Ode To Joy

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Let's all do the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance! Everybody will think we're crazy but we don't care!

This is a head-and-shoulders jewelry mannequin found yesterday at the Soulard Arts and Crafts fair. Note the Eiffel Tower earrings. We expect to be in Paris in less than two months and then we'll be happy too!

That Vision Thing

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Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis County is one of the gems of the area. Mrs. Laumeier left her 72 acre estate to the people. It is now full of beautiful and strange work. There's nothing quite like it anywhere and admission is free.

This is Tony Tasset's Eye. I'd guess it's about 3 meters in diameter. It's fascinating and creepy. Visitors love to take one another's picture in front of it.

A Final Note From New York

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$650 a month to park your car! $800 if you own a Mercedes or a big Ford Excursion! $250 a month to park your bicycle!

Yes, the joys of living in the Big Apple. This was found in a garage in the West Village, near where the family dined last weekend. As the saying goes, if you have to ask you can't afford it.

Back to The Lou tomorrow, probably. Sorry for the small number of comments yesterday. I had to work pretty late.

Thursday Arch Series

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Say it ain't so.

Well, it's not that bad. There is an entrance to the museum under the Arch at each leg. They are inside the legs and point down and to the center. When this was taken the entrance at the south leg was closed for some kind of maintenance, despite many signs around the grounds directing people this way.

Today is the hundredth anniversary of my father's birth. A toast to the old guy.

Why I Love NY

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Seen on the West Side Highway, Manhattan. It feels so good to be surrounded by right-thinking people.

The Fourth of July, Plus Bonus Video

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The Fourth of July in Ridgewood, New Jersey. I lived here for about a year when my family moved from NYC to the burbs. My younger sister has lived here most of her life. The town has a big parade and fireworks show. There's always a big cook-out at my sister's home. All their old friends come by. In the video below, Lee and Bobby demonstrate how to prepare skirt steak.

Home tonight, but I think I'll do NY pix for a bit.

STL DPB On The Road: We Are Family

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Thursday is the 100th anniversary of my father's birth. The family moved from New York City (Sunnyside, Queens) to the suburbs in New Jersey as I was starting my senior year of high school. The older of my two sisters and I commuted back into the city to the schools we had attended, then went off to St. Louis. (She went to Washington University.)

As the four siblings grew up, we always returned to Ridgewood for the Fourth of July holiday and dad's birthday. My younger sister and her husband stayed there and built a large house. Even though my father died 16 years ago, we continue to get together at Sue's almost every Christmas and July 4. We like each other. Dad started a holiday dining tradition of steak and lobster. It's still going on.

Above, niece Cate and newly announced fiance Grant share a smooch with some encouragement from my brother, John. The couple are both entering the MBA program at the University of Chicago in September.

Below: - my sister Sue's daughters, Kelly and Lauren, with a difference in attitude. Lauren will return for her junior year at Virginia Tech in a few weeks and Kelly will enter as a freshman.

- lobster duty with brother-in-law Mel, chairman of the psych department at Penn State, with Grant and brother-in-law Rob, who has a large commercial real estate business.

- niece Stephanie with her parents, my brother, John, newly appointed director of North American operations for the French conglomerate St. Gobain, and his wife Pam, a neurosurgery OR nurse.

- Stephanie with Sue's dog Chi Chi.

- a taste of what's to come.

Oh, and happy birthday, America. I'll be shooting Ridgewood's traditional Fourth of July parade today and the town's huge fireworks show tonight.