Manhattan and Brooklyn

So true. The Shmapple is full up.

Can you imagine a one hour line to buy tickets to see a lecture?

Plotnik stood in line and got a ticket to see Tim O'Brien, Chang Rae Lee and ZZ Packer talk about writing about war, then went to see the discussion last night with Duck and The Great PD. It made him want to read all of Tim O'Brien's novels now, though PD says "Lake of the Woods" is 'way too depressing.

See this building?

It is Excellence School, in the heart of Bed-Stuy, a neighborhood you can walk through now, though they do have a 24-hour guard posted on premises.

This is what it looked like when they got started -- a burnt out, flooded out absolutely destroyed shell of a building. They were parking cars inside. Now it's harder to imagine a better place to send your kids - K-8.

They've put this soccer field on the roof. The view is of the rest of flat, flat Brooklyn.

When PD talks about what he does it can sound technical. But when you see this kind of thing in practice -- it fills you with hope.