Fall in Madison Square, New York City

Today was pretty quiet in Madison Square in Manhattan...makes sense after all the Halloween revelry of last night

 Golden tower of New York Life Insurance Building peeks out from behind trees that are starting to turn

 The Metropolitan Life Insurance tower still rises high above...except they are turning it into a luxury hotel and condos now

 Typically, people on cell phones everywhere...this man was pacing around edge of pond and I wondered if he was going to fall in for a second or two

 Many people sit around base of statue of Naval hero Stephen Farragut at Northern end of Park just enjoying the sun which finally began to shine in the afternoon

 These two women were trying to get good photos of the Flatiron Building

 And of course people were out with their dogs

 Tourists and shoppers sat around at the tables in the middle of Broadway off the Square

 And of course William Seward, man who engineered the buying of Alaska from the Russians, keeps watch at the South Entrance to the Square...

What is he had not been so determined to acquire Alaska for the United States?Most people were opposed to it initially-- "Seward's Ice Box," and "Seward's Folly" being the name fiscal conservatives put on it-- 

Today the same people are falling all over themselves trying to find new ways to make money out of Alaska...

And what would the Cold War have been like if Alaska had remained Russian?