Found on a park bench this morning:

It is slowly melting, and all I had was my son's digital camera to capture the moment. Oh, well.

Planned obsolescence piece?

I think it's simply detritus from somebody's styrofoam cooler - I saw a small chunk of styrofoam stuck to the other side of the ice. In which case, do we need to call in the Gray Ghost to cover it up as it melts? That riot of color coming from the beads within could start something unsavory. Once that ice melts, it could spread the beads all over the park bench and encourage others to (gasp!) decorate for Mardi Gras! The lines have to be drawn! The public must be protected from this scourge! Uh-huh. I'm so sure...

And, in other news: Shut the hell up is quite right.

I also caught this nifty letter to the editor of the Gambit:

Support for Public Housing: We send this statement in response to the New Orleans City Council's unanimous vote to move forward with the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Due to our unique Sister City relationship with the people of the 7th Ward of New Orleans and several Ithaca residents who left our area to work for social justice in New Orleans, we feel a particular affinity to New Orleans and its people.

Housing is a universal human right. We are shocked and outraged that citizens of New Orleans were shot with pepper spray and tasers as they went to ask their City Council to vote against approving demolition permits for public housing. Many more were arrested and harassed. Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting. Public housing residents and their supporters faced this horrendous treatment when they went to City Council to ask that there be a moratorium on demolition until one-for-one replacement of public housing units is guaranteed and that public housing residents be included in the decision-making process.

In the two-plus years since Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans' poorest families have had a very difficult time returning home. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units " an 82 percent reduction in housing. We are also concerned and cognizant of the underlying race, class and other discrepancies that are apparent in these and other actions.

We call on our elected officials in New Orleans to stop these needless demolitions and take immediate action to uphold the human rights of New Orleans' poorest citizens.

Maria Coles, Michelle Berry, Gayraud Townsend, David Gelinas, Svante Myrick, Daniel Cogan
Alderpersons, City of Ithaca, N.Y.

Yes, Ithaca. Home of Cornell University. A prominent stop, and sometimes and end-point, for escaping slaves who were working their way up and out of the south through the Underground Railroad. Ithaca is also putting forth an intriguing ecological living experiment and a pretty nifty local currency system that might do us all some good in the trying financial times ahead.

Hey, they had streetcars once, people. And, though they are up north, we can learn from 'em. Just sayin'.

Update, 7:02 PM: Oh, and a further Ithaca - NOLA connection: Love Knows No Bounds.