DECEMBER
25, 2005 --
These
words were written Christmas Eve (with a commercial-packed "It's
a Wonderful Life" on television).
That means, of course,
that at the time of writing there was still a week left in
2005, the year that, among other things, made Harriet E. Myers, a
newsworthy person for a few days.
LPR has decided not to look back at the past 12 months, but instead
to look ahead to 2006.
Besides, anyone interested in looking back at LPR's view of 2005
-- and 2004 for that matter; LPR has entered its third (how about
that?) year -- can click Archives.
This edition does, however, include some photos that were brought
up from Archives -- photos of Johnny Damon the former Boston
Red Sox center-fielder.
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Johnny
Damon outside of Yankee Stadium on September 19, 2004.
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A
clean shaven Johnny Damon, from September 11, 2005.
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How
much did Johnny Damon mean to the Red Sox fans? LPR
photographed this handmade sign posted outside Fenway
Park by a member of Red Sox Nation
camping out on the line for tickets to the 2004 World Series.
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Johnny
Damon outside of Yankee Stadium October 13, 2004, signing
autographs for fans.
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Yankee
fans jeering the Red Sox on October 13, 2004, outside
of Yankee Stadium.
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LPR
is adding one photo from October 11, and showing LPR clicksters
the Yankee Stadium sign welcoming Mr. Damon, along
with a photo
of him when he arrived at the Stadium, December 23 as a New
York Yankee and not as a member of the Red Sox, jeered at
by Yankee
fans.
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LPR
snapped this photo of Johnny Damon just before he entered
Yankee Stadium as a Yankee player, on December 23,
2005.
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Yankee
Stadium Welcomes Johnny Damon to his new home.
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About
50 fans waited outside the press gate for Damon to leave the
ballpark as a
Yankee. They were joined by a few people protesting the loss
of city parks for a new Yankee Stadium.
For more information about the group protesting the loss
of neighborhood parks for a new Yankee Stadium, go to Saveourparks.blogspot.com
One of the protesters told LPR that the Yankees should stay
in the current Yankee Stadium, which could be modernized.
(LPR is
on record as indicating concern about the reaction of Babe
Ruth to plans to leave the ballpark known as "the house
that Ruth built.")
LPR got an email from a clickster noting that George Steinbrenner
looked "covetously" at Mr. Damon, adding, of the Yankee
boss, that after a year, "he has his man."
Couldn't
have been said better by a journalist with Yankees press credentials.
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Johnny
Damon, after a Red Sox work-out, in the Yankee
Stadium parking lot, October 11, 2004,
with George Steinbrenner in the background.
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George
Steinbrenner in the background, still looking on as
Johnny Damon walks to the Red Sox team bus.
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Earlier
in the week, LPR attended a screening of "My Brother," written
and directed by Anthony Lover and produced by Greg Segal,
with a cast including Vanessa Williams as L'tisha Morton
single mother
of two sons, Isaiah and James. Nashawn Kearse, now seen
in tv's
"Desperate Housewives, plays the adult Isaiah and Rodney
Henry, who played Simba on Broadway, in "The Lion King," is
the young Isaiah.
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Actress/Singer
Vanessa WIlliams with "My Brother" producer Greg Segal
on December
19.
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Vanessa
Williams and Anthony Lover.
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Vanessa
WIlliams, Veltis Harrattan, and friends.
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Actor
Nashawn Kearse, stars as the adult Isaiah in the movie
"My Brother."
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LPR
got this photo of Nashawn Kearse at the "My Brother"
screening. Kearse is currently appearing on "Desperate
Housewives" in the role of Caleb.
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Isaiah's
brother James, is developmentally disabled and is played by
Donovan Jennings, as a boy, and by Christopher
Scott as an
adult.
John Sawyer is director of photography, and casting
of the developmentally disabled actors was by Lisa and Debbie
Ganz.
LPR notes that the screening's audience broke out into sustained
applause at film's end.
Tuesday was the first day of the New York City transit strike.
LPR spent part of the morning in New Jersey and saw that
regular gas is almost back to economically productive prices.
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Gas
prices in New Jersey, on December 21.
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Sign
in New Jersey announcing the Transit Strike.
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The
strike continued into Wednesday and were it not for the Christmas
party given by A. Brooks, the savvy publisher of
Talent in Motion magazine, LPR probably would not have driven into Manhattan.
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The
tree at Rockefeller Center.
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En
route to the TIM party, LPR got photos of the Rockefeller Center
Christmas tree and, leaving the party, LPR headed downtown for
photos of the New York Stock Exchange Christmas Tree and a photo
of the Christmas Tree on Broadway, just above the Battery.
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The
Battery Tree on Broadway, at the southern tip of Manhattan.
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The
Lincoln Center Tree.
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The
New York Stock Exchange Tree on December 21.
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Outside
the New York Stock Exchange building, on December 21.
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LPR
also got photos of the bull, with Christmas wreath, standing
in front of the
tree, with hopes that the bull will symbolize stock market performance in 2006
-- and thereafter.
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LPR
spotted this bull on lower Broadway, ready for the holidays.
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In Torrington,
December 22, LPR noticed that gas prices had dropped a few cents
from the previous week, and also noticed an impressive
living tree near the Torrington post office.
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Torrington
Shell Station on December 22.
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A
natural Christmas tree near the Torrington post office.
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That afternoon,
news reports said that the transit workers would go back to work
and also to contract talks -- and even with the subways not yet running, LPR
saw that traffic flowed a lot easier in Manhattan, that night, compared with
the
night before.
No doubt a lot of people were thankful the transit strike had ended two days
before Christmas.
In one statement during the strike, Mayor Bloomberg referred to the "noble
pursuit of public service." May all public servants, including all elected
officials, take these words to heart, in 2006.
This writer did receive a solicitation from Jeanine Pirro, stating that her election
as U.S. senator from New York would end Hillary's Clinton's bid to become president.
LPR was not confident this was the best
argument the Westchester County district attorney could make to defeat Senator
Clinton, next November.
As it happened, a day or so later, Ms. Pirro announced that she would run for
New York attorney general instead.
New Year's is a time for personal resolutions. LPR can think of resolutions the
credit card and oil companies might make: to stop squeezing consumers.
And the Federal Reserve might resolve to stop tinkering with interest rates.
Republicans might resolve to be ... Republicans, that is, true to the legacy
of our Founding Fathers.
Democrats might resolve not to seek political advantage in every public policy
issue.
What a terrific year 2006 could be if the private as well as public sector followed
the populist counsel of Federalist 57 -- or simply honored Mayor Bloomberg's
suggestion that it is "noble" to serve the people.
LPR's resolution: to keep better track of photos, papers, keys, remotes, etc.
There is, still, so much to be thankful for. Me? I'm thankful my grandparents
emigrated to America and that I was born to Sol and Anna Zukerman.
I'm thankful that Shana has been with me more than 16 years and is still with
me, this Christmas eve.
I'm thankful for all my friends who displayed true friendship this year.
Thanks, also, to the clicksters who increased LPR visits more than fourfold over
last year -- and click from all over the world, indeed. And many. many. many
thanks to Terri Fassio and her colleagues at Skullco.com for making it possible
for this pamphleteer to appear on the internet -- democracy's mainstream.
And, to paraphrase James Stewart's last line in "It's A Wonderful Live, "Attaboy,
Frank Capra."
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