From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound
The static on my neighbor’s new shortwave radio is enough to drive a man mad, especially when I'm trying to calculate how six-cent bread is eating my wages. I can hear him shouting over the crackle about that NC-4 plane reaching Lisbon, but all I hear is the screech of arc welding from the shipyard crews down the lane. I’d rather escape to the movies than fret over these rising prices, but even a snapshot of a good life feels like blowing bubbles that just pop. My wife is obsessed with that fancy pop-up toaster in the window, but with gas at fifteen cents, such gadgets seem like a lousy way to go broke.