Figure 1 – Automat (in New York City) by Bernice Abbott, 1936. From the Wikimediacommons, taken for the United States WPA and in the public domain.

First of all, I want to apologize for the blackout of HatiandSkoll messages over the last two days.  As best I can tell we were hacked and security systems functioned properly and shut down not the site but the emails.   Hopefully, the problems is now solved and we can get back to normal.  If you are still having problems please take a moment and let me know.

Yesterday,  was Friday and as usual on week’s end I was looking through “The Week in Photographs” in search of something both appealing and not disturbing.  There seems to be less and less “good news,” which is a pretty sad commentary on our times.  I came across this delightful image by Eduardo Munez for Reuters showing a man named Jorge, who is an immigrant from Mexico dressed as Elmo, resting in New York City’s Times Square, on July 29. I just love the “man-bag” that he is carrying. But then the “bad news”, there have been so many street performers dressed as beloved Sesame Street characters, so many demanding money from tourists, that Sesame Workshop, which owns the rights to characters, is planning on seeking an injunction against the performers.  I can see the headlines now.  “Elmo arrested, Cookie Monster incarcerated.”  Then there will be the images of crying children.  Hmm! Definitely shades of “Miracle on Thirty-fourth Street.”

Oh, and I do always respect copyrights.  They are critical to artistic expression.  It’s just the image that’s so haunting me.

Anyway, my brain started to wander back to chance encounters in my childhood.  One of the magical places that I used to go to with my father was “The Automat”  You may recall Marilyn Monroe singing in “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend:”

“A kiss may be grand
But it won’t pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat.”

These were cool places, where the food was behind little windows.  You made your pick, put in yours coins (do you remember coins?), and then took out your lunch  For a child, for my sister and I, it was wonderful and just so much fun.  Figure 1 is a photograph from 1936 by Bernice Abbott of a New York City automat taken for the WPA.

But then there were characters as well.  One Saturday in December my father and I sat down only to see Santa Claus getting his lunch and he was kind enough to sit down and chat with us.  What luck for me to have lunch with Santa, simply amazing.

So I do worry a bit about the Sesame Street characters on Times Square.  They may be annoying in their demand for tips.  So don’t tip them.  But they do distract us from more gruesome news and they are the stuff that childhood dreams are made of.