Two Weeks On

Even as things feel like they’re getting back to normal here in NYC, some strangeness remains in the air. I was shopping at Whole Foods Market (hmm, was that a “Blue State” thing to be doing?) and I got a brand new shiny Texas quarter in change. For a moment I stared at it as if it had Queen Elizabeth on it, wondering if it was legal tender.

Then I passed a middle-aged woman on the street carrying a small dog in one hand, and in the other, a paperback book with Dick Cheney and some others on the cover, bearing a title with the word “Satan” in it. Wish I could remember the whole title, but it looked like one of those religious trade paperbacks they sell from stands on the street.

I really wondered if I had imagined it. A lot of people don’t like Bush-Cheney, but was I in some alternate Universe of Excess?