Saturday,
October 13, 2001
Maybe it has to do with proximity. Even
when we think we've had enough, photos from the WTC attack
draw us back in. Denise and I ate brunch in SoHo today, then
walked up Prince Street. We came across the Here
is New York exhibit at 116 Prince Street. These are powerful
photos taken by amateurs and pros alike. All are for sale,
and the proceeds benefit the relief efforts.
Friday,
October 12, 2001
New York Like I pictured it, more or less
For the last few days, as I exited the train at Bowling Green,
there's been an MTA staffer announcing "PLEASE EXIT THROUGH
THE SERVICE GATE...PLEASE EXIT THROUGH THE SERVICE GATE..."
The metrocard turnstiles are set to show a red bar and the
words "No Exit." This morning, I watched nearly a dozen people
go through those gates anyway. It would have been entertaining
to see those gates set so that they wouldn't reverse. When
you hit one of those bars and it doesn't move, you buckle
forward at the waist. Been there, done that.
Just beyond the turnstiles, I heard two blaze-orange-vested
transit workers discussing an altercation between two women.
One bumped into or crowded the other, and the fur flew. Sounds
like somebody had to peel the two of them apart. Guess we're
back to thinking mostly of ourselves.
:::
Not for ten million bucks...
Before it's all over, this may turn out to be a major diplomatic
scandal. Couldn't that Saudi prince have just made his contribution,
without adding another two cents on US policy? Wasn't Washington
the proper place to offer such advice?
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud, of Saudi
Arabia, gave the mayor a $10 million check for the Twin Towers
Fund, a charity set up by Mr. Giuliani primarily for survivors
of uniformed workers who died. Attatched to the check was
a letter of condolence, and a separate press release, which
suggested a connection between the attacks and US policy in
the Middle East.
The Prince also went on "Moneyline" with Lou Dobbs, and had
this to say: "Favoritism to Israel is not helping a lot, because
you have to understand that those Arab people who watch Palestinians
every day being slaughtered in the tents, and they believe
truly that the United States is the main backer of Israel."
Accounts say that the Mayor's Office consulted the State
Department about what to do with the check, but the State
Department didn't offer any official ruling, because it wasn't
a US Government matter. A New
York Times report cites an annonymous source who said
"In terms of remarks linking the attacks to our policy, we
object to Prince Alwaleed's remarks and find them highly inappropriate."
The Mayor's response: "There is no moral equivalent for this
act...The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification
for it when they slaughtered 4,000 or 5,000 innocent people.
And to suggest that there's a justification for it only invites
this happening in the future. It is highly irresponsible and
very, very dangerous."
:::
Denise and I went to dinner in SoHo last night at a nice
little Italian place called l'Ulivio. Dinner was very nice.
There wasn't much of a crowd, even at peak time. I suspect
business in the area is still a bit depressed. None of the
restaurants seemed to be doing much business last night. They
comped us on a big piece of Tiramisu. Around the time the
coffee came, the wind picked up, and smelled strongly of smoke.
It was definitely coming from Ground Zero. The smoke smells
more woody now, not that eery electical fire smell of the
early days. The smell hung over us like a ghost all the way
to the subway station.
:::
Denise just called a couple of minutes
ago. The first words out of her mouth were "I'm still alive."
"Huh?" I said. She said "I shouldn't joke about this... there
are reports that they found a case of antrhax in Rockefeller
Center..." I'll post more when I find out more.
It's confirmed. An NBC staffer has a skin-based version of
anthrax. She's responding well to treatment. (ABC
News report)
I just found a very interesting site:
Usermagnet's Vigil
on Terrorism. The site bills itself as "Continuous, constantly
updated, dynamic coverage of emerging news from thousands
of online sources around the world." They claim to have an
automated system to harvest information from more than 7500
sources.
The end of an era? Polaroid
filed Chapter 11 today. Key
dates
... and the beginning of a new one... It's cheaper than surgery,
less taxing than a workout. What is it? The
wonderbum. [ehem - have
another look]
The product promises ``a perfectly peachy,
pert bottom,'' according to makers DuPont Lycra. Here's the
full scoop on this uplifting technology.
Sometimes, an insinuation can be as scary as weapon fire.
I heard today that a suspicious package arrived at a building
associated with one of the stock markets nearby, and the whole
building was evacuated.
In the elevator this afternoon, I saw
a man with two boxes about the size of a Kleenex box, labeled
"Alpine." I commented on the boxes, and he told me that they're
latex gloves-- They want the mail room people to wear them
to reduce the risk of contacting something ... Of course,
gloves alone won't do much if they're dealing with contaminants.
Thursday,
October 11, 2001
Today, they took down the temporary cell phone tower on Broad
Street. I think its sibling unit on Water Street was taken
down a couple of days ago, but a competitor's temporary cell
site is still up. How do I know? The antennas are a different
shape from the ones that just came down.
The health club has also taken down its signs offering relief
workers free massages and a place to shower/sleep/change.
The large flag that shredded on its marquee has been replaced
with a smaller one, which has been hung in what appears to
be a less damage-prone location. The signs of praise and support
from school children have also been removed. Life goes on.
:::
Ever wonder how
a cruise missle works? You can find out at HowStuffWorks.
:::
The more things change...
the more they stay the same. I was young when Woodstock happened.
I have friends who were on campus the day the National Guard
opened fire on students at Kent State University. There was
a sentiment of protest about our prolonged involvement in
the Viet Nam war. At that time, the press had been very effective
in illustrating what was not working about our policies in
Southeast Asia, and the tide had turned. This time, the press
is very much in favor of the war effort, and perhaps that's
the appropriate response.
Still, the fact remains that we're all human. As Prince wrote,
"cut you, cut me - both the blood is red." You would think
that some day, we might evolve beyond the cycle of domination,
escalation, warfare, and holy crusades... I didn't really
understand or appreciate this song when it was new, but it
means something to me now:
Woodstock
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, 'Tell where are you going?'
This he told me
Said, 'I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
'Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning.
And maybe it's the time of year,
Yes and maybe it's the time of man.
And I don't know who I am,
But life is for learning.'
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon.
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil's bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
- JONI MITCHELL (c)1966-69 Siquomb Publishing Co. BMI
A while back, I posted an entry about
art and humor. Dave Winer uncovers how it's
not the first time that guy's been in trouble....
Looks like other folks are watching "Enterprise",
too. Here's an interesting
insight on potential future story lines.
Today was my 2-year anniversary at work.
One of my bosses just handed me a bigger box of Godiva. I
still think it's a better deal than roses. Fortunately, I'm
not too concerned about my weight or my teeth.
Wednesday,
October 10, 2001
Are you a storyteller? If you write, you are. I just found
out about a site called storyXchange
-- an online marketplace for stories. There's also {fray},
which is all about stories.
:::
Today, I exchanged "Where were you when?" stories
with Kenny and Stuart. Stuart works on an inside office in
my building-- he's got no windows. The first he knew anything
was happening, was when his wife called him to make sure he
was OK. By the time he walked out of his office, much of the
building was already evacuating. It seemed as if no one was
left on his floor. He walked into a window office, and looked
at the first tower, engulfed in smoke. He left the office,
and ran down the hall. As he ran, he heard the boom of the
second plane.
Kenny said that some of the people with window offices actually
felt a shudder when the planes hit. He and Stuart were in
the lobby when the first tower collapsed. He talked about
how it was suddenly pitch black out there. Kenny said "They
turned it from morning to midnight in a few seconds."
One of the women from Human resources had a radio, and was
listening to what was going on through earphones. Kenny said
she looked up and said "it's gone." People were
asking what she was talking about - they couldn't fathom at
first. She said again "the tower came down - it's gone."
Tears were trickling from her eyes.
Shortly after that, Mario came in through the revolving doors.
Kenny saw him come in. He said people were thinking Mario
might be hurt, because he was completely covered in ash, and
walking slowly. The security people were concerned that his
physical condition was scaring people. They quickly took him
downstairs to get him cleaned-up.
:::
The New
York City Marathon is coming soon (11/4). The race passes
quite close to our apartment. We'll be there to check it out.
It's an amazing spectacle.
This year, it's "dedicated to the victims of the tragic
events of September 11 and to the rescuers who have inspired
the world with their dedication." (more)
There is one thing I need to warn you about this site- it
suffers from microfontosis: that annoying phenomenon of using
really small fonts that don't resize. I ended up copying the
text into SimpleText, just to be able to read it. What a drag.
:::
Episode 3 of "Enterprise" was sufficiently dramatic.
The tension was good. I really thought there were creatures
in the rocks. The story line wasn't overly predictable, and
the characters seem to have more psychological depth than
previous "generations" of Star Trek. I hope this
keeps up.
Tuesday,
October 09, 2001
Just about this time, 4 weeks ago, the
second World Trade Center tower collapsed.
Today was the first day of school for the students of Stuyvesant
High, since September 11. It's located at the top of the Battery
Park City area. The headlines of the New York Post today scream
"Anthrax Epidemic." I heard two more stories of September
11 from people I know yesterday.
:::
I looked up to see Robert standing next to me. He had recognized
me through the window of a coffee shop as he passed by yesterday.
We exchanged a warm greeting and started to get caught-up.
The last time I'd seen him was months ago in Brooklyn Heights.
Suddenly it hit me: "You lived in Battery Park City, didn't
you?" I said. "I live there", he said. Yesterday was
the first time he's been back. He spent most of the last four
weeks living out of his office in New Jersey.
He said." ... I was standing on the balcony of my condo,
looking right at it when the first tower collapsed. My feet
went like this..." He took a posture with his feet parallel,
about shoulder width apart, knees locked, hands bracing himself
as if holding a rail. His face went slack-jawed. This was
a clear demonstration of sense memory. His entire body will
never forget that moment. He was acting out the moment, not
just telling it.
After that, he grabbed some stuff, opened his folding bike,
and left the area. He pedaled across the Brooklyn Bridge,
and spent the first night with friends. I asked him about
his apartment. "Horrible," he said "... dust everywhere this
high." He made a gesture with his hand - it looked like there
was about 10 inches of dust. I think he'd had enough of talking
about it after that. He quickly excused himself, and disappeared
down the street.
:::
Mario is a nice guy who works in the IS department. He could
see the towers on fire from the train, as they crossed the
bridge into Manhattan from Brooklyn. The conductor had told
the passengers that a plane had crashed into the tower. I
think everyone thought it was a small plane at that point.
When Mario got off the train, he realized that the fire was
serious. He said he felt the earth shake, and then there was
a hot wind. He mentioned how hot it was a couple of times.
He didn't mention running or screaming, or dust. When I asked
him if he got covered in dust, he said "oh, yes."
He made his way down to the office, where dozens of people
were herded into the basement gym. They stayed there for several
hours, watching events unfold on the large screen TVs that
were mounted all over the room. Mario said everyone looked
dazed. Eventually, everyone was told that they couldn't stay
there; that if they could get home, they should go. There
was no food available, so they'd have to leave the building
at the least.
He told me that when he came back out of the building there
had been about 4 inches of ash and paper everywhere. I think
he said it looked like a war zone. I know he referred to September
11 as the day the war started.
:::
Headed home after a long shift. This recovery worker said
that they're reducing the shifts to 8 hours. Besides the
koala bear, his gear included the obligatory dust mask,
heavy work gloves and a backpack - apparently full of
dirty clothes. |
A little while ago, we got an e-mail detailing how to evacuate
the building. When I was in first and second grade, we had
air raid drills. These precautions have that kind of feeling
about them. Despite the speeches in the early days since September
11, our way of life and our consciousness have been altered
forever.
:::
Troubling thoughts keep coming back to me: It takes something
to enrage a people so much that they spend five years plotting
massive carnage. For years, we weren't told the truth about
Viet Nam. bin Laden has been cast as a madman, but what would
drive him so mad? In short, what's wrong with this picture?
Here
is some some insight from The
Guardian
:::
Conventional wisdom says "When the going
gets tough, the tough go shopping." Or
do they?
According to reports, it took a million dollars to clean
up Stuyvesant high school alone.
John Lennon was born 61 years ago today.
Monday,
October 08, 2001
It's late, but I couldn't resist making an entry... Minutes
after President Bush had made the announcement, I found out
that we'd begun shooting over in Afghanistan.
Part of my afternoon was spent with about a half-dozen people,
many of us recounting our experince of first finding out about
the September 11 attack.
We watched some of the CNN coverage. Someone went to a lot
of trouble to get the closed captioning turned-on so that
we didn't have to worry about the volume. At some point we
noticed how badly garbled some of the captions got, because
the people typing them couldn't keep up with the dialog. Good
thing we weren't actually relying on those captions...
We all watched carefully as the video of Bin Laden played.
I have my doubts about whether the message had been recorded
earlier in the day. I also took his threats as anything but
idle. Some of his words were blood-chilling.
The animated graphics depicting the ordinance being used
looked like they came straight out of a video game. They cost
about a million bucks a pop, and we probably popped 50 or
so today. In all the talk of the destructive power of these
weapons, the commentators mentioned destroying buildings for
the most part. At one point, someone was talking about how
you can put a cluster bomb warhead on one of the cruise missiles,
for those situations where you're targeting personnel... "Personnnel"
is people. It doesn't seem as though Bin Laden's talk of killing
is so sanitized.
This evening, I came home via Union Square. It's the first
time I've been by since the nightly vigils began there. My
friend Warren has been there several times, and he commented
on how different the gathering and the display is, now.
Someone was playing guitar, and a separate circle of people
seemed to be having an agitated discussion about military
action versus nonviolence. An amateur camera man and his boom-mike-wielding
assistant were on hand to film the whole thing.
There was a long banner sponsored by a radio station - I
think they're from Indiana - draped around a fence. It's still
odd to me when commercial ventures get into the philanthropy
business. The radio station logos looked garish in this context.
They diminished the sentiment expressed in the handwritten
messages on the banner.
As we left Union Square, Warren commented that the name of
the park never seemed more appropriate. Our unity is being
tested.
The other thing I did on the way home
tonight, was pick up a copy of the New York Times. The headline
read "Bush Says Time is Running Out..." The headline was out
of date, by the time many Sunday Times readers were finishing
their brunch.
Emmy: No, Columbus: Yes
We continue to struggle with what constitutes "appropriate
behavior" in these times. On the west coast, the television
industry has become self-conscious, and has cancelled the
ceremony that was postponed and redesigned a few weeks ago.
Closer to Ground Zero, the parade is almost an act of defiance.
For years, Columbus Day has been increasingly marginalized.
I wonder what the impact will be on this years event.
Last year, Denise and I went to see "Cabaret". As it sinks
in just how long this conflict might go on, complete with
the 100% probability of further terrorist strikes right in
our "back yards", I begin to see parallels between the way
we're living now, and what life must have been like in Paris,
Berlin, and London in the early '40s. Rudy Giuliani has been
on TV, talking about "heightened alert," and many of my friends
are wondering aloud what that means.
When I got on the bus this morning, the driver had an open
newspaper in his lap. I think he snuck a look every time he
stopped for a light, or had to wait for passengers to board.
The paper was open to a page-high picture of Bin Laden. I
wonder if Hitler was depicted as often.
Flashing back to yesterday, I recall watching CNN. A General
was the talking head of the moment, and he was seated in front
of a map. A lage label on the map pointed to a city named
"Herat." For a moment, the label looked to me as if it read
"Heart." My thought was: they're striking back at the heart
of the Taliban.
Further back to Saturday: Denise and I were in a seminar
on home buying. An insurance specialist was the speaker, and
he provided some interesting information related to the September
11 attacks:
- He'd just gotten phone service back on Friday. His, and
many others' cell phone bills for this month will be astronomical.
Many people were unprepared for this
- Most of the residents of Battery Park City didn't have
homeowner's insurance - that would have covered things like
getting new work clothes, paying for a place to stay until
they could move back in, and dealing with clean-up and replacement
of the things taken from their ransacked apartments
- Because it was a warm day, many residents left their windows
open that day. They returned home to find the place covered
with dust - that dust will probably need to be removed by
hazardous materials specialists
Other battle news
Remember the big story about the mega corporation that abused
its monopoly power, accorting to two courts? Microsoft
is back in the news, after about a 3-week hiatus. Still no
settlement in sight. Both sides have lawyered-up further.
As I rode the bus this morning, I heard two men speaking in
Spanish, who seemed to be very engrossed in conversation.
I probably know a dozen or so Spanish words, so I didn't expect
to understand their conversation. As they talked, though,
very recognizable words and phrases in English peppered their
discussion: "hackers"..."Bill Gates"..."hacker"..."Apple"..."graphic
user interface"...
The new spy game
I grew up on James Bond. For most of the series, the bread-and-butter
of the story line has revolved around the cold war and its
fallout. In "The World is Not Enough", the writers updated
the plot lines and villainy to include international oil interests
and terrorism, a fitting parallel to what's really going on
now. There is even one dramatic desert battle scene. Through
it all, James rises to the occasion, and foils the sinister
plot. Too bad our real spy organizations didn't update as
well as James.
Take this, for example: on August 11, the FBI arrested a
man named Zacarias Moussaoui, 34, a French Moroccan who wanted
to learn how to steer a jetliner, but not how to land or take
off... He offered $8,000 in cash for the instruction.
Somewhere around Sept. 1, French intelligence cabled the
US, indicating that Moussaoui was linked to "radical Islamic
extremists" and that he had recently spent two months in Pakistan...
which is a common route taken by people on their way to be
trained at terrorist camps in Afghanistan.
Agents couldn't search this guy's home or get wiretaps because
laws and policies put in place to compensate for the abuses
of the Nixon era prevented it.
Read more about this:
Star
Telegram
Star
Tribune
MSNBC/Newsweek
The rockets' red glare
CNN's site includes maps and
a "missile gallery," in case you want to know exactly what
kind of rocks they're throwing, and where. As the WTC attack
made clear, we're all involved, whether we like the idea or
not; still I am uncomfortable with the phrases like "America
fights back" being used in the media. For now, I still prefer
to speak of the military personnel doing the actual fighting
as "they," instead of "we." I think it's one of the few ways
that I can maintain a degree of detachment. I slip into "we"
from time to time, though.
Remember the Kursk? It's
going home now.
We just got the announcement about Ivy's
daughter Yvette. They found her remains at the World Trade
Center. There will be a visiting period at the funeral home
tomorrow. It pretty much goes without saying that this will
be a closed-casket event.
|
