Greetings and good morning. And it's far in the morning there, mid day, here. I'm in Istanbul, having just arrived. I'm staying at the Four Seasons here -- which, really, is the first time I've done this, ever -- staying at a hotel like that. And it's profoundly and unexpectedly luxurious. Really not my thing, per se, since I'd really planned on being here with another. And she couldn't make it from Paris, so that's that. I'm alone, which does seem to be my mode of exploration: solo. And...

In arising this morning, the mist settled out over Central park; and the haze was illumed by the street lights, which glowed from beneath the trees like luminous cocoons enwrapped in silken scrim. Beauty emerged, in advance of the reckoning of the day. From 200 feet up, looking out at the imaginary insects, brooding beneath the trees, bedecked in Fall... I forgot where I was, for a moment. tsg | NYC