574. City of Light

Walking down Broadway the other evening, I saw a long row of trees on the median whose trunks were wound top to bottom with white lights--just the trunks, not the branches.

"How cool," I thought. "A menorah!"

Then I noticed other randomly situated half-wound trees, and some whose tops alone were bedecked--and realized that the City of New York was a little haphazard in its holiday tree lighting plan. Hanukkah had nothing to do with it. But just for a minute, it was nice to imagine a more elegant and creative commemoration of the Festival of Lights than the 70-foot Chabad menorah on 5th and 59th.

Happy Hanukkah!--may everyone's evenings and days be equally free of darkness throughout the coming week.