I was rushing to an appointment in a newly constructed building near the East River when I passed a knockout crystal sculpture cascading into the lobby from the upper floors. Luckily I was toting my camera. But I had already been stopped by one of numerous security guards and questioned about my destination the second I stepped into the building. Clearly the place was uber serious about its security. Which often meant: “Photography Forbidden!” With negative vibes on alert, it seemed smart to keep mum about asking to photograph the sculpture.

Instead, I decided to do what I usually did in this kind of situation, which was to melt into the background and swiftly grab a shot or two. If someone suddenly boomed, “No photos allowed here!” I would already have my few frames.  After my appointment, I slipped onto the escalator and rode up to the floor where the sculpture was hanging from the ceiling. A young woman was stationed at a door welcoming people into what looked like a large luncheon. To put her at ease, I smiled and announced I’d be taking a few photos without getting in anyone’s way. To say nothing might have aroused questions or even caused her to check with security.

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Today I’m making a big, bright red Valentine for the city I live in and love: New York. I’ve lived in other big towns and visited cities on three continents, but New York was the first place I felt completely at home from the get go. Prior to New York, I often felt like a visitor in the gritty, industrial Connecticut city where I grew up in a poor neighborhood bordering a cemetery and in the wealthy suburban town where we moved when I was a teenager.

In both places I felt a lack of connection, a need to keep my thoughts to myself. Plus there were no oddballs wandering around. When I started art school in New York, it turned out I liked oddballs. Observing them in action was one of my favorite things to do.

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When I turned sixteen I received two cards: my Social Security Card and a Press Card. Both gave me an adult rush but the bigger thrill was the Press Card, bringing up visions of breaking though police lines, barreling to unfolding disasters and gaining entrance to all kinds of juicy, forbidden scenes. Along with that card, I was hired for my first freelance gig — writing a weekly column for a local newspaper. That column consisted of write-ups about special events and the notable activities of residents in a ritzy hilltop section of our suburban town. For this high school student, the icing on the cake was seeing my byline — my name in commercial print — for the first time.

For my column (actually double columns) I was paid by the word. This was not a good enticement for learning how to write lean, streamlined copy. It was however, a good way to learn about nuance – how far I could go to make as much badly needed money as I could, without going so far my word embroidery got out of hand or got me fired.

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When the owner of a prominent New York City animal rental agency saw the article in the New York Times about sociable, personality plus pets helping to sell Manhattan apartments, he immediately jumped on the new idea. It’s not every day that a spanking new category pops up in your business and this one, renting out his star dogs and cats to dress up apartments for sale, was packed with promise. Why couldn’t it work for selling houses too? And how about expanding the idea to the moneybag suburbs?  So In no time flat the animal rental web site featured a fresh new section describing their Primo Property Pets that began:

“Need to inject some warmth, life, and personality into your house, apartment or condo when prospective buyers pop in? Stars of film, TV and countless events, our elite Primo Property Pets will break the ice at your open house and charm and delight all visiting buyers.

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Do you love math? Does working in the health field appeal to you? If yes, and you’re thinking of a career in either of these two fields, here’s some good news. Of the 20 most profitable small businesses in the USA from 2003 to 2010, a whopping nine are money related and seven are in the health category. At the top of this list, put together by Forbes, are CPA offices with an average pretax profit margin of 16.5%. It’s nice to be needed and accountants always are no matter what shape the economy is in. Another reason for their high profits; have you ever seen a lavishly appointed CPA office? No, CPA’s don’t fritter away their moolah on workplace frills. Plus their clients return year after year.

I was surprised that chiropractors pull in more profits than physicians (who are at the very bottom of the list) until I recalled my own encounter with a chiropractor. After examining me and announcing my tilting, out of whack body was in serious need of straightening, the chiropractor outlined a long, VERY long series of weekly treatments. (These instantly ended when a substitute chiropractor cracked my neck sideways without  — eek! — prior warning).

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During the summer when I was high school student, I started my first nine to five job at the newspaper where I had been contributing a small column.

My job consisted of filling in for vacationing employees. My first assigned task was typing up advertising bills, something that filled me with apprehension. The office manager, sitting only a few feet away, would instantly see that I had never learned how to type. To cover this, I sat down and attacked the typewriter keys in a pounding frenzy of two fingered typing. I don’t know if this merely diverted him or he took pity on me, but my rookie two-finger typing was never mentioned.

Next subbing for the vacationing receptionist, I learned to operate a switchboard console. My desk was at the front door, a much more entertaining set-up with a ringside seat on the comings and goings of all the newspaper traffic. The last person to arrive each morning was usually the newspaper owner, who always tossed me a quick greeting as he whizzed by.  An inhabitant of the priciest neighborhood in town, he had an uncommon family for that town. Instead of the usual one or two children, he had fathered a tribe of, as I recall, six or seven little darlings.

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Why do some people attach more value to their material possessions than others? Why do they continually buy, buy, buy while others are content with the goodies they already own? A March study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology indicates that these big spenders may be less secure in their personal relationships than those who put a smaller value on material goods.

The study author, Margaret Clark, a professor of psychology at Yale, said that people are social beings who need to feel secure and this sense of security can come from either supportive relationships or material possessions. If people don’t feel loved and valued, the importance of material things expands to fill that empty space.

In the study, 185 participants between the ages of 18 and 71  (70 of them male) were divided into two groups. The first group was asked to write a paragraph about a time when they felt socially supported and the second asked to write about a pleasant restaurant experience. Then both groups were asked to put a monetary value on their bed blanket.

The group recalling their positive social support put an average value of  $33.38 on their blanket. Amazingly the other group valued the blanket at a sky-high average of $173.80.

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Yes, New York City can be jaw-dropping expensive, but among all the fat Manhattan wallets are fascinating and fun attractions that are 100% free.  A new BBC article in partnership with Lonely Planet highlights 40 of these free attractions with pertinent details. Many are off the beaten track, like the African Burial Grounds, a Brooklyn Brewery, an old Dutch stone house that survived the Battle of Brooklyn and Public Boathouses offering free kayaking.

You also won’t find big crowds at the Forbes Collection which houses a knockout collection of jeweled Fabergé eggs and poignant photos of Czar Nicholas II’s family in ornate royal frames in one room and for the kids, a large toy soldier collection in another. (Update: Unfortunately the Fabergé eggs have been sold in a private sale to a Russian. It’s good for them getting the eggs back, but I’m sorry we’ve lost such a beautiful collection).

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Live long enough and the word “free” excites you not. Especially these days when “free” seems to often describe chintzo promotional freebies dreamed up to extract cash from you further down the line.

A few days ago, however, I attended an exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory that was not only free, but was also fun, fascinating and truly generous.  Assembled in that enormous space were 650 striking, red and white quilts from the last three centuries — the largest collection ever shown. In keeping with the vivid, imaginative graphic patterns, the quilts were hung from the cavernous Armory ceiling in dramatic, descending spirals and displayed flat on ramps for close-up examination, of which there were plenty. Presented by the American Folk Art Museum, the six-day exhibition was a gift from the owner of the quilts, Joanna S. Rose, to the people of New York City. And come New Yorkers did. I didn’t catch the exhibit till the last day and it was jumping with a far more diverse crowd than usually seen at museum exhibitions, including many children and seniors wielding canes who apparently took advantage of the free admission.

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Spring has finally sprung in New York. Hallelujah! In celebration, here are some spring quotes along with photos of cherry blossoms in Central Park and tulips on Fifth Avenue.

“I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face” — Langston Hughes

“Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling” — Walt Whitman

“What delights us in the spring is more a sensation than an appearance, more a hope than any visible reality. There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very sounds and odors of the sweet time, that caresses us and consoles us after the rigorous weeks of winter” — Philip Gilbert Hamerton

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