A Fall Friday

Summer's lease is up, and it has flitted away early this year, replaced by the exquisitely cool, mild days of Autumn in New York. Some, many, people say, that this is the city at its finest. 

Normally, these calmer days and cooler nights do not come upon us until late October, and are squeezed into a week or ten days, before suddenly, it seemed in recent years, Hallowe'en was the last day of ethereal warmth. November 1st, All Saints' Day, would arrive with the almost scalding cold, the howling rain and the freezing wind of winter. 

In the gardens of the American Museum of Natural History, there is a fairly ordinary pink granite obelisk, on which are many names on three of its sides. 

Barack Obama is listed here, amongst many others. The President's chiseled name was receiving a power hose cleaning today, along with the others: see above. The obelisk lists Americans who have been awarded a Nobel Prize.