That this green icon dominating our harbor  came as a gift to us from the people of France . . .  astounds me.    Here  Liberté greets Gramma Lee T and a Virgin Atlantic plane simultaneously.

She injects herself into the absolute calendar-beauty pose of Sassafras.

She gets Timothy L. Reinauer to turn his head.

She strains to capture Anthony L. Miller‘s attention.

She appears to catch a ride on DoubleSkin 303 bunker barge.

She manages to climb atop the old warehouse to direct Caribbean Princess’ s rotation off Red Hook.

On a misty late afternoon, she’s there when Sea Bear heads for the East River.

She uses her torch to mimic a starter’s pistol as Laura K passes.

She intrudes on my foto when I’m trying to focus on Houma.

This astounding gift from the people of France lives on and on.  All of which leads me to this . . .   wouldn’t  it be just super if people of another country decided to  . . . as did the people of France … make us a gift of a really tall observation tower?  Just think of all the great harbor shots to be taken from a 1500-foot tower along the KVK . . .   I’d just love it.  Somewhere, we must have grateful friends willing to do this, shouldn’t we?  Might the Emiratis give us a Burj of our own atop Todt Hill ?    Maybe the Chinese could gift us with an Occidental Pearl Tower on Bay Ridge?    We must have friends like the French people of a century and a half ago somewhere.