Aviation Photos From The Past

American Airlines aircraft at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California (1937).

Louis B. Mayer (man at left) with his wife and two other people at Palm Springs Airport, Palm Springs, California(1930s).

Amelia Earhart at United Airport in Burbank, California (1932).

Amelia Earhart at United Airport,  Burbank, California (1932).

New York, New York, It's A Helluva Of A Town..

The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the groun'.
-"New York, New York" from On The Town

"Fashion models wear a variety of hats on the roof of the Conde Nast Building against a view of the New York skyline, 1949."
Corbis/© Norman Parkinson Ltd/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive

This beautiful view of the New York skyline includes the Chrysler Building at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue right behind the woman in the red hat. The Chanin Building at 122 E. 42nd Street right next to it and behind the two women with their heads together.  The  New York Central Building (AKA Helmsley Building) at 230 Park Avenue, pointed to by the feather on the hat of the woman on the right. The Lincoln Building at  60 East 42nd Street behind and slightly to the right of the New York Central Building.  Grand Central Terminal down behind the New York Central Building.  The Mercantile Building at 10 E. 40th Street is to the right of the Lincoln Building and the Empire State Building at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street right behind the Mercantile Building.  What great buildings and what a great photo.

Light Shadows 16

Labor Day 2014

Llittle Known Fact

Do you know it is hard to find a word that rhymes with purple?

Roses are red
Violets are purple
Your love is as gooey
As maple surple

Light Shadows 15

Interesting Observation

'In 1951 more than 10,000 youngsters between the ages of fourteen and sixteen were asked whether they agreed with the statement, "I am an important person." Only 12 percent answered that they did. This makes sense. After all, how many fourteen-year-olds are VIPs? The Dalai Lama's next incarnation? A millionaire singing sensation?

In 1989, the same question was asked, and the results were startlingly different: 80 percent of girls and 77 percent of boys believed they were important persons. Where did a bunch of kids get this inflated sense of self-worth? From grown-ups who worried that children with poor self-esteem would not succeed in life. These people meant well, but their fears were misplaced. The teenagers with the lowest self-esteem today are the same ones who usually shine as the academic stars of their schools: Asian Americans. Self-esteem has nothing to do with the practice of actual virtues.....Young egos need restraining, not encouragement. A fourteen-year-old does not have much time to think about herself when she is busy thinking how she is treating others.'
-Linda Przybyszewski in her book, The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish

Summertime Is Here

Ridin' 'round town with all the windows down
Eight track playin' all your fav'rite sounds
The rhythm of the bongos fill the park
The street musicians tryin' to get a start

'Cause it's summer
Summer time is here
Yes it's summer
My time of year
Yes it's summer
My time of year

Stretched out on a blanket in the sand
Kids of all ages diggin' Disneyland
Rappin' on the C.B. radio in your van
We'll give a big "ten four" to the truckin' man

'Cause it's summer
Summer time is here
Yes it's summer
My time of year
Yes it's summer
My time of year

Young boys playin' stick ball in the street
Fire hydrants help to beat the heat
Old man feeding pigeons in the square
Nighttime finds young lovers walking there

'Cause it's summer
Summer time is here
Yes it's summer
My time of year
Yes it's summer
My time of year

In Atlantic City or out in Malibu
Or any where between, I'm telling you
When you feel those balmy breezes on your face
Summer time is the best time any place

'Cause it's summer
Summer time is here
Yes it's summer
My time of year
Yes it's summer
My time of year

First Rose Of The Season

Still I Rise

RIP Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.