Showing posts with label
bicycles decorated for Christmas.
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Showing posts with label
bicycles decorated for Christmas.
Show all posts
I try not to spend too much of my life living vicariously through others. Sometimes, though, I can't help living, if only momentarily, through the triumphs and accomplishments of others: There are some things I simply can't do on my own. Then there are other things that, for all sorts of reasons, I probably will never do.
For example, I doubt that I will ever decorate a house for the holidays in the ways I sometimes see. Buying a poinsetta plant and, perhaps, hanging a wreath or the Christmas cards I receive is about as far as I go in bedecking my apartment for the holidays. Even if I ever buy a big house, I doubt that I will ever turn it into the sort of display I have seen in my neighborhood during the past few years:
I took those photos last year. The house's residents have created the same spectacle in each of the past six years I have lived nearby. I passed by that house on my way to work this morning but didn't notice any decorations. Perhaps they're in the works. At least, I hope so. I really love that display, more than I ever thought I could love such things.
For now, I will content myself with this:
which I found on brown bobbin. Thank you, Melissa!
Nearly two years ago, Bill de Blasio became the Mayor of New York City. Practically from the moment he assumed the office (or so it seems), he promised to ban horse carriages like the ones that carry tourists through and around Central Park.
He's faced a lot of opposition. About two weeks ago it was revealed that he's backing down and seeking only a partial ban, whatever that may mean.
As you can imagine, animal rights activists aren't happy. I can't blame them: After all, horses simply weren't meant to walk on asphalt or concrete or to breathe smog. (The streets around Central Park have some of the heaviest vehicular traffic in New York.) They are used to help perpetuate a romantic fantasy about New York: In the days when people rode carriages because there weren't other means of transportation (except, perhaps, for the horses themselves), this city was a darker, more dangerous and more squalid than it is now--unless you were very, very wealthy.
I have to wonder, though, how the animal rights activists (with whom I am in sympathy most of the time) would react to Santa and his reindeer. Now, because Donner, Blitzen, et al, fly through the air, their hooves aren't subjected to the impact that horses experience on Gotham streets. On the other hand, they are flying (I assume) at high altitudes. That means there would be less oxygen for them to breathe. Also, the effects of pollutants are magnified--which, in turn, could initiate or magnify respiratory conditions.
I think I might have found a solution for Santa--and Bill de Blasio--that just might make the animal rights activists happy:
