I spent a little bit of time in Central Park before heading to MoMa on Presidents' Day. Can you get any more idyllic than Central Park covered with snow? It was gorgeous and watching all these people from afar, I could almost envision a Norman Rockwell scene: The kids throwing snowballs, snowmen standing sentry from the side of the hills, the guy taking a picture of his son, people walking around holding hands.


I walked down into the park and noticed a group of people crowding around and peering into a little cave off the walkway. This was looking back at us:


And then I spent about twenty minutes hanging around eavesdropping on the crowd's conversations, which went something like this:

"What's that?"

"I don't know. Do you?"

"It's an animal."

"I know it's an animal. What kind of animal is it?"

"I have no idea."

"Is it a badger?"

"Oh, I hope it's not a badger, I heard those are mean."

"I don't think it's a badger."

"Do you know what kind of animal that is?"

"Nah, I don't know."

"Maybe it's a rat."

"I don't think rats get that big."

"...."

"Porcupine?"

And finally, our little ring-tailed friend went back in his cave, possibly to look for this book to loan to the New Yorkers who have no idea what a raccoon looks like.