wonderland l wunderland

… maybe not Banksy, but it sure looks like Pancho Villa – seen on Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn today.

Fallen but not beaten on the corner of Irving and Troutman in Brooklyn. All in all Irene passed and left no major damage in the area where we are staying – not sure about the rest though, so all the best to the ones not so lucky …

As New York is getting ready to weather Irene the people will probably have to get used to walking again – they are shutting down the MTA, meaning, as the New York Times put it: “ … shut down the city’s entire transit system Saturday — all 468 subway stations and 840 miles of tracks, and the rest of the nation’s largest mass transit network: thousands of buses in the city, as well as the buses and commuter trains that reach from Midtown Manhattan to the suburbs.“ So from tomorrow 12pm our time on we’ll stay put, waiting for the world to change, humming the old Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s tune „Come on Irene“. OK, originally it was „Come on Eileen“ as they were singing about some woman named Eileen, but hey – close enough …

… we made it.

„When the Great Creator created the animals he assigned each one to a family. Only the skunk struggled with that for he just wanted to be on his own, he did not want to be part of a family. So the Creator said „OK“, be on your own. And for everyone to recognize it, he painted the skunk a line on his back – to show he is on neither side.“ Corbin Conroy back at the White River Visitor Center on Pine Ridge Reservation told us that story (at least that’s how I remember it) – and I thought of it a couple of days ago when we actually saw one in Waterford, Connecticut. Well we kept a good distance and made sure not to disgruntle it …

Connecticut’s New London carries a strange atmosphere when walking along the beautiful yet lonely waterfront. And downtown – no bakery, no bookshop, fresh produce hard to find – quite a difference from similar East Coast towns. Sure enough, there’s quite a number of bars on the still picturesque even though a bit run down Bank Street, but almost no people … ?

They say you can watch whales from Cape Cod’s shoreline … there she blows … first we saw spouts only, later when we reached Chatham we were able to enjoy the sight of a humpback taking giant leaps out of the water. OK, we had to use binoculars to fully enjoy it, but anyway, it was beautiful.

Provincetown, located at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachussetts, is where in 1620 the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of Plymouth Colony, was signed by the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower. Well, that was then – today they call it P-town and it’s a vacation hub for the gay and lesbian community … funny, how life goes, isn’t it?

Just found this article via Jörg Colberg’s blog Conscientious – a photographer was detained for taking pictures that according to the police officer had no esthetical value. America, land of the free, home of the brave … ?

Image source: screenshot of Long Beach Post.

Wandering through the streets of Boston last night this caught my eye:

Romance? Crime scene? Or just a lost shoe in some back alley in downtown Boston …