[spectre] another take

[Michael Benson]

My brother Nick just wrote from 14th street, thankfully he's Ok. I thought
I'd forward part of the message to add another angle on the situation
in/around NYC:

Quite a surreal, slow-moving or still reaction scene,wherever you look.  A
lot of the place is completely normal-seeming, normal functioning - drug
stores, supermarkets, etc.  It's a spectacular day with just a huge pall of
thick smoke over downtown, and very little noise - no traffic, only the
occasional cop car and various other emergency type vehicles. The local
cable news has shown handheld type stuff of the whole affair from
street-level - it's something out of a Hollywood film, which must account
for the weird disconnect between what is happening and the nonchalant
reactions in a lot of the sub-twenty-five yr old set at LIU in
downtown Brooklyn.  The pall of smoke didn't happen to be invading their air
space, the tube played images of incredible destruction, and for a while, a
good half of the folks in the cafeteria did what they usually do (at the
usual high volume). As streams of people passed by outside, walking home
from Manhattan (and downtown Brooklyn, as the subways weren't working till
around 2), and as the tally of disasters started to accumulate, it finally
started to sink in, I guess.  
What next??

----
Regards, 
MB