This tradition stretches back for decades. Families gather, often huddled together in the chill of winter, strangers smile at one another, and in that moment there is a genuine sense of oneness. Behold the tree lighting up as onlookers and those at home forget the chaotic world around us through the magic of the moment - best reflected in the wondering eyes of the children who remind us why this and other holiday traditions matter.

It's all about the 'screens of reality' coming to life in the virtual hologram that connects us to our emotional selves - a shared experience reflecting the spiraling movement of time and light within the continuum of existence.

The Full Cold Supermoon at 13° Gemini arrives with sharp clarity and quickening energy, illuminating the dualities we've been juggling as the year winds down. Gemini's air element brings heightened communication, curiosity, and the need to express what has been brewing beneath the surface. Because it's a supermoon, emotions feel closer, conversations more meaningful, and synchronicities more noticeable.

This lunation highlights truth-seeking, decision-making, gathering information, and reconnecting with people or ideas that once guided your path. It also brings a sense of restless anticipation - the mind racing ahead while the body moves through colder, stiller days. Expect revelations, news, or insights that help you tie up loose ends before the next cycle begins.

As this Supermoon closes out the cycle, it opens a window into 2026 - a year where clarity hopefully replaces confusion, long-delayed choices finally move forward, and new connections guide you toward the next chapter of your personal and collective journey.

Later, as I walked down 4th Avenue where I live - my building seen on the far left closest to the Verrazano Bridge - I felt proud to be amongst the dozens of New York City fire fighters and others who came to honor my neighbor - retired FDNY deputy chief James Riches, 74, who died on Thanksgiving Day from a 9/11-related illness. Riches spent six months at ground zero digging through the rubble to find the body of his son, Jimmy, who was also a firefighter and died while responding to the attacks. Read the story.

I happen to turn on NY1 this morning just as the board made their long awaited announcement after many years of debate. As with everything else in a bipolar reality - there are those who were in favor of the casinos and others who were strong opposed. Other locations had been considered but were rejected. One of the Queens locations is already up and running, but it will be completely renovated.

Allegedly, casinos will bring revenue to all of NYS to be used for transportation, education, jobs, tourism, and more.

I was hoping they would accept the Coney Island bid, but that never happened. On September 29, 2025, the relevant local Community Advisory Committee - the body that evaluates whether a given casino proposal should advance - voted 4-2 against the Coney Island proposal.

That effectively disqualified it from moving forward in this round of license awards. They cited concerns that a casino would harm local businesses, worsen congestion, and fail to respond to what residents say the neighborhood really needs. In truth, I wondered about the congestion issue, because there is only one highway that goes to Coney Island - the Belt Parkway - which more often than not is bumper-to-bumper.

It could tie up traffic from north Brooklyn all the way to Long Island - also snarling traffic that crosses over the Verrazano Bridge and all points West. Many subways end at the Coney Island Station but most people are still not that comfortable with that mode of transportation.

I'm not a gambler, but I thought it would be fun to visit a local casino in Coney Island and see it's amusement areas, the boardwalk and beach, and a casino. Would the 'mob' be somehow involved? Sooner or later ..

NYT Monday - More than a decade after voters in New York approved commercial casinos in the state, a state board on Monday recommended licenses for three full-fledged casinos in New York City, one in the Bronx and two in Queens.

The selections fulfill a long-held dream by the gambling industry to break into the largest city in the United States and for New York to create a potentially lucrative tax stream.

The five-person New York Gaming Facility Location Board had been considering three bids for three available licenses - the Bally's, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Resorts World New York City bids - but the members were not required to approve any of them.

The board issued its recommendations on Monday and sent them to the state's gaming commission for final approval. The commission will vote on them by the end of the month. Absent some unexpected and highly unusual circumstance, the commission is expected to follow the board's recommendations.

The selection of Bally's could benefit President Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, had leased the city-owned land at Ferry Point on which the proposed facility would rise, next to a public golf course that the company used to operate. When the Trump Organization sold its remaining interest in the site to Bally's, the casino company promised to pay Trump's firm $115 million if it won a casino license. Read more ...

Welcome to Monday the first day of December - with Thanksgiving in the rearview - hopefully an enjoyable time for you and your family.

December is a mix of ... emotions, soul searching, climate and weather events, shopping and sightseeing, balancing work schedules and personal time to get away for the next round of holidays, or just letting life take you somewhere you normally wouldn't go - then allowing destiny to present an adventure.

Though 2025 has been a difficult year due to Trump and DOGE policies - and their far reaching global effects - it presented a mix of bipolar moments - logical and illogical events shaping how to navigate the end of the year and move into the next.

Trump rocked the boat - or should I say shot it down as with Venezuela - setting up another mix of conspiracies, lies, and redacted truths.

Many people will mix a drink or two to get through December and most likely 2026 as well - but in the end there's always hope or a mix of possibilities swirling just beyond the edge of awareness.

We are born to believe that 'the next' is going to be better than the present - that whatever achievements we made will be surpassed by the next generation of our making.

Mix the ingredients of your life together and see what happens. The answers will always come from science (mind) not emotions as reality is created by physics and math.

The case for an antimatter Manhattan project

Physicists create 'quantum wire' where mass and energy flow without friction or loss

New Research Shows How Entanglement Amplifies Light

The Trailer for Spielberg's next UFO movie will be released this month

What seven decades of hunting for aliens tells us

UFO-like drones targeted police helicopter over air base before vanishing: report

'No easy explanation': Scientists are debating a 70-year-old UFO mystery as new images come to light

UFO documentary pulls back curtain on psychological operation after decades of government cover-up: expert. Secretary of State Rubio among 34 government officials featured in 'The Age of Disclosure' film

The director of The Age of Disclosure, a new documentary that bills itself as revealing a decades-old government cover-up of non-human intelligence, suggested that the president could soon confirm the existence of aliens