Fiasco in Vlissingen

After this weekend I never have to go see the Dragon Boats race in Corona Park again. Naively I thought it was some sort of Chinese cultural festival but found out it was in fact a festival of corporate underwriting with really diminutive dragons. Or maybe these days the corporations are the dragons. Tent after tent bore no trace of anything but the brash logos of every bank and insurance company you ever hear about with people lined up to get some sort of corporate goody bag, trash overflowing the cans, plastic cup after cup tossed in after people made it through the long line to taste various flavors of something called "lifewater." Drink the corporate Cool Aid? Blocks away, the fountains around the Unisphere don't seem to work anymore. Though I walk through the valley of shadow of death...

Recovery today in Red Hook, where we saw amazing, thriving tomatoes at the Liberty Sunset Garden Center in what we've come to know as the Tomato House, rode a Canoe around the Valentino Pier for free with the aid of Roger and the other volunteers who've been providing this opportuniy on Sundays and Thursday evening for three years now, watched the crowd-pleasing dog Othello plunge off the embankment over and over in chase of a tennis ball, and saw this boat swiftly and magically emerge from the Buttermilk channel, especially milky today, making up for the trouble in Flushing.

The Beach at Riis Park

As we arrived at Riis Park this morning there were several police boats trolling the waters, looking for the body of a drowning victim. We decided to stay anyway, having already paid 5 dollars to park. My original plan had been to go to Manhattan Beach, a little cove near Brooklyn College where it's hard to drown, but having heard from a friend that it is one of the dirtiest beaches in the area, changed plans. Had I known the choice was death or dirt, things might have played out a little differently.

I don't know anything about the Riis drowning victim, but I send my sympathy to all those who knew this person. It would have been pretty traumatic if a body had washed up where one of the kids was wading, but then I suppose it's an honor to take part in discovering someone lost. Instead we came across this live sea star, found by my daughter, who quickly became convinced that she would become famous for her discovery, and who cried bitterly when we threw it back before we left.

The small clams which you can't avoid stepping on when wading in the shallows disguise themselves as plants, perhaps they are part plant. Amazing to watch how quickly they dig their way out of danger, floating their brownish-red wispy tendrils above them for a good wash.

Corona Cuteness

Duck butts courtesy of The Fountain of the Planet in Corona Park, Queens. The obvious caption, especially for this festive weekend in which many will reach for a cold one or other beverage of choice to ease into the spaciousness of a 3 day vacation: bottoms up!