I'm out for the rest of the day (and week!), so who knows if I'll be posting. So as not to leave on a bad note, I give you this.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

And some not-so-good news.

Fed Warns of NYC Subway Terror Plot

Rad.

Stop the H8

Whee! Just in time for the holiday, all kinds of good news to be thankful for:

Florida Gay Adoption Ban Is Ruled Unconstitutional

Inquiry Set on Mormon Aid for California Marriage Vote

California: Head of Festival Quits (Okay, this one I have mixed feelings about.)

And the NY Times runs an editorial defending the California Supreme Court’s right to overturn a voter-approved proposition when it means restricting rights of a minority.

Now, how ‘bout looking at some great signs I found. (Lots more here.)

Hubbub on 34th Street

How do you like my new header? Tasty, right?

So a couple nights ago I was wandering on back to my subway stop at Herald Square and I came upon police barriers holding back small crowds of people in front of Macy's. That spot of Broadway was all lit up with klieg lights, and people with headsets were scurrying around.

Apparently later that night there would be rehearsals for the big day—tomorrow's parade, which includes performances from Broadway shows. Now, I've always gotten up early to watch this parade, and while I think it's gotten entirely too commercialized (and teeny-bopper) of late, it's still pretty neat to have it all happening right down the street from my office.

Anyway, here are some photos of what it looks like as they are setting the stage. (Metaphorically. It's really just a street. You know what I mean.)

Support network or harmful inspiration?

I love the timing of this story—right before the holiday that exists solely for Americans to gorge themselves.

Pro-Anorexia Groups Spread to Facebook

Think about that while you're going for your third helping of pecan pie.

They will give anyone a book deal these days

From Publisher's Lunch:

Star of "Full House" Jodie Sweetin's WILD CARD, about growing up on the set of the hit TV show, her downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse that began when the show ended, and her path to sobriety, to Sarah Sper at Simon Spotlight Entertainment, for publication in 2009, at auction, in a significant deal, by Kirby Kim at Endeavor.

It's called water

A California Department of Forestry air tanker flies over dozens of destroyed homes in the Montecito area. (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)

Brother Joseph Brown, of the Benedictine Order of the Holy Cross, takes in the total devastation of his monastery. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

You all remember the Tea Fire in Montecito I was so concerned about last Friday? Course you do. In the aftermath of the fire that consumed 219 homes, injured 13 people, and led to one death, the sheriff announced that it was ignited from the smoldering remains of an improperly extinguished illegal bonfire started by 10 local young people. Immediately, the local community leaped to blame students at Westmont, a sweet little Christian college up in the hills whose own campus was badly damaged. (You can see the rage-filled finger-pointing on this message board.)

Guess what? Turns out it wasn't Westmont kids at all, but hooligans from Santa Barbara City College. This makes much more sense to me, as SBCC kids time and again prove their foolishness on the streets of Isla Vista. (They are often the ones hosting gigantic keggers, burning couches, and falling off cliffs during their five-year, D+ average, junior college careers.) So, way to go, vaqueros. How are you going to get out of this one?

Westmont College psychology Professor Brenda Smith surveys the remains of Bauder Hall, a 1920s building that served as Psychology Department offices and classrooms. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Time to buy a bike

Somebody please explain to me why we should pay exhorbitantly increased fares for sickeningly reduced subway service. Please.

As if you didn't already know about this, see the Times stories here:

M.T.A. Warns of Service Cuts and Fare Increases - news

New Slant on Old Axiom: Less (Service) Is More (Fare) - analysis

They haven't announced the proposed monthly Metrocard rate, but I've heard it could be in the $100 range, up from $81. MTA, you're on my list.

Photo by Jens Peter on Flickr. This will be you, sitting in the station for an eternity because they've reduced service on your line. Bring a book. Or two.

Hey, New Yorkers:

It’s Friday. Let’s talk about beer. Last night our local (and new favorite) pub, Safe Haven, had a special Kelso night, with four of this Brooklyn brewery’s beers on tap. And they were fabulous! I had never heard of Kelso before, but apparently their beers are on tap at various places around town, so you should track them down. I especially recommend the St. Gowanus and the Flemish Red.

That’s all—just passing along a tip about tasty local beers. I would write something more topical and insightful but I drank beer last night.

Ugh.

What in god’s name has happened to cheer uniforms since I graduated high school? I just found this photo of a cheerleader from Bret Harte, my old school, at last week’s big football game against cross-county rivals Calaveras (we lost, again).

Is that spandex? Why is it sparkly? Why is it so form-fitting? That can’t look good on anyone. Poor girls. I guess I should be happy it’s not the bare-midriff style that became so popular for a while. Only someone doing 1,000 ab crunches a day could pull that off.

(Note that they are still using the full initials of the school “BHHS,” instead of “BHS,” which the uniforms and cheers were using when I arrived. If I made one contribution in those three years, it was adding in that necessary “H.” Guess I can die happy.)

Also, don't these boys look cold? And entirely too young to be parading around shirtless? Crap, I'm old.

Come skate away

Why is it that every ice rink in the world has that one person obnoxiously showing off how amazing they are? I was spectating the rink at Bryant Park during lunch the other day, and there were at least two of these perpetrators. Lady, I'm so happy for you that you can do a double salchow. Now knock it off. You're making everyone else feel bad.

Also, why isn't there anywhere that you can still skate on a natural water feature? (Pond, marsh, river—anyone read that great passage in Orlando?) I would love to have a river I could skate away on.

Update: Neato! I was just poking around the new Google image search of the Life magazine archives, and found this:

Mother of photographer Wallace G. Levison sitting in a special ice-skating chair as a young boy skates near her on the Prospect Park Skating Lake.
Location: Brooklyn, NY, US
Date taken: February 13, 1888

What what what?! You used to be able to skate on the lake in Prospect Park instead of at the crappy little rink with blaring 90s pop tunes? Rad. Also, this photo was taken exactly 90 years before my birth. Huh.

Look at the pretty!

One good thing about the darkening days of approaching winter: I get to see stellar sunsets from my office at about this time (4:30 p.m.) every day. Blues, mauves, oranges, grays … all reflected in the windows above Kips Bay and Murray Hill.

Trust me, I’ve tried to take photos, but they don’t just quite do it justice. I’ll let you know when I have something good.

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Someone please buy me a mini tripod before I blur any more potentially great low-light images

Some shots I've taken recently.

This is Brian playing foosball at a pub. That's a TV commercial in the background, I swear.

Aha!

I know many of us have talked about this, so I went to the source.

"People" (coworkers, friends, randoms on the elevator) keep saying they've "heard" (from other "people") that this winter will be colder and snowier. Than what? Than the previous two mild winters? Than normal? Than a future global-warming winter? It's not clear.

I'm tired of passing along baseless hearsay, so I consulted the 216-year-old oracle of all things weather related, the Old Farmer's Almanac. And guess what. Time to buy a balaclava.

Despite a mild November, this winter will be colder and snowier than normal, with near or above-normal precipitation. The coldest temperatures will occur in mid-December, early January, and early February. The snowiest periods will be in early and mid-December, early January, early and late February, and early March.

(I don't call 30-degree highs in mid-November, like today, "mild." But I'll give the trusty old book the benefit of the doubt.)

I rally, you rally, we all rally …

… for equality.

The sun cleared for two hours in lower Manhattan Saturday afternoon for 4,000 New Yorkers to gather in protest of the recent curtailing of civil rights for LGBT citizens in California, Arizona, Florida, and Arkansas. We were part of a nationwide protest, with rallies taking place simultaneously in 300 cities across the country.

I will say the NYC crowd was probably tamer than those in some other places—it’s hard to get any 20- or 30-something in this city excited about fighting for marriage. That’s not really our scene. However! There were some great speeches by celebrities and civic leaders, as well as much hearty chanting, directed often at the passing double-decker busses full of tourists. (“Look, ma, angry gays!”) The fight continues.

Here are some of my super stellar photos. Shut up, it's hard to get shots of a protest when you're in the middle of it. I love some of the signs, though.



I love the kid in headphones on one of his dads' shoulders.

Lots of people on the phone.


Protests are also a good place to meet people.


If this kid lived in Arkansas, he'd still be in an orphanage.

Lovely autumn day in New York.

This was awesome. After the rally, a march started. This is the head of it, and there's a Channel 12 newswoman trying to broadcast live. The people behind her keep loudly chanting our favorite: "What do we want? Equal Rights! When do we want it? Now!"

Here's a photo I didn't take, just to show you the tour buses that kept cruising by. (Photo by by Max Talbot-Minkin/maxintosh on Flickr.)

More fire

Shot of the fire last night from the top of Storke Tower on the UCSB campus, underneath which the Daily Nexus publishes. They have been live blogging the fire since it broke out. Things are so different from when I was an editor there!



Photo by Jarrick Goldhamer / Daily Nexus


Also, for some more recent evidence of the destructiveness of this fire (which hasn't even been burning for 24 hours yet), please see this short video. It shows how the Mount Calvary Monastery burned down while St. Anthony's seminary on an adjacent ridge is untouched. I used to drive past both these facilities quite often.

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Fire updates

I know most of you don't really care about this, but I can't stop checking the news of the Tea Fire in Santa Barbara. It continues to burn through canyons and across ridges and into neighborhoods—all of which are very dear to me. I continue to send all my best wishes to my old friends and coworkers, many of whose homes are in the path of this fire.

Here are some photos taken by my friend Jeff Clark, who long worked for me as a news photographer.

I commend my old newspaper, the PCBT, for posting a breaking news story.

Fire runs wild through Montecito

Already confirmation that one business colleague I know has lost his home: Voices of the Evacuated

Note: The Santa Barbara Independent, which is only an alt-weekly, is once again kicking the ass of any other local news source in breaking news coverage. They did the same in the Gap Fire earlier this year. The News-Suppress is so lame. Look at the Indy's main page for updates:

Tea Fire News and Updates

Photo by Andrew Gombert / EPA

Updated fire and evacuation map, click here or on map:

Sunny, you stay safe, too!

On fire again

Photo on the Westmont campus last night by Ray Ford/SB Independent

Poor Santa Barbara! Earlier this summer my beloved hills above Goleta burned and yesterday at 6:30 p.m. a fire broke out at the backside of Montecito that has already destroyed 100 homes and forced the evacuation of 5,400 people. (This in a city of 90,000.) Strong Santa Ana winds have been pushing the fire down the chaparral canyons (with which I am intimately familiar from hiking them for eight years) and into the residential areas. Apparently there have been many buildings lost or extremely damaged on the campus of Westmont College, a lovely little private school of which I have many friends who are alums.

My thoughts are with everyone I know back in S.B.!

Tea Fire Expands Dramatically

More Than 100 Homes Feared Lost in Montecito

My dad’s town in Oregon is flooding and my old stomping grounds are burning. Isn’t the West Coast exciting?

Photo looking east toward Montecito from Santa Barbara by Matt Wier / Associated Press

Update 10 a.m.: I just found this fire evacuation map updated to two hours ago that shows an evacuation warning stretching to FOUR BLOCKS from my old office at the Pacific Coast Business Times, and covering the homes of many people I know. GOOGLE MAP of Tea Fire

Update 10:15 a.m.: Check out this awesome coverage by the Daily Nexus!

Inferno In The Hills

Photo of fire looking east from UCSB campus over Goleta Beach and pier. (Right next to my old dorm.) Jonathan Kalan / Daily Nexus

Photo of fire in hills above Montecito by Jarrick Goldhamer / Daily Nexus