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                                New York

This is the perfect time - even if a lot of New York City and most of Europe are on vacay - [Jon Stewart: the movie you are making is very important, but you weren't here during the first Democratic mayoral candidates debate?! Where is our satire on the not-so-dog-daze of August?!] for the NYC primaries - and my new blog "I on New York." Hey, we've pretty much run out of things to talk about at the water cooler, anyway...(Tennessee Woody Williams' A Streetcar Named Blue Jasmine? Are the Yankees and Mets gonna be in the playoffs? Snow White and the Huntsman looping through the HBO channels? Does anyone even remember hearing about the Shakespeare-in-the-Park this Summer - Hamish Linklater played a lead.)

 

As previously mentioned, we have the primaries coming up and, in a last-ditch effort (before he's finally ditched), lame-Scrooge McDuck Mayor Bloomberg is getting his last corporate "quacks" in by encouraging voters to de-fund and de-Friend[s of] the NY Public Library. Why close public libraries? Well, in the case of Brooklyn Heights, Clinton Hill, and Pacific Street, they want to build condos - and that's just in Brooklyn. ("Follow the money.") Disappearing libraries, shrinking libraries, disappearing school librarians - and now Bloomberg is pushing for a waiver so schools won't have to have librarians in their libraries any more. Citizens Defending Libraries ("CDL") is a grass-roots committee of dedicated, passionate people who work on campaigning and petitioning, among other efforts, to save New York City's libraries from de-funding, shrinkage, and sell off to developers. 

Check out their website (http://citizensdefendinglibraries.blogspot.com/2013/07/citizens-defending-libraries-questions.html), then head over to the Mayoral Forum on Public Libraries at the Kane Street Synagogue, 236 Kane Street, Brooklyn on Friday, August 30th, 8:30-10:30 am. Candidates will be asked to explain their positions on the Central Library Plan, the sale of publicly-owned library buildings for private development, and the reduction in library services across the City.

Jobs are coming back - yes, they are...slowly - and even reasonable (well, over $1,200/ month) apartments are opening up.

And then, Fashion Week is just around the corner. Might as well look like the savvy, put-together people that we truly are while we sign petitions, vote, and job hunt. Now, I've actually invested in the high-low (short in front, long in back) skirt  fashion, but folks need to really work at the "simple short skirt under the filmy maxi skirt" look. Otherwise, it just looks like they're wearing a slip. Now, if you're gonna go there, wear a lacy one: at least it's interesting. Military jackets are back. And I'm getting a kick out of those over-the-knee boots (Shades of "Kinky Boots," the Tony-award winner...) and "new" laced-up, heeled boots: just in time for this early Fall weather. But watch out for the ones that resemble the ugly black clunkers that went with the old nuns' habits! Structured handbags, both large and small, chain-strapped mini purses, and large-and-small clutches round out the picture.

Aren't subways strange enough without some I'm-a-sun-bleached-blond-Yalie-sculling-type-college-boy getting all up in my lap because he offered me the seat in front of The Map, sat next to me, did the I'm-a-man-ling-with-broad-shoulders challenge thing (I'm petite...he had the agenda.), and then proceeded to twist his body all over his seat -and me - until I got skeeved out and left. Really?  ON A SUNDAY NIGHT?

Ok, foodies: squash blossoms are in the farmers' markets all over the City. Try 'em in an omelet. And there's a little booklet called "Union Square 2013 District Deals" that they're giving out in - where else? - the Union Square/14th Street area that has nifty little coupons to places like the Gramercy Terrace and City Crab, among other places.

And don't be too disgruntled when you hear your office mate's recitation of every little pit stop on her/his trip. Not only do New York State hiking and vineyards and Long Island beaches beckon, you can still fit in a long weekend - conveniently, one is coming up - at the newly rediscovered Toronto. *Perhaps* it's the new Europe? Many places to see and things to do, including the Royal Ontario Museum ("ROM"), Saks [Fifth Avenue]'s Canadian store, the Entertainment District (which draws upwards of 30,000 clubbers on any given Saturday night) - and don't miss the "beaches."               
                                                            
So, as I endeavor to inform and amuse, inspired and in awe of Aaron Sorkin's amazing HBO offering The Newsroom (Stick with it: it grows on you.), I say: Go forth! It's a long Winter.