Anti-Trump Rally (Columbus Circle, Manhattan)

An anti-Trump rally started at Columbus Circle, within spitting distance of Trump International Hotel & Tower this afternoon and eventually made its way to Trump Tower. The homemade signs were my favorites. The protesters later clashed with police; it wasn't the only Trump protest in the U.S. today.

Union Station (Washington D.C.)

Flags are at half mast outside Union Station. At first I thought they were still for Antonin Scalia, who died several weeks ago, but a friend reminded me that Nancy Reagan had just died. It was appropriate then that hanging out in front of Union Station were clusters of homeless people and an elderly woman with swollen legs hanging over the curb into the street in front of the station, bawling loudly since the Reagan administration will forever be associated with cuts to social services, which ensured that more people living on the edge of society had harder, more miserable lives.

An Election that Can Only Get Weirder (Hells Kitchen, Manhattan)

If the election wasn't weird enough, Vietnamese Americans for Ron Paul? #election #election2016 #bumperstickers #ronpaul

Walls of Wonder (Wynwood District, Miami, Florida)

I'd never heard of the Wynwood Walls until my family visited Miami this past week. And what an amazing thing to witness without any foreknowledge. Everywhere we looked for several square blocks we were dazzled by murals.

What I loved most about them was how they were integrated into the landscape. The buildings are still functional--signs advertise "Fairy Shoes" and "Latin Food Holdings, Inc." and "Big Time Men's Clothing" or warn that this is a "Tow Away Zone"--but the murals elevate everything--the signage, the passersby, the traffic--to something magical, something eye-popping, wonder-inducing, head-spinning. The murals make the buildings and everything around them that mysterious and ultimately unknowable thing called art.

Here's just a sampling of what we saw.
 

Puddle Jumping (Upper West Side, Manhattan)

It's taken only a few days for the second largest snow storm in New York City history (in the last 150 years) to nearly vanish from the streets of Manhattan. Most of what remains is gray snow and slushy puddles that require, in some instances (above), a man-made assist to maneuver.