Central Park

Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Bethesda Fountain

Gaza Strip

Photo: Yasser Saymeh/Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images
A victim of a strike on the Buriej refugee camp in Gaza. The attacks took place in broad daylight on about 100 sites.

Photo: Thaer Al-hasani/Associated Press

Photo: Gary Settles/Penn State

Milk

Sean Penn as Harvey Milk
Dir: Gus Van Sant

Merry Christmas

Photo: Jacy Edwards
Teething rattle: Tiffany & Co.
Hudson's first Christmas

Harold Pinter 1930-2008

Photo: Associated Press

Harold Pinter in 1973.

In more than 30 plays — written between 1957 and 2000 and including masterworks like “The Birthday Party,” “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming” and “Betrayal” — Mr. Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life in the second half of the 20th century with terse, hypnotic dialogue filled with gaping pauses and the prospect of imminent violence.

Along with another Nobel winner, Samuel Beckett, his friend and mentor, Mr. Pinter became one of the few modern playwrights whose names instantly evoke a sensibility. The adjective Pinteresque has become part of the cultural vocabulary as a byword for strong and unspecified menace.

Melissa Etheridge

Brothers and sisters the choice is ours now. We have the world's attention. We have the capability to create change, awesome change in this world, but before we change minds we must change hearts. Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise that are beginning to listen. They don't hate us, they fear change. Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands. Maybe instead of marching on [Rick Warren's] church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.

Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us. I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.

I will be attending the inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart. I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men and women... and everyone in-between.

Abraham Lincoln's Bible

From the Obama transition team:

Washington, D.C. - On January 20th, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration. The Bible is currently part of the collections of the Library of Congress. Though there is no constitutional requirement for the use of a Bible during the swearing-in, Presidents have traditionally used Bibles for the ceremony, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance. President-elect Obama will be the first President sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861.

Photo: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Christmas Party

Ninety-nine years old.

Hyde Park, New York

Photo: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
The Vanderbilt Mansion

We Move On

Washington Post:
Trust in GOP Reaches Record Low

Just 23 percent in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said they trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle the main problems facing the nation, the lowest level reached by either party in surveys dating back to 1982.

A majority, 56 percent, trust the Democrats to handle the nation's top issues over the next few years, also a record in Post-ABC polling. But the GOP's recent losses have not translated into big Democratic gains, instead the proportion who trust neither party has climbed to 15 percent.

Trust in the GOP has fallen nine points since May, driven by a 19-point decline among conservatives. Nearly one in five in that group said they trust neither party.

Among independents, nearly twice as many said they trust neither party to cope with the nation's problems than trust Republicans - 28 percent to 17 percent. Nearly half - 46 percent - have more confidence in the Democrats, down seven points since May.

Republicans last held a significant advantage on this question in 2002.

Reading

2666 by Roberto Bolano

Muntader al-Zaidi

Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

"This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!"

Los Angeles, 1980

(click on image to enlarge)
Photographs of Barack Obama by Lisa Jack: Occidental College, Los Angeles, 1980. Ms Jack rediscovered the photos and held onto them until after the election so they could not be used in any political manner.

Time Magazine has named Barack Obama its Person of the Year.

Fitzgerald

Susan Cheever

There are certainly moments when it is embarrassing not to drink. A friend will start to pour me a glass of wine and then apologize profusely. At a party someone will notice my club soda and decide to make an issue of it. Why can’t I just have a little white wine? But there were many more embarrassing moments when I did drink, and that’s what watching other people get drunk helps me remember. For me, the psychology is often in reverse. I learn from seeing what I don’t want and avoiding it, rather than from seeing what I do want and aspiring to it.

Athens

Greek police officers used their shields as they were attacked with flour, yogurt, eggs and tomatoes during a rally outside the police headquarters in central Athens.

Photo: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters

To Read

Caroline Kennedy

Kennedy, Caroline and Ellen Alderman

The Right to Privacy - 1st Edition/1st Printing

Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: As New in As New dust jacket; Signed by All Authors
Edition: First Edition; First Printing
Size: 8vo
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995, New York, NY, U.S.A
ISBN: 0679419861
[Book #14588]

A handsome copy of this unread As New First Edition/First Print in alike dustjacket. This copy is SIGNED by the author and president's daugher Caroline Kennedy and author Ellen Alderman directly on the half-title page;

Kennedy and Alderman, both attorneys, examine one of our basic - and most contested - legal and constitutional rights: the right to privacy. The conclusion that emerges from their careful exploration is that we are witnessing a "general erosion of privacy." At once shocking and instructive, up-to-date and rich in historical perspective, The Right to Privacy is an invaluable guide to one of the most charged issues of our time

Price: $210.00

New York

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Caroline Kennedy campaigning for Barack Obama in Hartford, Conn., in February.

Caroline, yes.

''Bush, Bush, listen well: Two shoes on your head."

BAGHDAD — Hitting someone with a shoe is a strong insult in Iraq. It means the person is as low as the dirt underneath the sole of a shoe. An American military patrol in Najaf on Monday was pelted by shoes thrown by supporters of Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric. In Tikrit, journalists demonstrated in support of the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush during a news conference yesterday. And across Iraq, everyone seemed to have an opinion of the flying footwear incident.

Photo: Mohammed Zaatari/Associated Press
Chinese U.N. peacekeepers performed martial arts techniques during a medal ceremony at their base in the southern village of Henniyeh, Lebanon.

Athens

Photo: John Kolesidis/Reuters
The damage from days of protests was still visible outside the campus of Athens' Polytechnic. "Things are a scale or two lower today," said Panayotis Stathis, the national police spokesman.

Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses

By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI
NYTimes (excerpts):

WASHINGTON — A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services committee said that top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bear major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other military detention centers.

The report was issued jointly by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the Democratic chairman of the panel, and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican. The report represents the most thorough review by Congress to date of the origins of the abuse of prisoners in American military custody, and it explicitly rejects the Bush administration’s contention that tough interrogation methods have helped keep the country and its troops safe.

The report also rejected previous claims by Mr. Rumsfeld and others that Defense Department policies played no role in the the harsh treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 and in other incidents of abuse.

The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the report says, “was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own” but grew out of interrogation policies approved by Mr. Rumsfeld and other top officials “conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees.”

By the time of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Mr. Rumsfeld had formally withdrawn approval for use of the harshest techniques, which he authorized in December 2002 and then ruled out a month later. But the report said that those methods, including the use of stress positions and forced nudity, continued to spread through the military detention system. It added that their use “damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.”

Wanda Sykes

The sad thing is like over 80 million dollars was spent on Prop 8, and the California food banks - their shelves are bare. So instead of spending your money on hate why don't you buy a couple cans of pork and beans? Buy some food.

Little Ashes

Javier Beltrán as Federico García Lorca and Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí.
Release date: Spring 2009

Madrid 1922. A city wavering on the edge of change as traditional values are challenged by the dangerous new influences of jazz, Freud and the avant-garde. Salvador Dalí arrives at university at the age of 18, determined to become a great artist. His bizarre blend of shyness and rampant exhibitionism attracts the attention of two of the university’s social elite — Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel.

Salvador is absorbed into their decadent group and for a time Salvador, Luis and Federico become a formidable trio, the most ultra-modern group in Madrid. However, as time passes, Salvador feels an increasingly strong pull toward the charismatic Federico — who is oblivious to the attention he is getting from his beautiful writer friend, Magdalena. Finally, in the face of his friends’ preoccupations — and Federico’s growing renown as a poet — Luis sets off for Paris in search of his own artistic success.

Federico and Salvador spend the holiday in the seaside town of Cadaqués. Both the idyllic surroundings and the warmth of the Dalí family sweep Federico off his feet. Salvador and he draw closer, sharing their deepest beliefs, inspirations and secrets, convinced that they have found a kind of friendship undreamt of by others. It is more than a meeting of the minds; it is a fusion of souls. And then one night, in the phosphorescent water, it becomes something else.

A seemingly innocent kiss throws Federico and Salvador into the realms of the taboo. In the world of Spanish Catholicism, homosexuality is an affront against God and man. On their return to Madrid the two embark on an unspoken, secret relationship. When Luis visits, he is appalled to realize that Federico is apparently in love with Salvador. He leaves the city in shock rather than confronting his one-time friend.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Photo: Merrick Morton/Paramount Pictures
Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt.

Toggle Coat

Photo: Andrew Giammarco for The New York Times
Ralph Lauren wool toggle coat, $835 at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Pitt

Photo: Nadav Kander
Rolling Stone Interview (excerpt):
Did you go to church every Sunday [growing up]?
Yeah. And it was too much of what you shouldn't be doing instead of what you could be doing. I get enraged when people start telling other people how to live their lives. It drives me mental. This Prop. 8 thing just drives me mental.

Athens

Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A protester threw a Molotov cocktail at Greek riot police outside the Parliament in Athens on Wednesday.
Angelidakis writes:

Athens is burning but we're staying away from the fire… It’s a crazy combination of police brutality, and public brutality, and in a way everybody is wrong.

Jon Stewart

To Mike Huckabee:
You know, you talk about the pro-life movement [abortion] being one of the great shames of our nation. I think if you want number two, I think it’s that: It’s a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights as someone else.

Holiday Sobriety

Jim Atkinson/NYTimes (excerpt):

If I decided to take a drink at a party, I might be able to tough it out for that night, but I know that the next day, another drink would be someplace in my mind. That someplace might be a manageable place, but would it be worth the considerable hassle of having to think twice every time I took a sip?

Besides, my newly wired brain doesn’t really have the interest to try. I’ve worked too hard at this, learned too much, have too much pride in accomplishing something that a lot of folks with this problem don’t — a solid sobriety that has lasted at least as long as my addiction did — to risk a relapse.

But what to do about the holidays? I rather like the view of radio talk show host Don Imus, himself a recovering alcoholic who has been sober 20 years. When the subject of parties came up on his radio show a few years back, Imus noted that he was invited to many but went to very few, for one simple reason: “I don’t drink.”

This seemed to me to be one of the more sensible things ever said about parties or alcoholism. So as the holiday season gets underway, I try to look at it this way. No one really wants to go to all those parties. I’m one of the lucky ones who has an excuse to beg off.

Josh Marshall

Obama's poll numbers are up to 79/18 approve/disapprove, prompting CNN's Bill Schneider to quip: "That's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush Administration was a national disaster."

Losing the Khyber Pass

Photo: Mohammad Iqbal/Associated Press
NYTimes: A man surveyed gutted vehicles that had been bound for Afghanistan on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan. A witness reported that suspected militants attacked another terminal in northwestern Pakistan that was used for trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and American military forces in Afghanistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass

Athens

Photo: Louisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
NYTimes: Pedestrians passed by a burned-out car and graffiti on a wall reading "revenge" in the vicinity of Athens Polytechnic University. Angry young people demonstrated across Greece for the third day in a row on Monday after the deadly shooting of Andreas Grigoropoulos, 15, in Athens on Saturday by a police officer who opened fire after youths threw objects at his car.

iPhone Photo: DH
Fireworks: Opening credit sequence: The Honeymooners

Steve Hildebrand

President-elect Obama's deputy campaign manager:

As a liberal member of our Party, I hope and expect our new president to address those issues that will benefit the vast majority of Americans first and foremost. That's his job. Over time, there will be many, many issues that come before him. But first let's get our economy moving, bring our troops home safely, fix health care, end climate change and restore our place in the world. What a great president Barack Obama will be if he can work with Congress and the American people to make great strides in these very difficult times.

.

Athens

Photo: Photo: Simela Pantzartzi/European Pressphoto Agency

ATHENS (Reuters) - Thousands of youths rampaged through Athens and the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Sunday, burning dozens of shops and vehicles in a second day of rioting after police shot dead a 15-year-old boy. Greece's worst protests in years erupted in the capital late on Saturday after the shooting of the teenager, and quickly spread to Thessaloniki and the tourist islands of Crete and Corfu.

An Athens prosecutor charged two officers from an elite police corps with the shooting death of the 15-year-old, Andreas Grigoropoulos.

A 37-year-old officer who allegedly fired the shots was charged with manslaughter, while the other officer in the car was charged with abetting him, a statement from the prosecutor’s office said. Agence France-Presse identified Epaminondas Korkoneas as the older officer and Vassilis Saraliotis as his partner.

According to the police, the two police officers had been patrolling Exarchia when their car was stopped by some 30 young men, many of them hurling stones, at about 9 p.m. Both officers left their car to confront the mob, “firing three shots that resulted in the death of the minor,” according to the statement, even though witness accounts differ.

Private Greek media and a website popular among leftist youths, www.indymedia.org, said the teenager had been shot in the chest and died while being transferred to a local hospital.

To Read

"For me, death is the one appalling fact which defines life; unless you are constantly aware of it, you cannot begin to understand what life is about; unless you know and feel that the days of wine and roses are limited, that the wine will madeirize and the roses turn brown in their stinking water before all are thrown out for ever -- including the jug -- there is no context to such pleasures and interests as come your way on the road to the grave. But then I would say that, wouldn't I?"

Newsweek

One reason that tolerance for gay marriage and civil unions may be on the rise is that a growing number of Americans say they know someone who's gay. While in 1994, a NEWSWEEK Poll found that only 53 percent of those questioned knew a gay or lesbian person, that figure today is 78 percent. Drilling down a bit more, 38 percent of adults work with someone gay, 33 percent have a gay family member and 66 percent have a gay friend or acquaintance.

New York Botanical Garden

Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The Holiday Train Show.
Landmarks of New York City rendered in plant parts.
Foreground, from left: Saks Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center, including the G.E. Building, Radio City Music Hall and the Flatiron Building.

Sol Lewitt

Photo: Erik Jacobs for The New York Times

NYTimes: Mr. LeWitt’s work is, famously, about ideas before all else. He was one of the first artists to formally define Conceptual Art as a phenomenon. And he was among first to make work that downplayed the traditional art object, with its associations of individual genius, exchange value, and physical permanence -- in favor of utopian proposals and collective visions.

Via Think Progress

"A new poll commissioned by the LGBT advocacy group GLAAD found encouraging news for supporters of gay rights:

– Three-quarters of U.S. adults (75%) favor either marriage or domestic partnerships/civil unions for gay and lesbian couples. Only about two in 10 (22%) say gay and lesbian couples should have no legal recognition.

– Almost two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults favor allowing openly gay military personnel to serve in the armed forces.

– About six in 10 (63%) U.S. adults favor expanding hate crime laws to cover gay and transgender people.

– Nearly seven out of 10 U.S. adults (69%) oppose laws that would ban qualified gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

"Though conservatives criticized the poll for being funded by an advocacy organization, some of its results are actually more tempered than other polls. For example, a Washington Post poll in July found that a full 75 percent of Americans support gays serving openly in the military."

http://thinkprogress.org/

Model

Photo: Tony Cenicola/NYTimes
Capitol Building plaster model, by Timothy Richards, $395; 011-44-1225-311-499; www.timothyrichards.com.