So if you've a date in Constantinople...

Every gal in Constantinople
Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
So if you've a date in Constantinople
She'll be waiting in Istanbul

I met a new friend recently, back around, say, oh, March. hannah's smart, witty, fun and, in general and particular, just a great person to spend time with.

Sadly, the federal government is deporting her tomorrow.

OK, OK, OK, she's not being deported. It only feels like that to me. But she is leaving the country for a while for points in the mysterious East as a representative of the Red, White and Blue.

Istanbul! It even sounds mysterious. And Turkey! ... OK, well, not so mysterious. But still it's the crossroads of East and West, the home of the Hellespont, Troy, two of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and Istanbul, a city that governed not one or two empires, but four.

I wish you the best of luck in your posting hannah, and offer you one of my favorite sentiments as you begin your journey: Fair winds and following seas, my friend.

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when

But I'm sure we'll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through, just the way you used to do

Till the blue skies chase the dark clouds far away

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs...

So I'm back from NYC. OK, I've been back for almost a week, but with work and all I haven't been able to get around to posting my pictures.

As you can see, I was staying right on Times Square at 45th and Broadway. Pretty sweet digs. Anyway, for this small-town D.C. boy, the first thing that struck me was all the signs. You can't escape them.

Also, Holy Swarm of People, Batman! It was like a never ending Cherry Blossom Festival. Everyone just wandering this way and that, no particular destination and, like myself, looking up all the time. You couldn't help it. Even if you tried.

Here's one I found interesting. The guy was advertising "the ultimate stimulus" package. I don't know if he was talking about his own or the condoms and I didn't ask.

This one kinda made me want to laugh. A giant J-Date sign that threw up the pictures of couples it had matched. Kind of like a giant electronic shadchen.

I also thought this was a pretty interesting idea. On top of one of the ticket brokers' box office, they've built a kind of grand stand. You can just sit there on the red-lit steps and watch the whole world go by. The statue there is of Father Francis P. Duffy who served with the "Fighting Irish" of the 69th New York in World War I.

For anyone who doesn't know, parts of Broadway have been closed to traffic and are now a pedestrian mall. I kind of like it. A very town square kind of feel. You can just go out there, grab a table if one's available and lounge away.

As the son of an engineer, a man who worked on many of the buildings and bridges (no kidding, one of his first jobs out of college) in NYC, I find buildings and bridges very interesting. More so because, even though I love the classical design of much of Washington, we don't have anything like this:

Here's a close up on the windows, pretty cool:

This is a nearby building. I really like the shapes and what they did with the glass:

Again, a close up:
One more sign picture. At least he's honest.

I saw this guy twice, once in Times Square on Sunday night and again the next day down by Penn Station. Apparently the weed doesn't impair his mobility.

Just a bit outside

Boy, this little news item is going to ruin a lot of vacation memories for countless people.

Apparently, everyone who’s ever had their picture taken here:

at the Four Corners Monument with their arms and legs splayed into what they believed at the time to be four different states was, actually in Arizona the whole time.

Seriously, I’d be a little pissed, but since I’ve never been I can’t get too wound up about the whole thing. Hopefully they’ll move the monument to the right spot.

Or at least put a sign up telling people it really isn’t where they say it is.