UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU!

[Barry spotted this image of Jake Gyllenhaal, which is courtesy of the ACLU and arrives via uffish and black sheep]

I don't know why, but I'm always pleasantly shocked at how early the Iris show up each year, and so it was when I spotted this one in our gardens this week.

New York, Abingdon Square, May 10th, 4 pm

I love kids, not just because they're beautiful, and not just because they're guileless, but mostly because in talking to them or watching them even for a few moments you can actually see them learn about their new world - in real time. I think the experience is especially exciting because, unlike most of us most of the time, they really want to learn.

But on an unhappy note:

Unfortunately I've been terribly inhibited about photographing children ever since a day years ago when, in the moment of capturing an especially wonderfully happy image I'd found in a public park, I was verbally assaulted by a woman for daring to violate the privacy of a child with my camera. I don't think I was out of line, but I imagine there are other arguments. Still, if I'm wrong, it would seem to make the world sadder for all of us.