From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sight
The nickel loaf is getting thinner, and I swear those headlines about reindeer chasing pygmies up trees in the Bronx Zoo are a sign of the world gone mad. I clutched my thin jacket tight against the autumn chill, watching the gaslights flicker over a crowd obsessively humming *You're a Grand Old Flag* near the phonograph shop. Despite the skyrocketing prices, my neighbor looks fit as a fiddle in his starched collar, likely off to spend his last dime on a new deck of Rook cards. I can only stare at the bold, inked letters of the morning paper and pray this uneasy peace holds through the winter.