Whale Spotted Near George Washington Bridge | NBC New York

Whale Spotted Near George Washington Bridge | NBC New York

At Sea With New York Harbor’s Channel Masters - The New York Times

At Sea With New York Harbor’s Channel Masters - The New York Times

by Emily S. Rueb

Aboard the Pilot Boat New Jersey — A speed of 7 knots at sea is equal to about 8 miles per hour on land, which doesn’t sound very fast.

That is not how it feels 15 miles or so southeast of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, where the Queen Mary 2 is heading out into the Atlantic.

Capt. Thomas J. Keating Jr. emerges from a door in the belly of the vessel, an ocean liner that is about the length of the Empire State Building if it were turned on its side.

The wind is whipping on this Tuesday in August, but Captain Keating’s purple tie is securely fastened under his vest as he climbs down onto the bow of a 53-foot aluminum boat riding beside the larger ship, like a minnow next to a whale.

Vendee Globe - approaching the Cape Verde Islands

Approaches to the Cape Verde Islands blue wind shadows stretch 280 km
Yellow marks wind acceleration

One week out Brit Alex Thomson leads the 29 boat Vendee Globe fleet, threading his way through the Canary Islands, approaching the doldrums (the ITCZ - inter-tropical convergence zone).

Tanguay De Lamotte (Save the Children) is the only one to have suffered major damage.  His carbon fiber mast snapped a foot from the top.  Now he's got a sail wrapped around the keel as he tries to make his way to a safe harbor for repairs.  This being the Vendee Globe he has to do it himself,  Bonne chance.

Vendee Globe - approaching the Cape Verde Islands

Approaches to the Caper Verde Islands blue wind shadows stretch 280km
Yellow marks wind acceleration

One week out Brit Alex Thomson leads the 29 boat Vendee Globe fleet, threading his way through the Canary Islands, approaching the doldrums (the ITCZ - inter-tropical convergence zone).

Tanguay De Lamotte (Save the Children) is the only one to have suffered major damage.  His carbon fiber mast snapped a foot from the top.  Now he's got a sail wrapped around the keel as he tries to make his way to a safe harbor for repairs.  This being the Vendee Globe he has to do it himself,  Bonne chance.

Vendee globe starts Sunday, November 6

The 2016-2017 Vendee Globe race starts Sunday, November 6.  The rules are very simple. One person on a boat, no outside assistance.  Leave from Les Sable d'Olognes, France, circumnavigate the globe, leaving the great Capes to port: Good Hope, Leeuwin, and Horn.  Return to the point of beginning.

On the hard

At Barron's Boatyard, City Island.

'I was left speechless': Bob Dylan breaks two-week silence over Nobel prize | Music | The Guardian

'I was left speechless': Bob Dylan breaks two-week silence over Nobel prize | Music | The Guardian

“There’s a certain intensity in writing a song,” he added. “You have to keep in mind why you are writing it and for who and what for.”

The singer also tied songwriting to his interests in painting and sculpting, though he recognized that not all of his ambitions would achieve the same success as his music.“I’d like to drive a race car on the Indianapolis track. I’d like to kick a field goal in an NFL football game. I’d like to be able to hit a hundred-mile-an-hour baseball. But you have to know your place.” he said. “There might be some things that are beyond your talents.

“Everything worth doing takes time. You have to write a hundred bad songs before you write one good one. And you have to sacrifice a lot of things that you might not be prepared for. Like it or not, you are in this alone and have to follow your own star.” 

Let's celebrate Dylan's Nobel //David Remnick ~ The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/lets-celebrate-the-bob-dylan-nobel-win?mbid=social_twitter

Good day for the Patriot League

Good day for the Patriot League.
Fordham 41 Yale 34
Holy Cross 27 Harvard 17

A Few Thoughts on Dylan's Big Day // Josh Marshall

A Few Thoughts on Dylan's Big Day
Barack Obama:

Barack Obama being interviewed in Rolling Stonetalking about Dylan's performance at the White House in February 2010 where he performed a recognizable but re-candenced version of the Times They Are A Changin'. 

Here's what I love about Dylan: He was exactly as you'd expect he would be. He wouldn't come to the rehearsal; usually, all these guys are practicing before the set in the evening. He didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that. He came in and played "The Times They Are A-Changin'." A beautiful rendition. The guy is so steeped in this stuff that he can just come up with some new arrangement, and the song sounds completely different. Finishes the song, steps off the stage — I'm sitting right in the front row — comes up, shakes my hand, sort of tips his head, gives me just a little grin, and then leaves. And that was it — then he left. That was our only interaction with him. And I thought: That's how you want Bob Dylan, right? You don't want him to be all cheesin' and grinnin' with you. You want him to be a little skeptical about the whole enterprise. So that was a real treat.

These are both important people to me. This is how I'd prefer both of them be.