From the day
Perspective: The Anxious Local · Sound
The crackle of the radio carries "The Sheik of Araby" over the biting winter wind, but it does little to drown out the panicked whispers about those new mechanical "robots" taking over the newsstands. I clutched my thin coat tighter, hearing a neighbor bark that some **stool pigeon** was already leaking rumors of another price hike down at the grocer. My hands shook as I counted out my last coins; paying **$0.11** for a single loaf of bread feels like a robbery that’s only getting worse. Between the grim headlines of Ireland’s bloody unrest and the rising cost of staying alive, every heavy footstep on the slushy pavement sounds like a threat.