Chance observations in Midtown

I spent my last afternoon during my long weekend in New York City walking from 42nd to 51 Streets.

In Grand Central Terminal, I needed to stop at the New York Transit Museum store to buy a subway map shirt as a present for a second cousin who is a budding subway fan. In the concourse, I had the opportunity of meeting Gwen Pier, director of the National Sculpture Society, with whom I shared the Dorskey Symposium program the previous Friday. It was a chance sighting, as she was on her way to a meeting. However she was pleased to know that I was on my way to view the NSS's 76th Annual Member's Exhibition on view at their current atrium location at Lexington and 45th.

Then it was a pleasant walk up Madison Avenue where I got to see the moving truck outside of the Archbishop's residence, with men loading large boxes of stuff from the residence. Cardinal Egan will be succeeded by Archbishop Dolan of Milwaukee on April 15th. Cardinal Egan is the first New York Archbishop to retire (a new trend). Everone else has died in office. McCloskey, Farley, Hayes, Spellman, Cooke and O'Connor all had portrait medals done. Eagn has had medals commemorating his installation and the 2008 Papal visit, but they have only made use of his coat-of-arms, not portrait.

I also got to see what the medallion stock was at St. Patrick's Cathedral Gift shop. They had available a low releif bronze set in lucite commemorating Egans installation, and a nice Italian made silver colored medal for Benedict XVI's visit last fall.

George