Ask. The. Bust.

Mr. Bair bought a phone: my friend Paul at a Verizon store on the Upper West Side.

The cars from on high in Harlem.

1 World Trade Center already looms over the vertical city... from Seventh Avenue South.

Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn at dusk.

It's in Prospect Park... cannot remember the name of this edifice, which is most beautiful at night.

Newark Public Library: still beautiful in an age of brutal budget cuts.

In the foyer of Newark Public Library there is a bust of Julius Caesar, which I was photographing earlier today, when the security guard had a fit and yelled: "You can't do that! you have to ask permission!" 

So I said: "Come off it! Permission to take a photo of a work of art?"

She yells back: "Yes!! You needa ask permission!"

So I replied: "Whose permission do I need? The bust's?"

Then I went outside, sat down on the steps. About a minute later, the security guard comes out and lights a cigarette.

"May I ask you for a cigarette?" I said, sweetly and trillingly. She gave me a hard, long look, then she says:

"ASK. THE. BUST."