Getting Ready For Tomorrow's Summer Solstice.

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation. —Herbert Spencer

San Remo, (Liguria, Italy) by perth45 on Flickr.

Bethdesda Church Yard, Palm Beach, Fl

Bill Scheft @ work.

(NOTE: Cute story. In March 1998, a woman from New York Magazine called and wanted to know if I wanted “to do something for our Summer Fun Issue.” So, immediately, I said, “What about a fake New York City Summer Calendar?” To which she replied, disappointedly, “Oh….we’re already doing a summer...

Seaside

"The wanderer in Manhattan must go forth with a certain innocence because New York is best seen with innocent eyes. It doesn't matter if you are younger or old. Reading our rich history makes the experience more layered, but it is not a substitute for walking the streets themselves. For old-timers or newcomer, it is essential to absorb the city as it is now in order to shape your own nostalgias. That's why I always urge the newcomer to surrender to the city's magic. Forget the irritations and the occasional rudeness; they bother New Yorkers too. Instead, go down to the North River and the benches that run along the west side of Battery Park City. Watch the tides or the blocks of ice in winter; they have existed since the time when the island was empty of man. Gaze at the boats. Look across the water at the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, the place to which so many of the New York tribe came in order to truly live. Learn the tale of our tribe, because it's your tribe too, no matter where you were born. Listen to its music and its legends. Gaze at its ruins and monuments. Walk its sidewalks and run fingers upon the stone and bricks and steel of our right-angled streets. Breathe the air of the river breeze." Pete Hamill, Downtown: My Manhattan

Positano, Italy (by Adrian Red)