23.12.15

Tombstone at Trinity Churchyard on Wall St.

Detail of a tombstone at Trinity Church in New York City
Not too far from Alexander Hamilton's grave in Lower Manhattan, one can find detailed grave markers like this one.  How many symbols can you find on this tomb?
Possible Answers:
 htaerw; soroboruo; rats detniop-thgiE ,; nus; noixificurc; tsirhc; ssorc; xificurc; eniv eparg; ssalgruoH


6.9.15

Photograph: Cat is an Horizontal "S"

My friend’s black and white spotted house cat lies on the floor in an “S” formation.
A black and white spotted house cat lies on the floor in “S” formation.
Cat is a Horizontal "S"



Image Source: © 2015 Greig Roselli

15.8.15

It is Nice to Love a Bug


A green Volkswagen Bug parked on a side street in Staten Island
Bug #1 — Staten Island, 2015


A green Volkswagen Bug parked on a side street in Staten Island with a license plate that reads Bic Boy
Bug #2 — Staten Island, 2015


A green Volkswagen Bug parked on a side street in Staten Island
Bug #3 — Staten Island, 2015

Love a little. Love a bug. Love a green bug. Isn't love nice?

Image Source: Greig Roselli

20.7.15

L is for "Lying Prone on the Floor at Manhattan Mini Storage"

Greig Roselli fishes out a key with a rule from under the locked door of a storage locker..
Looking like a bible salesman 
who lost the key to his storage locker, 
I lie prone on the floor of the Manhattan Min-Storage.
How I was locked out of a storage locker and fished out the key with a ruler:

Lisa told me to ferret the key out with a flat ruler. It didn't work! And we needed to get in! Can you tell I'm opening this post like the beginning of a badly written situation comedy?

Feeling like a cartoon character, I got prone on the floor vainly fishing out the key to our storage locker. Am I a bible salesman trying to get my Gideon bibles? Or maybe I'm a bootlegger and this maximum-security storage locker holds my gin. Or maybe it's a year's worth of three-hundred-paged-glossy-covered coupon books —those artless tomes filled with fifty percent discounts for edible arrangements and vacation cruises. Mostly sold by high schoolers raising money for track and field. Or some other kind of extra-curricular activity.

17.7.15

Writing About Teaching (Again!) — and When Superheroes Have a Villain Named Lester

A photograph taken at the intersection of E 183rd Street and Jerome Avenue by the IRT Jerome Avenue Elevated Line That Carries the 4 trains
Jerome Avenue has its heroes.
Teaching kids in the Bronx at the Francis Martin branch of the New York Public Library, I learn a little bit about superheroes and us as a class brainstorm some ideas on how to identify and fix problems in the neighborhood:

Writing about teaching is a go-to blog post idea. When I am teaching, I notice human behavior in a way that I do not notice outside of the classroom. That's why the classroom is great fodder for something to write about on a blog.

Teaching is about being aware. I know this to be true. As someone who is characteristically blissfully unaware, when I train myself to become aware I notice phenomena that had previously railroaded me.