Not much to report from New York. The subway system proved to be so dysfunctional that I wasted hours trying to get around. As my luck would have it, yesterday they shut down several major lines for maintenance, and shifted trains to tracks belonging to other lines, while putting up incomprehensible signs like these:

I don't know who wrote or designed ("created" is a better word) these absolutely fiendish signs, but what they do not tell you is that not only is there no 3 Train, but that the 2 train which replaces it might or might not run on the 2 Track (depending on the whim of the operator -- and unbeknownst to passengers, who would have to run up and down flights of stairs in the hope of locating the right track). Yesterday the 2 sometimes did run on the 2 Track, but mostly seemed to run on the Number 1 Track. Then, I learned that the 4 Train was sometimes running on the 2 route, but sometimes not and when the 2 train did run it was running on a route no one could figure out, and its movement and stations did not correspond to the electronic displays inside the train. Trying to figure any of this out logically was simply impossible. People were irate and one furious man told me that he rides the subway every day, and that this had never happened before. (I calmly asked whether he thought I should write a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, and this only seemed to make the man angrier.) The MTA employees were unable to predict or explain anything, and eventually it became clear to me that the trains were just being run in an opportunistic, make-up-the-route-as-you-go-along manner, and that in all probability, there was no system at all, and nothing was anyone's fault. I saw foreign tourists who were hopelessly confused, and I wouldn't blame them if they concluded that the evil empire was on its last legs.

Speaking of signs, I had a great time at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, although I guess it's just as well that I missed the exhibit illustrated by this sign:

Really and truly, I didn't know there was a plural of "feminism," and now I'm worried, because what are the implications for the other isms? Are we approaching a permanent state of priapistic pluralisms? (Or would that be pluralistic priapisms?) Are there now to be sexisms and racisms? Liberalisms and Conservatisms? Libertarianisms? Catholicisms, Episcopalianisms, Baptisms, Presbyterianisms? Where does it end?

I just can't keep up with the pace of dysfunctionality, and I tended to identify with the turtle I photographed in the pond at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden next to the museum.

I also enjoyed the Sacred Lotuses blooming in the water lilly pond:

They have an interesting history:

This is a symbol of the sun, of creation and rebirth. Because at night the flower closes and sinks underwater, at dawn it rises and opens again. According to one creation myth it was a giant lotus which first rose out of the watery chaos at the beginning of time. From this giant lotus the sun itself rose on the first day.

It's certainly better than any creation myth I could come up with for the New York subway signs!