The Knicks of Time

Posted 12:00 M by Gerald So

Following up Wednesday night's 29-point comeback win, the New York Knicks closed out the 2026 NBA Finals tonight 94-90. It's been so long, I didn't want to post until all was said and done.

This playoff run reminded me of the dominant 1998 Yankees and the breakthrough 1996 Yankees, even-keel Mike Brown taking over for Tom Thibodeaux as Joe Torre succeeded Buck Showalter, OG Anunoby giving us an improbable win as Jim Leyritz homered off Mark Wohlers to turn the World Series.

I also thought of how the 2025-26 Knicks avoided some past contending Knicks teams' downfalls: Ewing's missed finger roll, Charles Smith's missed tip-ins, John Starks going cold from three in Game 7, all ghosts put to rest.

On the Nose

Posted 3:30 PM by Gerald So

Shortly after I joined Bluesky last year, I wanted to make my own cartoon avatar, not pay someone else to make it nor upload a photo to a cartoon generator.

First, I tried to apply my offline image editing program's cartoon filter and Inkscape's multi-scan Trace Bitmap:

Photo and image by Gerald So

Not only did it make a high-memory, complicated vector, a friend said it aged me.

From there, I studied line drawing on YouTube, adapting the techniques as Inkscape works more easily with closed shapes:

Image by Gerald So

Progressing from front-facing avatars to 3/4 view, I've found noses most challenging.

Image by Gerald So

Twice now, another friend has told me my 3/4 cartoons remind him of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" music video, blockier than I'm going for:




Over Memorial Day weekend, I changed my blog header cartoon's nose to a squiggle, a drawing flourish. Its width and color suggest depth, its curve one-of-a-kind shape.

Image by Gerald So

Like a Storybook Story

Posted 6:00 AM by Gerald So

Riding with my friends Deshant Paúl and Tracy Boni, last night we attended a surprise movie birthday party for our friend John Ricotta, a screening of THE PRINCESS BRIDE at South Bay Cinemas in West Babylon.

L to R: Deshant, me, Anando and Kian Paúl, John
Photo by Tracy Boni

As ever, I'm lucky to have known Deshant and John since we helped start a magazine at Hofstra more than thirty years ago.

John's first daughter Emma graduated college last week. His second daughter Julie sang the national anthem at Yankee Stadium last month. Meanwhile Deshant and Tracy's kids Anando and Kian are much sharper than I was at their age.

Another highlight was catching up with John's mother and uncle, who've been as welcoming to me as he has. Keeping to the 80s movie theme, my present to John was a copy of FUTURE BOY, Michael J. Fox's memoir of filming the first BACK TO THE FUTURE and the third season of FAMILY TIES.