Shopping for a Bra With Betsey Johnson

Dave Sanders for The New York Times Betsey Johnson trying on a bra over her shirt at a Victoria’s Secret.

“How do I look with breasts?” asked Betsey Johnson, holding a push-up bra clasped over her shirt in a Victoria’s Secret showroom. I took several photos in quick succession, suspecting that it would not be long before security asked me to stop.

Discretion, when shopping for lingerie with Ms. Johnson, seemed futile.

“Hello, what are we doing?” an employee asked. I tried to explain who we were and how we were shooting for an article on Ms. Johnson. I mentioned how Ms. Johnson had helped start the career of the model pictured on a nearby table. Ms. Johnson tried to play down her ascribed status.

“I know who you are,” he replied. “Please wait a moment.” He then disappeared into the back of the store. We guessed he was requesting permission for us to continue shooting, but we never found out. Ms. Johnson bought the bra she had tried on, and we ran out in front of traffic to an idling Chevrolet Tahoe that was double-parked across the street.

Once inside the vehicle, Ms. Johnson reapplied her pink lipstick and gave the driver directions to her Upper East Side apartment. “You’ve been wonderful,” she said to him as she climbed out, holding a Dixie cup filled with champagne. “I’m going to give you an excellent rating on Uber.”

Earlier in the day, I arrived Ms. Johnson’s studio on West 37th Street, where agency models were lined up for a casting call for Ms. Johnson’s coming Fashion Week shows. “Hi!” she’d exclaimed, giving me a big hug. Then a pause. “Do we know each other?” she asked.

Dave Sanders for The New York Times Ms. Johnson overseeing a go-see at her studio in Manhattan.

As the models walked down an imaginary runway past racks of multicolor dresses, Ms. Johnson watched from the back of the room, occasionally leaping from her chair to demonstrate the proper walk. “Yes! That’s it!” she shouted, throwing her arms in the air whenever she saw a model she liked.

During a moment of downtime, two of her assistants explained the concept of a selfie to Ms. Johnson, who is 71. They offered technical guidance as she raised a foot clad in a ruby red shoe to her right ear and smiled. Across the room an assistant looked through crates and boxes to put together a referee costume for Ms. Johnson that would be posted on Instagram pegged to the Super Bowl. Ms. Johnson grabbed a whistle and two puffy dresses for pom-poms and dropped to a split.

Dave Sanders for The New York Times Ms. Johnson striking a pose for a Super Bowl-themed Instagram photograph.

We ran for the door heading to the vehicle waiting downstairs. Before we could get out of the room, two models entered, arriving almost 20 minutes after the go-see had ended. “Are we too late?” asked one. “No!” shouted Ms. Johnson, throwing her bags on the floor. “Let me see you walk!”

White Pine Trees Provide Canopy and Carpet

There are few places on earth as silent or as fragrant as a grove of white pines. Showering down from above, the trees’ soft needles form a springy, thick carpet suffused with the bracing smell of pine resin. Mature pine groves have been accurately described as cathedral-like, the trees’ spires forming a dense canopy that effectively blocks out direct light and much ambient noise. Tangibly mysterious places, groves of pines frequently shelter wintering wildlife like owls and small mammals. Winter seems to be just a little more forgiving under the pine boughs.

Dave Taft A single mature white pine (Pinus strobus) has a grace and majesty worth protecting, but colonists did not share this view.

To most 21st-century viewers, even a single mature white pine (Pinus strobus) has a grace and majesty worth protecting, but colonists did not share this perspective. Uncut forests were still abundant in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and white pines were viewed primarily as a commodity, harvested like other products.

The British especially coveted these trees for ship masts. The white pine was straight, and the wood was resinous, light and durable. The largest, straightest pines were claimed by the crown and marked with the “king’s broad arrow” â€" three strokes of a hatchet creating a spearhead design. Colonists chafed at what they considered an unfair intrusion on their property rights and revolted in the Pine Tree Riot of 1772. The tree we see today as a symbol of peace and stability once represented angry sedition.
 
When George Washington commissioned six schooners in 1775 to interfere with British shipping, he had them sail under the Appeal to Heaven flag, which featured a single pine dominating a white background. Our nation was beginning to understand the magnitude and the potential of its natural resources, and was flaunting them before the British.

In today’s New York City, it is far more common to find an isolated white pine in our woodlands than a dense grove. There are, however, some places where pines, either natural or planted, can be found in good numbers. Forest Park in Queens has a lovely old grove, as well as several smaller, younger plantings. There are also white pines at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, the product of Lady Bird Johnson’s Beautification of America program.

White pines are easy to identify in the field, with needles that are thin and pliant, setting them apart from many other Northeastern pines. The needles are grouped into bunches, or fascicles, of five each, and one easy-to-remember tree-ID trick is to count them by spelling out “w-h-i-t-e.” White pine cones can reach six inches in length, and they are frequently covered with a fragrant, sticky resin.

Enjoy their scent cautiously; they’re harmless, but it can take some serious washing to remove the sap from a child’s fingers or nose.

Not particularly salt-tolerant, many white pines along the coast suffered badly as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Some are still recovering almost two years later; others have been replaced by seedlings, which, with luck, will grow to adulthood no longer subject to the crown’s whims or shipbuilders’ axes.

A version of this article appears in print on 02/09/2014, on page NJ4 of the NewJersey edition with the headline: Worthy of a King .

Words of Praise for the City’s Sanitation Chief

It was always a rather thankless position, but with the addition of social media and tweeted complaints of unpaved streets amplifying New York’s renowned impatience, the position of sanitation commissioner comes with a new job requirement: extra thick skin.

Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times John J. Doherty

It’s been especially difficult for John J. Doherty, New York’s longest-serving sanitation commissioner, who is facing an unexpected end-of-career test as New York has been pounded by four snowstorms already, with a fifth looming on the horizon this weekend.

Yet readers took to the comments section of today’s article on Mr. Doherty to offer thanks, praise and a few pot shots at Mayor Bill de Blasio, who some feel has been less than gracious to his commissioner.

The following are a few of our favorite comments.

Mr. Doherty’s shoes, or rather boots, will be hard to fill. He has an established record of success over many years, with some admitted bumps in the road. I hope the we can look back on our new Mayor’s tenure years from now and say the same about Mr. de Blasio.
â€" Jack Percelay, New York, NY

The man stays on at the request of the mayor and the mayor has nothing nice to say about him when he’s operating under the worst of conditions.

This reflects poorly on whom?
â€"fraenkelfred, Miami, Florida

Let no good deed go unpunished. A man comes out of retirement in order to help, stays on to enable an orderly transition, and then gets pilloried for his efforts. Sounds like we could use a few more people like Mr D. in the City Government. Thanks Mr. Doherty for serving the City so tirelessly for so many decades & enjoy your long overdue retirement.
â€" rjd, nyc

We have snowstorm upon snowstorm and everyone expects the streets to be magically clean, always, no matter what. It’s just not possible.

â€" Smotri, New York, New York

Mr. Doherty deserves a medal, chocolate and roses. He and his team are doing a great job. New Yorkers should be grateful to have such a dedicated commissioner.
â€" Sherrie, New York, NY

It’s winter! It’s his job!! It’s been a rough winter for a lot of us!!! Besides spring is next, and next winter will come, when he’ll hopefully be enjoying his retirement!!!
â€" Counter Measures, Old Borough Park, NY

Imagining a New York City Flag for the 21st Century

Robert A.M. Stern Untitled, nylon.

Everyone knows the old joke about what has four wheels and flies. The answer, of course: a garbage truck. But what’s blue, white and orange, festooned with beavers, flour barrels, the blades of a windmill, a sailor, an Indian and an eagle? And flies, too?

If you guessed New York City’s official flag, you’re among a select group of Gotham’s cognoscenti.

A century ago, 250 years after the transfer from Dutch to English government, the city formally adopted the tricolor flag, which incorporates a seal (a crest or emblem, not a marine mammal) dating to the late 17th century. With the city now poised to mark the 350th anniversary of that turnover, a civic group has commissioned artists, architects and graphic designers to whimsically reinvent the city flag for the new century. (The official city flag will remain unchanged.)

The reimagined flags will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on Feb. 25 by the NYC Landmarks50 Alliance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the city’s landmarks law by increasing public awareness of the city’s architectural resources. Proceeds will be managed by the Fund for the City of New York.

Francesco Clemente “New York City Flag,” watercolor on paper.

“This select group of thoughtful, iconic, humorous and ironic re-imaginings of the New York City flag for the 21st century suggests that we all march under our own banners,” said Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, chairwoman of the alliance and of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center.

“These delightful works created with warm appreciation for New York City’s historic past make this event a landmark occasion in itself,” she said.

The contributing designers include John Baldessari, Luisa Caldwell, Ivan Chermayeff, Francesco Clemente, Kenneth Cole, Norman Foster, Milton Glaser, Richard Meier, Michele Oka Doner, Clifford Ross, Tom Sachs, Robert A.M. Stern, Peter Tunney, Diane von Furstenberg and Willy Wong.

The current flag of New York City.

None of them took their assignment to reinterpret the flag for modern times too literally (or seriously). The barrels do not contain gluten-free flour. Nor do the flags feature politically correct female sailors or fully clad Indians, cockapoos instead of beavers or modern wind turbines that generate electricity.

Only a few of the proposed flags retain the date, which is probably just as well. In 1977, it was officially changed from 1664 (when the English takeover began) to 1625 (an approximate date of Dutch settlement) at the behest of the Anglophobic City Council president, Paul O’Dwyer.

“The idea is, in an increasingly virtual world in the 21st century flags are one of the remaining symbols of shared virtues and beliefs,” Ms. Diamonstein-Spielvogel said.

A worm protrudes from an apple in Mr. Baldessari’s version, because, he said, “I distrust the perfect apple.”

Ms. Caldwell’s features a floral bouquet instead of the traditional seal to represent “the bursting nonstop energy” of the city.

Ivan Chermayeff “I Have Thousands of Friends and All Their Owners Vote,” pen and ink and grease pencil on paper.

Mr. Chermayeff gives dogs their due, depicting one holding a city flag and asserting: “I have thousands of friends and all their owners vote.”

Mr. Cole’s is of black leather. Mr. Foster’s frames the circular seal in an apple. Mr. Glaser deconstructs the seal altogether.

Mr. Stern’s “explodes the original into a dashing 21st century encounter between a businessman and a tourist, two of the modern-day archetypes that come together to make our city strong.”

Mr. Wong submitted two designs, a monochromatic “Black Tie Flag: For the City That Never Sleeps” and another in which five horizontal bands represent the boroughs and vertical bands signify “a tale of two cities . . .all united.”

The benefit auction, titled “Unflagging Commitment,” will be preceded by an exhibition viewing for vexillologists and others at 6 p.m.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 6, 2014

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of one of the contributing artists. She is Michele Oka Doner, not Michelle.

Seeking an Unbiased Jury

Dear Diary:

The other month, doing our civic duty down on Centre Street, a fellow prospective juror and I proved the improbability of an unbiased jury.

The case was robbery with a possible weapon. During the voir dire, I sneaked looks at the defendant. I was moved by his sad, frightened expression, but it was his torn ski jacket with the synthetic filling bursting out that melted my heart.

Afterward, the 20 of us were instructed to wait in the hallway outside the courtroom. To break the glum silence I asked a bespectacled young man nearby if he thought he’d be able to be an impartial juror.

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “Right when I saw the defendant’s torn jacket I just knew he was guilty.”

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

New York Today: Beware of Widespread Black Ice

Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times Subways should run more smoothly, but watch out for icy platforms.

Good Thursday morning. Our wintry ordeal continues.

The road sludge has turned into ice. Black ice.

Here’s what you need to know:

- The storm headed out to sea, and cold air moved in. “Any kind of slush and standing water left froze hard overnight,” said Nelson Vaz, of the National Weather Service.

- A winter weather advisory, which warns of widespread black ice, is in effect until 10 a.m.

- The morning will be the most dangerous time, but there could be melting and refreezing throughout the day.

- Secondary streets and poorly shoveled sidewalks may be particularly slick. Get out the crampons, again.

- It will remain in the 20s all day, with a high of 28. It may stay below freezing through the weekend. But dry. No more freezing drizzle.

- Subways and commuter rails should be running on normal schedules. Check “Commute”  below for updates.

- Alternate-side parking is suspended.

- Schools are open in the city. Some suburban schools will open late. See list.

- The city’s schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, defended her decision not to close schools on Wednesday, saying, “What about the kids for whom the school is a safe haven?”

- Con Edison has asked customers in Harlem to avoid using extra lights and appliances like washers, dryers and dishwashers because of problems with electric cables.

- The city got an emergency shipment of 2,000 tons of salt before the storm. Mayor de Blasio said the city had plenty. But Governor Cuomo said the rest of the state was in danger of running out.

- Blood is in short supply. If you can donate, call (800) 933-2566 or go to nybloodcenter.org for details. Mayor de Blasio says he will donate.

- There has been a lot of talk about a major storm this weekend. That doesn’t seem likely, the National Weather Service said. Maybe some light snow.

COMMUTE

Subways: Check latest status.

Rails: Check L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor de Blasio makes an announcement at the Osborne Association, a nonprofit in the Bronx that helps former prisoners. 2:30 p.m.

- Goodfella’s Pizzeria in Staten Island donates a fork, which the pizza purveyors say the mayor used to eat pizza, to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. 11 a.m.

- The four-day Athena Film Festival â€" “a celebration of women and leadership” â€" begins at Barnard College. [$12 per film, $65 festival pass]

- Fashion Week opens with appearances by Tadashi Shoji, Marissa Webb and Todd Snyder. Lincoln Center and all over Manhattan. 9 a.m. [Live webstream]

- The Bergino Baseball Club auctions off baseball-card-based art to benefit a fitness programs for children. East Village. 6 p.m. [Free, with party]

- The prolific Joyce Carol Oates talks about her new book, “Carthage,” at Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn. 7 p.m. [Free, R.S.V.P]

- The Empire State Building wears red for American Heart Month. [Free, look up]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

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