What she said

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah.

Mine eyes have seen the glory

of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage

where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning

of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watchfires

of a hundred circling camps;

They have builded Him an altar

in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence

by the dim and flaring lamps:

His day is marching on.

I have read as fiery gospel,

writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with My contemners,

so with you My grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman,

crush the serpent with His heel,

Since God is marching on."

He has sounded forth the trumpet

that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men

before His judgment seat:

O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him!

Be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies

Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom

that transfigures you and me;

As He died to make men holy,

let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

~Julia Ward Howe~

Give it up for Lindt

The fine folks at Lindt & Sprungli, Master Swiss Chocolatiers since 1845,  cannot seem to do enough to tempt me.

If this continues I shall be forced to report them to Michelle Obama.

It all started when I began consuming the following product in what I believed to be a therapeutic dose, i.e. two squares per day:

Its mysterious duskiness is best when savored slowly and deliberately while doing something cerebral, such as working a just-difficult-enough crossword puzzle or reading Shakespeare's sonnets.

Eventually, when I went to the store prepared to pluck only my medicinal choccie from the shelf, my eye wandered.

It seems I lacked the wherewithal to be true to 90% Cocoa Supreme Dark.

The dalliance began innocently enough -- a novelty purchase, as it were -- with this:

And I tasted it and was instantly hooked. You nibble a corner and the chocolate is so smooth, just sweet enough, and then you get a largish grain of sea salt and it's like two parties in your mouth at one time.

Highly addictive. Be careful! You have been warned.

Then I allowed myself to be lured by this:

I actually resisted that one for a long time. Until the day it was cave in, buy it and try it, or find the nearest chapter of Chocoholics Amorous.

Hello, my name is Jenny and I'm a chocoholic. I thought I could quit whenever I wanted until I tried the Lindt Intense Orange bar.

In the end I opted for intense orange oblivion. I'm not sorry!

Finally, mesmerized by the prospect of tasting chocolate with heat, I tried this:

Uhm, yes, it is incredible. That is all I have to say on the subject.

Except, now I am unable to sleep unless I have all four kinds in the house at any given time.

Let's call a spade a spade! I'm a Lindt junkie.

TG brings the bars in all varieties to me constantly lest I run out, begin to suffer withdrawal, and become more intractable than usual.

What will be next? Cute pirate enrobed in semisweet chocolate?

I'm almost (but not quite) afraid to look.

You gotta LOVE capitalism

This version of the iconic LOVE sculpture sat outside Christie's in Rockefeller Plaza on May 12, 2011.

The sculpture was sold by Christie's later that day.

Behind it, in a window, was a floor-practically-to-ceiling image of Andy Warhol.

A passing lady yelped and ran toward LOVE, begging for someone to take her picture, declaring her LOVE for Andy Warhol.

?????

People. Andy Captain-Weirdness Warhol had nothing whatsoever to do with the LOVE sculpture.

That was one Robert Indiana, who many decades ago famously failed or declined or maybe just forgot to copyright said now-instantly-recognizable piece of pop art.

Which sculpture for some reason always reminds me of the movie Love Story, so maybe the lady on the street isn't the only one who's a trifle confused.

But, you know, I'm a romantic who came of age in the '70s.

In Times Square the message of love got a tad more tactile.

And yes ... the kid was making pretty decent money giving away "free" hugs.

How's that for capitalism? I'm sure the cardboard truly was "free" so that means he invested in some colored markers.

Unless, that is, he borrowed someone else's.

It beats working.

Now right here is the hug I wanted.

Happy Pirate Monday!

SkyWatch Friday: New York City

It's all so splendid, a person hardly knows where to look.

Inevitably the eye is drawn up ... up to where the audacious skyscrapers meet the azure sky.

^ Battery Park and Staten Island Ferry embarkation environs ^

^ Same buildings plus one more ... different angle ^

^ Nautical monument in Battery Park ^

^ The blue as viewed from the way cool Apple cube, Fifth Avenue ^

^ Would you believe I took this while walking? ^

^ I may have stopped for this one but I doubt it ^

^ Trinity Church, Wall Street ^

^ Cary Grant? Tom Hanks? Whoever shows up. ^

^ The view from at of the top ^

^ She who needs no introduction ^