12.23.11: Peace On Earth and Good Will Toward Men

Peace On Earth and Good Will Toward Men

A lone leaf overlooks Riverside Park. Photo: JH.

Friday, December 23, 2011. Yesterday was like a Spring day in New York – 60 degrees, sunny. I saw a guy walking around in a tee shirt and shorts. I left the house with a scarf around my neck (expecting the cold) and felt like an old man (well ...?). I went to midtown to deliver some messages and gifts and then walk up Fifth past the Bergdorf windows which are almost as popular as the Apple Cube across the avenue. The sidewalks and roadways were busier than early in the week.

I don’t know about you but I’m relieved that the holiday weekend has finally come. There won’t be any parties or galas to cover or go to or write about. At least none that I know of. I have a lot of thoughts about how things are going and where things are going today for the lot of us, but I’ll keep them to myself for now.

T’is the season to be jolly, to enjoy the camaraderie and friendship and family that have graced us. This can be a tall order I know, and easy for me to say since I am a solitary man and can just relax with a book the dogs snoring around me and no one else to tug on my patience or nudge my solitude.

It’s raining in New York as I write this, and it looks like we’ll have a wet Christmas. In New York the streets can always use a wash, so that’s a gift. And all those of us who have no place to sleep, and have taken to self-created cardboard box shelters on church steps around the city, we will not be freezing.

Today’s lineup are all re-runs, so if you’ve been before and don’t have much time, don’t worry, you may not have missed anything. Although we chose them because they are perfect gems for the holiday season, as you will probably agree if you take a look. We also added a few more cards that have come since we posted the first time on Tuesday.

These cards are very popular with NYSD readers, very popular, even though many of the faces are strangers. What I think it is, is looking at “the best foot forward.” And then there are the little ones and the pups and kitties to remind of the tenderness that is available. I wish I could tell you everything I know about these cards because there are some interesting details.

For example, the man on the green tractor and plough by the horse fence. This is on a farm upstate where the man and his wife weekend (and all their spare time). There’s the horse (and maybe another), and three dogs and five cats, or vice versa. All the animals are rescued. So it’s a lovefest all around.

Because Love is all around. Love is in the air, as the song goes. For those of us who are celebrating Christmas, Merry Christmas, and those of us who are observing Chanukkah, Happy Hanukkah; and for all of us who are just plain relieved to have got this far and have a day off from labor, Happy Holidays, and Peace be with you .... Peace On Earth and Good Will Toward Men. Never a bad idea ...

Original Watercolor by Alexander Warren Montel (chief fashion illustrator) for the House of Lanvin, Place Vendome Boutique, Paris, for their "Holiday 1958" Window display. (thanks Thomas Cary).

Last Friday JH and I held our annual contributors’ luncheon at Swifty’s. This, like the holidays cards, has become a tradition for us too.

I’m always amazed when we sit down at table to see just how many there are whose work make up the NYSD throughout any month of the year. When we started, it was just the two of us. The occasion is simply the opportunity thank everyone. And for them it’s an opportunity to enjoy the company of their confreres, many of whom they never see at any other time in the year. Some couldn’t make it, thanks to distance or other obligations. We met at 12:30 and it was after three by the time the table was ready to be cleared. We occupied one entire side of the front room of the restaurant, and dozens of our enthusiastic conversations filled the room. I just hope our neighbors could hear themselves.