PicoBlog

As compared to other European capitals like London or Rome, Paris is actually relatively well-contained and pretty walkable. And while the streets definitely don't run in straight lines (much to the horror of this native New Yorker), it’s relatively easy to see where you're going thanks to the system of arrondissements or districts, numbered 1 to 20, which spiral out in a snail shell shape from the first in the center to the 20th in the northeast.

As compared to other European capitals like London or Rome, Paris is actually relatively well-contained and pretty walkable. And while the streets definitely don't run in straight lines (much to the horror of this native New Yorker), it’s relatively easy to see where you're going thanks to the system of arrondissements or districts, numbered 1 to 20, which spiral out in a snail shell shape from the first in the center to the 20th in the northeast.

Dear friend, There is something I wish to tell you today, something I have long feared but hoped would never come to pass. Two weeks ago, I received the devastating news that my leukemia is back. I’m currently undergoing chemotherapy, and I have a long road ahead, including another bone marrow transplant. Earlier this fall, I returned to Paris for the first time since my initial diagnosis a decade ago. It was meant to be a celebratory return, but within a day, I came down with a fever and a bad cough and spent the next week in bed.

Remember this one? I think it was from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. I prefer not to go out right now, with this new fuckin’ super contagious disease that sounds like one of the million organizations I owe money to. The number of people on transit and outside isn’t dropping in accordance with the surge of sickness, not like when COVID-19 first hit in…what was it now…March 2020? Whenever the hell Trudeau said “enough is enough.

2500 years ago, a new Chinese philosophy was born. Taoism was founded by Lao-Tzu (nobody knows if he actually existed). Throughout its long history, Taoism gathered a lot of people around it, and that resulted in the formation of various branches of this philosophy/religion. Taoism helps its followers be in harmony with “the way of the universe”: Tao. Remarkably, despite the fact that it was created thousands of years ago, Tao is relevant to our mental health in the modern, busy world as ever.

Last week, while visiting friends in Cincinnati, Ohio, I learned a surprising truth. Coney Island in Brooklyn isn’t the only Coney Island. Cincinnati’s Ohio Grove park was established in 1880 and referred to as the “Coney Island of the West” before eventually changing its name to Coney Island. To get to my destination, I walked through the lush, green grounds of the park, which are nothing like our Brooklyn counterpart. As the friend I was with told me with relative certainty that Cincinnati’s Coney Island was older than New York’s, I realized just how little history I knew.

Here’s the headline reference, in case you’re not fluent in Buffett: My pirate credentials are pretty thin. The mascot of my high school was a pirate; our yearbook was called the Cutlass. High school was also a time when I drank lots of rum, purchased from a liquor store in my hometown that did not trouble itself with minor details such as IDs. We’d pull up to the drive-thru window (of course liquor stores in Georgia have drive-thru windows) and hand the cashier $14 in wadded-up bills and say “Give us this much alcohol.

Phoenix, Ariz. — Community members have called out a local drag bar’s “ban list” as suspiciously racist and transphobic, after the names of the performers barred from the establishment was leaked online last week.  Last month, a picture taken of a “no book list” for the popular drag bar Cruisin’ 7th was posted via Facebook and Instagram. The picture shows 10 people on the list, and online users pointed out that majority of them were people of color and trans women.

“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.” ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1:6‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Gracious and eternal God I thank you today for the opportunity to spend this moment with you communicating my needs to you as well as hearing your wisdom and direction for my life. Today I pray that you guide me and guard me. Give me the wisdom that will guard my heart and protect it from unexpected and unnecessary pain.