Bronx Zoo

So a couple of weeks ago, on a pleasant day (ok it was the Western world's Easter), me and my roommate went to the Bronx Zoo...along with every Orthodox Jew in NYC. We assume they had the same idea that we did — with all the gentiles slung up in church, there wouldn't be big crowds at the zoo.

The zoo was awesome and though we spent four hours there we didn't see everything there was to see on the cheapest ticket you could buy ($15). My favorite parts were the seals, the penguin feeding and leopards playing.



The worst part by far was the polar bear exhibit. I felt so bad for that bear. He looked 100 years old and so sad and lonely laying on concrete by himself. A lot of the zoo has been updated for modern times to put the animals in more natural habitats. His, however, was really old school. It hurt my heart.


And made me especially fond of the Memphis Zoo, which is by far the best zoo I've ever been to. It's habitats are uber natural. And the polar bears in particular seem to be having an incredible time, frolicking around, swimming and charging the glass at little kids/lunch. Plus, Memphis has pandas. Real pandas...not the fake red ones.

Bucky abroad, Bucky hoping to still have a job

Sorry I've been long absent. I was on forced leave by my job — cost cutting measures; we were all required to take a week of unpaid "furlough" — and so I spent it on the couch of my friend who lives in England. This was surprisingly cheaper than you might think. The ticket wasn't much more than what I pay to visit my parents down south and I spent less than I would have if I were at home too.

So upon my return to work, I was told we were being forced to take a second week of furlough (in the second quarter) and they needed to know what week I was taking right away. (Those who make $90,000 and over must take two weeks. I, naturally, make nothing close to that.) I already had a week off for vacation so I just chose that week. We also found out that starting April 1 there will be no more raises, at least through March 31, 2010. My review and thus raise? In April.

Then yesterday we found out that we were being "hubbed" like the company has done to the New Jersey papers and our copy desk and graphics department would essentially be fired and the Journal News in Westchester County would pick up production. There will be a few "new" job openings down there that our people were "welcome" to apply for. Obviously there will be fewer jobs than we have people. That's all they know of for now, but if we go the way of Jersey, then apparently ALL the editing jobs will move to Westchester (including mine) and they'll eliminate the positions of executive editor and publisher at our paper. So essentially they're asking our publisher and editor to help bring to fruition a project that will eliminate their jobs.

For more on this delightful trend, visit the Gannett Blog. (Not affiliated with the company, much to its chagrin.)