tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Wild rose, Rosa acicularis.
Photographed while walking to the library along Amsterdam Avenue
on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, NYC.
After I snapped this picture, an unnamed person approached me and yelled at me for photographing -- flowers! I know this sounds shocking, and I was certainly confused, but apparently no one -- NO ONE -- is allowed any joy, not even one second of joy, not one second, if they haven't paid for it. Not in NYC, anyway.
As one of tens of thousands of throw-away Americans, I feel like a space alien in this country. Like, why the fuck am I here at all?
(Perhaps because what country in the world would want an economic refugee like me?)
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Don't you realise that TERRORISTS need photographs of flowers?
Posted by: Frank the SciencePunk | May 24, 2009 5:52 PM
wow. since you put it that way, who am i to disagree?
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | May 24, 2009 5:57 PM
Maybe the yeller was worried that your camera would steal the flower's beauty.....
Posted by: Anonymous Pseudonym | May 24, 2009 9:21 PM
Maybe the yeller was worried that your camera would steal the flower's beauty.....
Posted by: Anonymous Pseudonym | May 24, 2009 9:24 PM
Why are you using the f-word? How does it contribute to your post?
Posted by: stilldreaming | May 24, 2009 9:30 PM
Using fuck further emphasizes his frustration with this situation. Go censor someone else.
Posted by: Captain Picard | May 24, 2009 9:40 PM
"His"? Shift your eyeballs an inch to the left, and you'll see that our host goes by the 'nym of "Grrlscientist". This is turning into a mighty weird thread, somehow...
Posted by: Vasha | May 24, 2009 10:06 PM
heh. i have spent my entire online life being mistaken for a man. not sure if this is a good thing or not ..
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | May 24, 2009 10:14 PM
D
Your pictures of NYC flowers are simple and beautiful to look at. Thank you.
M S B
Posted by: mackerelsaladboy | May 25, 2009 3:26 AM
D
Your pictures of NYC flowers are simple and beautiful to look at. Thank you.
M S B
Posted by: mackerelsaladboy | May 25, 2009 3:28 AM
D
Your pictures of NYC flowers are simple and beautiful to look at. Thank you.
M S B
Posted by: mackerelsaladboy | May 25, 2009 3:32 AM
I identify with the "fuck" part of the flower/NY/terrorist attack message...
Is fascinating to be inside the belly of this beast while it is been brought down, with all its might. I could leave and live anywhere else, but I'd be bored to death, deprived of the slow pace empire disintegration into chaos I'm a witness of here.
Long time out of normal academic employment myself, I can see what you are doing and really appreciate your courage for keeping up with the field you love. And you make us all love it....thanks
Posted by: Peacewonk | May 25, 2009 8:55 AM
I thought being yelled at was just a routine part of life in New York City, like being honked at, getting asked weird questions by tourists, and receiving exciting investment opportunities from strangers on the sidewalk.
Maybe your next photo series can include instructional descriptions of the varied and colorful taxonomy of NYC yellers.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | May 25, 2009 12:22 PM
A positive aspect of NYC culture, on the other hand, is that, when one is yelled at, it is permissible and sometimes even admirable to yell back.
GrrlScientist's modest blog rant, adapted to an oral format and delivered at high volume, would have constituted a perfectly reasonable response, and would have fallen well within the parameters of ordinary social intercourse, with or without the "fuck"-ing, in NYC. Here in small-town Maine we are expected to be taciturn, or folksily good-humored, or something. Though in compensation we're allowed to be flat broke without social stigma.
Posted by: kaspian | May 26, 2009 9:58 PM