Cam and Brian Lehrer's NY Values Vision Board

The image above today's entry is from WNYC's "A New York Values Board." I have included it with this entry as I am thrilled to announce that one of my images of Cam (posted below), with a passage from her book, Words In Our Beak Volume One , has been accepted to be on Brian Lehrer's WNYC's A New York Values Board.

Please go to the link, scroll until you see Cam, and if you feel it worthy of your liking — and there is an option to do so — I would truly appreciate it! AND if Cam was still around, I'm SURE she'd appreciate it too!

A Post In Honor of George Washington's Birthday

Last Monday, February 15th, our nation celebrated Presidents' Day. It is a holiday that is celebrated here on the third Monday in February. The holiday of President's Day was originally established in 1885 in honor of President George Washington, and was traditionally celebrated on February twenty-second, the actual birthday date of George Washington, which is today.

According to history.com, "the holiday became popularly known as President's Day after it was moved as part of 1971's Uniform Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three day weekends for the nation's workers." 

Be that as it may, George Washington's was born on February the twenty-second, and the switching of the day to observe this, was a topic E. B. White wrote about in his correspondence with Gluyas Williams in 1971. White's humorous attitude toward our government's switching the celebration is something I discussed in my post this past President's Day and I included E.B. White's musings on the matter. On another note, George Washington has been linked to the creation of our American flag, and that is the reason I'm including photo-ops of my patriotic friends within my entry for GeorgeWashington's birthday.    

However, it seems there is some controversy over Washington's involvement with the creation of our flag, which you can read about in a Wiki Page by clicking here. For my focus in this blog post honoring George Washington's birthday is to provide information on an interest I share with him which is birds.

Frigid Temps are for the Birds!

Sometimes the wild birds that visit my urban (NYC) garden as well as the Ailanthus trees in the adjacent courtyard, got a break from being scrutinized by yours truly though the lens of my camera. This is because I go down by the river side to see how the Canadian geese are faring in the freezing waters of Hudson River. These photo-ops show how this bird type responded to the conditions occurring in the river.

It seems Canadian geese are good candidates for The Polar Bear Swimmers!
The Polar Bear Swimmers are a group of folks that always ring in a given new year by swimming in the bitter cold wintery Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island.
Info on The Polar Bear Swimmers can be found by clicking here.

Some info on the Canadian geese who frequent the Hudson River  can be found by clicking here as well as here.

In Honor of Harper Lee's Passing 2-19-16

Even though Atticus Finch said (in the novel #ToKillAMockingbird) that it was OK to ‘Kill all the bluejays you want….’ my blue jays mourn ‪#‎HarperLee‬’s passing as do I. She died today and in her honor, I’m offering a link to a post (on Fb) that featured how Ms. Lee had time to kill in order to write #ToKillAMockingbird.

In honor of #NationalWine Day, February 18th!

In honor of #NationalWine Day, February 18th!

Switching Holidays

I have something to share with you on this Presidents Day, which is a "copy" of an excerpt from a letter that the writer E.B. White wrote to Gluyas Williams in 1971:

"I am not used to celebrating Washington’s birthday on the 15th of February, so I walked up early this morning and deposited letters in our mailbox. Then had to return and retrieve them an hour later when it dawned on me the mails weren’t moving today, even though George is still locked up tight in his mother’s womb and won’t emerge for a full week. This country is nuts. The only date I would like to see shifted is December 25th, which I would like shifted to February 29th, so that occurs only once every four years. This would have a profoundly beneficial effect on the nation and would set me back even course again."

The letter is included in an anthology, "Letters of E.B. White," and a picture of the book accompanies this entry.