They say the wild turkey in the park has been there for three or four years.

Dooce Bigelow 10/30/05 I began a new job at Battery Park in lower Manhattan in NYC last week for Dewberry, Inc., who I signed up with Columbus Day, on the "Swing" shift 3:30 PM to 12:00 AM. It involves the archaeology of the new trench for a re-route of a subway and new station. In the park is a public sculpture that had been in the World Trade Center vicinity, a large "sphere" made of various formed brass sheets formed into a sphere on a sculptural armature, which always appeared off-center on its incorporated pedestal. A gas torch burns near the base and commemorates the events of 09/11/01, when the "twin" buildings were hit by two hijacked airliners. The sign there is very poor, a parks dept. white letters on a green background, words crammed into it, looks like on plywood and very faded so you have to stand right ontop of it to read it. A coworker, who I have not seen since the excavations of the human remains in City Hall Park in 1999, said the "Sphere" will stay where it is as we/they go under it, underpinning planned apparently. Disturbingly, I started mid-week, and noticed that some memorabilia was being sold in the Battery Park about the events of 9/11 (999 emergency phone # in Britain) and saw some four or five African-American men there also praying to Mecca in the park. The NYC police rounded them up Friday arrested them apparently? Sadly, the fought over flagpole with crossbar ordered city-wide by the former parks commissioner Stern, and without NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, fought over and lost, has the American flag tangled in the crossbar, and it is not removed every night as "supposed" to be. NYC City and Parks flags hang from the crossbar, and a MIA flag is on the rope with the American flag though neither does when caught up on the crossbar. (This post got me "dooced" apparently though at first there was no mention of the contractor or shift.)