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Mamdani made history today. In a beautiful, abandoned subway station, Zohran Mamdani, his wife, Rama Duwaji, and the amazing Letitia James, the state attorney general, disembarked from a No. 6 train into the grimy, dimly lit, station. Love it. He raised his right hand and recited the oath of office on two Qurans (ones belonged to his grandfather, the other belonged to Arturo Schomburg, the Black historian and writer). He is the first Muslim mayor of New York.
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Just look at this photo!
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I wish him much success in a job that will not be easy, to put it mildly. It is beyond challenging for anyone, let alone someone with little experience. He’s already done two things: Mamdani changed his mind in trying to push for city control of schools, and he’s already on task trying to make the buses free, naming Michael Flynn, a longtime transit official and consultant, the next commissioner of the Department of Transportation.Those are two signature ideas he ran his campaign on. The other one was government run grocery stores, but we haven’t heard about that in a while.
However you feel about Zoran Mandani , his election is a sign that parts of our country can be very forward thinking, unlike our current president. We are still inclusive, and this needs to be celebrated.
So that happened! And 2026 joined us (not in that order). But I didn’t know there was going to be a beautiful snow fall, too. It’s a good sign.
I wonder if you’ve seen too many snow photos, but I’m taking the chance and hoping that you haven’t. I walked outside our kitchen door and took these, making an effort at framing them in a way that might be different, or might show you something you hadn’t seen before.
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You can see the bird tracks here, at least I think that’s what they are! We have a bird feeder just to the right of this photo.
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Remnants of herb plants on an old stand that belonged to my father. He loved plants and the color green. A favorite ritual I used to do with him in the last years of his life was to go to his local nursery and pick out his plants for the spring and summer. Growing up, he would come home from work pour himself a drink ,and walk around our backyard surveying the plants of the home I grew up in.
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When we bought this 1800’s house in 1987, we never dreamed we’d have a stream in the backyard. But since we do have a stream — for almost 40 years— we have wondered how we could have lived withour it.
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