Sunday, September 15, 2013

Let’s Celebrate Our Diversity!



As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has recognized the wonderful cultural diversity in Astoria. While walking down Steinway Street today, I noticed this striking piece of art made out of cardboard, acrylic and ink hung on a STOP sign.
When I looked to see what was on the back, I saw a printed piece of paper containing some sociopolitical commentary written by one Dave Smith.  Apart from his commentary, to celebrate our diverse community, Dave has taken pieces of art based on photographs from all over the world and hung them on stop signs throughout Astoria. If you are curious to find out more about Dave Smith, you can probably just “Google” him. Let me know what you think.

Friday, September 13, 2013

One Tough Cookie


It's hard to imagine we live only across the river from Manhattan, a place where people are competing for every last cent. While today in my lovely Astoria, people had so much trouble taking what they thought wasn't rightfully theirs.
Had some time to kill, so I was off to Rite Aid in  search of  something sweet to feed my craving. Wasn't long before I had found what I was so desperately in need of... Dark Chocolate Chip cookies... ahhhh....We are not talking the high end 85% Cacao or anything like that, just the good old classic Dark Chocolate Chip cookies that happened to be budget friendly :) Then after swiping my Credit Card , somebody behind me said, "Hey, you just dropped 25 cents" and graciously bent over, picked the shiny quarter off of the floor and placed it in my hand. I replied, "actually umm...I just paid via credit card and never had any change, so this can't be mine and since you are using cash, maybe its better off that you take it."
Then another person had something to say about this...The store manager finally burst out laughing and said "If nobody's going take the quarter, then  I will". The reality is everybody got a laugh out of this and even after leaving the store, I am still not sure who finally got the quarter, as I think the manager was only joking. The last lingering thought I had was hmmm... how different would this situation have turned out if instead of a quarter, let's say it was a $50 bill...