repair. Continue reading Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) Bloom

Brunch at The Crosby Bar

Met friends at The Crosby Bar for brunch Sunday.

Checked out the online reviews first, of course. Every reviewer ranted about the cocktail prices that apparently go boldly where no others dare to go. Some just raised an eyebrow and some ranted on. They are right; starting at $18, cocktails at the bar-restaurant in [...]