Moving To Seattle

Saying goodbye – again – to New York City.

It wasn’t the Times Square bomber or the just-passed increase to New York’s cigarette tax, making it the highest in the nation. (I quit smoking cigarettes decades ago.) Or the specter of 3 new area casinos (I love me my hold ‘em and blackjack – too close for comfort) courtesy of this week’s wildly ironic recognition by the federal government of the Shinnecock Nation’s legitimacy. It’s not the summer heat and humidity or the winter’s unpredictability. It’s not the screaming sirens or incessant, high-pitched, back-up warning chirps or the mindless leaning on car horns by cab drivers. It’s not the scandalous, self-absorbed, self-serving, do-nothing state legislature whose felonious antics have managed to make even Governor Patterson look competent. It’s not Michael Bloomberg’s nearly $100 million dollar campaign to steal a third term as mayor. (By the way Mike, now that you’ve bought yourself a third term, why not contribute a few billion of your $18 billion dollar net worth to help pull your beloved New York City out of it’s financial crisis? After all, you nearly doubled your net worth while mayor. C’mon Mike, man-up.) It’s not that every last bit of personality has been squeezed out of Times Square or that the cost of mass transit rises commensurate with service cuts. Or that most New Yorkers are rarely within eye-shot of the moon or a sunset. Or the fact that most dog owners would rather leave behind streams of urine across the sidewalk than curb their mutts. Or that Bernie Madoff’s sons still walk among us when they actually belong underneath their father’s prison bunk. Or that the Staten Island ferry keeps crashing into its dock.

Or maybe it’s all these things and more. In any case, I’ll be a bit distracted this week into next with packing and moving so the blog is likely to suffer. I’ll try to post a bit here and there but I have to stay focused. Must stay focused. (It might help to turn off The View, Mark.)

Back in full blog mode soon.

Lighting my own fire.