Hilary Clinton, Des Moines, Iowa

With the Iowa caucus on January 3, Hilary Clinton brought the big guns with her to downtown Des Moines, Iowa on New Years Eve. With the three top democratic frontrunners running in a statistical tie, candidates don’t dare take a break on New Years Eve.

With a huge American flag as a backdrop, the Senator from New York accompanied by her more popular husband Bill and her daughter Chelsea addressed the small but enthusiastic crowd for approximately ten minutes.

She spoke briefly about taking over the White House and wished the crowd a Happy New Year. She and the former President then shook hands, posed for photographs and quickly disappeared behind the stage.

Christmas Eve in Times Square

So what does Christmas mean to you? I have not celebrated Christmas in years. I cannot remember the last time I celebrated Christmas. I do not decorate my apartment. In fact, if you were to walk through my apartment there are no signs of Christmas what so ever. There is no tree and no Christmas cards hanging from the refrigerator.
The Christmas cards I do receive I read and throw out. I send very few cards myself. Those I do send go to my brother and his family.

It’s not that I dislike Christmas; I am totally neutral about the whole thing. I hate shopping for gifts and do as little of it as possible. I don’t mind receiving a gift but I am neutral on this also. Most gifts are nice but I can live without them. I appreciate the thought though, since I don’t really like thinking about other people I know how hard this thought can be.

Christmas is for children. I like to see young children enjoy their gifts and get excited about Santa. My younger niece and nephew come to mind. They are real believers and there is something magical about that complete confidence in Christmas that makes me smile. See, I am actually smiling.

I hate visiting people for Christmas, even though they have been very kind to invite me to their homes to celebrate the holiday. I like being alone at Christmas, but for many years I have worked on Christmas Day, as today and I have not had the option to visit or not to visit.

I am not religious so the spiritual side of Christmas barely registers with me. I like walking the quiet streets in New York or Hoboken at Christmas. I like to take a run on Christmas Day. When I see people hurrying through the streets with Christmas presents packed into large brown bags, I often wonder where they are rushing.

I try to think of the less fortunate at Christmas but I do nothing about their plight. I am not any more generous at Christmas than at any other time of year. There is plenty of room for improvement there.

I have fond memories of Christmas growing up. I like the fake white tree with its paint by number colored limbs, which made it easy to build. I liked going into the attic as a child and pulling down all those brown cardboard boxes full of tinsel and ornaments. I liked sitting on the sofa and watching the Sound of Music on television, eating as many sweets as I could manage. I have not given up on these traditions.

These memories are Christmas to me.

How Things Have Changed

I left Dublin in the late 1980’s with a suitcase and a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket and headed for New York where I have lived for the last 20-years. I left Ireland with an official unemployment rate of 20 percent and a weather forecast that seemed to match the doom and gloom of those difficult economic times - rain followed by more rain. Fast forward to today and I am still in New York, but the Irish economy has moved on with close to full employment and an economy that just seems to hum along, despite recent reports.

Recently, I spotted an article in the New York Times (12/21 ‘New York Condos Lure Deal-Seeking Europeans’- http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/realestate/21condo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin), that described an Irish couple apartment hunting while visiting New York. On at least two occasions this year I have read about the Irish coming to New York not just to spend their euros on Christmas presents like the Nintendo Wii, but to buy Manhattan apartments. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/realestate/04cov.html?vendor=GABRIELS&partner=GABRIELS&ex=1198645200&en=166fd27125a233ee&ei=5103.)

Personally, I take great pride in reading about the Irish spending their disposable income on New York apartments. It makes a pleasant change from those stories about economic migrants seeking a new life. My Irish friend’s tell me a cautionary tale of borrowed money, but my reply to them is - who cares if it’s borrowed money? The United States economy is built on borrowed money. I read somewhere recently that the majority of Americans have a negative savings rate. Americans spend more money than they make, all the time. That is want keeps the U.S. economy running.

When I visit Dublin I like listening to friends economic success stories. The pub talk has changed from whether so and so living abroad will be home for Christmas, to talk about whether to spend the Christmas holidays at their primary residence or at their holiday homes. The Irish economy has brought economic wealth but also an economic confidence that I never saw before. For all the doom and gloom that forecasters predict for the future of the Irish economy, I sincerely doubt that those horrible days in the early 1980’s will ever return, now that the Irish have seen what is possible.

Now if there was only something we could do about the weather!

Happy Christmas y’all.

A New York City Bust

I was walking home from work on Friday 12/21 at 4.30 pm when I came across an altercation between two groups of teenagers. One group was driving the silver BMW and the second was driving a black Hummer located out of sight behind the BMW. A fight broke out between both groups at 47th Street and Ninth Avenue. Police swarmed the scene in minutes and started to make arrests. No one appeared physically hurt. I could not find out what set these two groups off.

A New York City

Penny Harvest Field

One hundred million American pennies ($1 million dollars) look exactly like 100 million Irish pennies; all brown and copper like. Except this sea of pennies are laid out in a square box in Rockefeller Center in mid-town Manhattan.
The Penny Harvest Field, as the exhibit is called was unveiled on Monday (12/10) and measures 30 x 165 feet. The pennies were collected by school children for charity. Over 800 schools participated in the drive that began on October 22 and ended at the end of November. The non-profit ‘Common Sense’ organized the event to teach children about charity and giving to those less fortunate.

Rockerfeller and Photos

Christmas has arrived in New York, and nothing epitomizes Christmas in New York like Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Center is a four block long and two block wide piece of real estate that sits between Fifth and Seventh Ave. in the heart of mid-town Manhattan and buzzes with tourists at Christmas. In this rectangular space lie some of New York’s most famous icons; 1. The Christmas tree, an 84 foot Norway spruce stands majestically above the Rockefeller ice rink. 2. Rockefeller Ice Rink, made famous in Woody Allen movies. 3. The ‘Rockettes’ are playing at Radio City Music Hall and 4. new sculpture called Penny Harvest containing over $1 million dollars worth of pennies.

The Christmas spirit really starts in October in the most consumer driven nation in the world. Children’s toy adds start playing on television in October. Shops or stores as they are known here, start to advertise Christmas savings/specials/discounts/gift cards and store credit. I was looking at TV. this week and some financial guru said that Americans spend more money than they make. So if your income is 80,000 dollars you are spending 85,000 dollars a year. The money Americans don’t have is provided by American Express, Visa and MasterCard at hefty interest rates.

As I walk to work up Ninth Ave., I pass Christmas trees lined up like soldiers outside every deli and bodega. The smell of pine needles filled the air this morning. The streets seem new as if washed from the rain the night before. A flock of pigeons grey and white pigeons swooped and spiraled carelessly in the air, oblivious to the buses and cars passing below.