The not so secret sex life of raccoons

My backyard could be a nature program, either that or some sort of wrong CGI animated feature starring raccoons.

I was sitting and procrastinating going to bed much like Basil some nights when a horrible squeaking sound came from outside. I worried this meant we had another dead squirrel but thanks to Mr. Flashlight learned instead it was two randy raccoons going at it. Mr. Flashlight didn't seem to bother them, but the appearance of Mr 'Hey! That's my wife!' did. They're still squeaking and hiding under the tarps over the wood and presumably having more raccoon sex. I am so displeased. I don't trust them to vacate the area under the tarp come morning and getting bit by a randy raccoon rates very low on my list of life's goals.

*sighs*

September 11, 6 years later

Today marks the 6 year anniversary of September 11, and like that day 6 years ago, it is a Tuesday, with the Jewish holidays close at its heals. Despite my blathering of dolls, gardens, geography and raccoons, it's something that has been weighing heavily on my mind.

Recently, I was playing with Wikipedia looking up information on what exactly constitutes a sweat shop after someone claimed that most BJDs were made in one. As most wikipedia research is wont to do, this lead to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (I knew about the fire, I did not know it was still standing and is now a part of NYU), the musical Rags and the singer Judy Kuhn, who other than being Jewish and kind enough to give me her autograph according to wiki also shares an alma mater.

Not being a fan of nearly all modern (post WWII) architecture, I always thought of King Building and the Conservatory building as somewhat ugly. I was always depressed looking at my old postcards of Oberlin that the lovely Warner's Hall that had been replaced by King. Neither building suffered from the utter drabness of Dascomb, Barrows, North and most of the dorms of South campus, nor had the waste of space feel that Stevenson had, but neither was impressive in my mind.

As it turns out, both King and the Con were built by Yamasaki Minoru who was also the architect behind the Trade Center. In fact despite living so close to both buildings at different times in my life, I'd never before seen the obvious architecture similarities.

It makes me sad that I was never able to appreciate this while both were standing.

I still think about what happened every time I go into NYC or cross one of the bridges. It haunts me, like the two towers of lights that once hovered over its and so many people's graves.