Stock Up for Samhain and Frankenstorm Sandy 2012

To heighten the terror, 

they're made from 100% BPA & toxic dyes in a Chinese sweatshop.

The first in a random series of Halloween/Frankenstorm 2012 reflections by Tom Eubanks.

143 YEARS LATER . . .

September 15, 1869:

the day my great-great-grandfather, Abraham Chenoweth Van Meter, 

founded The St. Croix Republican in New Richmond, Wisconsin. 

It is now known as The New Richmond News.

Abe's son and grandson--my great-grandfather and grandfather--

ran The New Richmond News until 1969. 

From the end of the Civil War to the depths of the Viet Nam. 

I've been working on a book about my family and their contributions to their 

small, northwestern Wisconsin community--and I argue, to our nation--through their newspaper and unwavering civic duties. Essays from this project were excerpted in The New Richmond News, 

in Mary Sather's Sharing Memories column.

One hundred and forty three years later, 

my words appeared in the paper started by my great-great-grandfather.

These are the essays. More to come.

---Tom Eubanks, New York City, September 17, 2012

Thanks to Mary Sather and The New Richmond News.

Why I Love New York #1,957,993

July 31, 2012. 

Suddenly cool summer evening

windows open to a quiet courtyard

Olympics in the background.

Thunder!

(But the storms have passed.)

Explosion?

Flashes of color against windows and walls of neighboring buildings.

Fireworks!

 Down the stairs, down the sidewalk,

and there they were, in a slice of sky beneath scaffolding 

bursting over the Hudson.

People pass and giggle. Some stop and watch. 

A common passing refrain: 

"Like, what are the fireworks for?"

 

By Tom Eubanks

New York Scrawl

As the area code gets more expensive, the graffiti becomes more expansive.

Tom Eubanks

USS Enterprise Crossing the Hudson

 

Because I mistimed my run this morning along the Hudson, I caught the first pass-by of the USS Enterprise as it flew up the Hudson on NY1.
I ran back to the river with Matt's camera (better zoom) and caught the shuttle swinging back from its mini-loop over New Jersey, back over the Hudson, over its new home, the USS Intrepid, and the spot where Captain Sullenberger landed that goose-crossed flight, before flying across Manhattan to land at JFK.
It will be unloaded onto a barge and floated up the Hudson to the Intrepid in June.

Why I Love New York; Volume 356

Be the Change You Wish to See in the World

Approaching an Occupied Union Square
from the subway exit on 14th Street & Broadway, 6:45 p.m.

Occupied Union Square, 6:48 p.m.



As much media, & as many tourists & looky-lous as protestors, 6:50 p.m.



Misspelled, true, but the sentiment is there. 6:50 p.m.



& this is what a growing NYPD presence across the street
& within charging distance looks like...

We can only hope tonight everyone practices what this man preached.

"Occupy Gandhi, Union Square, March 21, 2012" by Tom Eubanks