From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound
The rhythmic racket of Irving Berlin’s "Alexander’s Ragtime Band" blares from the neighbor’s new gramophone, but I can hardly tap my toes when I’m staring at the baker’s window. I clutched my coin tight, heart sinking to see he’s demanding a full **$0.06** for a single loaf now; at this rate, my kitchen table will soon become a desolate "no man's land" where no decent meal ever lands. Between the roar of those terrifying new hydroplanes overhead and the news that the Holy Father is only just mending, the world feels far too loud and unstable. I tucked my bread under my arm and hurried home, the mechanical cough of a passing motor car’s electric starter making me jump nearly out of my skin.