From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound
Gadzooks, the morning paper says sugar prices are set to soar with the British stalling in Brussels, and I can already hear the groans of the baker next door. Between the clatter of horse hooves on the frozen cobblestones and the neighbor’s phonograph blaring "Bill Bailey" for the hundredth time, my nerves are frayed to a thin wire. I stepped into the shop to escape the racket, only to find a shelf full of those new, stitched-up **Teddy Bears** staring back at me with unblinking eyes. They cost nearly a week’s bread, a ransom I can’t afford while every headline screams of impending shortages and rising costs.