Minutes of Silence and Shafts of Light Recall New York's Dark Day New York Times, March 11, 2002 "Dusk now draped the city. The time had come. A girl named Valerie Webb, 12 years old and an orphan, turned to her left to throw a switch. Gradually they materialized: two soaring towers of light, defiantly piercing the night sky from the wounded western stretch of Lower Manhattan. These luminous ghosts, created by the strategic positioning of 88 high-powered searchlights, were the final tribute in a series of public efforts yesterday to remember what hardly had been forgotten. That exactly six months ago, on Sept. 11, a terrorist attack destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 2,800 people, including that young girl's gentlemanly father, Officer Nathaniel Webb of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey." I know there's some difference of opinion on the matter, as there always is, but I find this to be a fitting and incredibly moving tribute. And while it's obviously more about the people who lost their lives than the buildings that fell down, seeing those shafts of light made me realize again how amazing those twin towers once were, and how much I missed seeing them on the skyline. The Tribute in Light will be up through April 13th, at which point it will be shut off forever. I look forward to seeing the memorial from my apartment window when I return to the city this weekend. |
Tuesday . March 12 . 2002 . 8:50pm |
drug whore I wish I had my camera so that I could show you all some photos of Crapville USA. I think you would find them amusing, were you the sort to be amused by scenes of out-of-date suburban decay. Everything here reminds me of the bank in Edward Scissorhands, where Edward goes to get a loan to open up his salon. (His hands? Were scissors!) You know, that vast, blank slate of dingy tan stucco wall with rusting metal letters spelling out the word BANK. Welcome to my new life. The hospital is pretty nice, though. Everything is very new and glossy and color-coordinated. Most impressive to me, somehow, is the wall behind the main reception desk, which features this really sweet minimalistic fountain, consisting of a thin sheet of water coursing down a sheer marble slate, not unlike Maya Lin's Civil Rights Memorial in Washington DC. And the clinics are really nice, with big, clean, well-furnished and equipped rooms. The difference between the hospital and the rest of the town is quite stark, actually. Which begs the question: if the hospital has so much money, why can't they donate some of it towards the cause of building a decent supermarket somewhere in the vicinity? Currently, the only supermarket within a 10 block radius is Lupe's, which while amusing (mostly because of the giant, blinking red-and- white neon sign that screams L PE'S), seems only to stock cans of Goya beans and all fifteen flavors of Utz snack chips. My home hospital in New York is somewhat strict with drug reps, in that they feel that doctors are unduly influenced by pharmaceutical advertising and thus seek to minimize this effect by limiting the contact reps have with the housestaff. However, these rules don't apply out here, and so everyone here seems to be racking up the free drug goods. Drug pads, drug pens, drug clipboards, drug clocks. How brilliant and subversive is it, by the way, to put the name of your product on a free clock displayed prominently on the wall of a doctor's office? Everyone's looking at your product name constantly, all the while cursing out the doctors for keeping them waiting. My new project is to amass a collection of drug pens. You know, just as a sociological project. So far, during my stay here, I've collected three: two for a type of hypertension medication, and one for an antipsychotic. They're purty. I know that doctors are influenced by advertising. I know it's wrong, and that it's driving up health care costs. I know that the company that patented Claritin spent more money marketing its drug the first year it came out than the Coca Cola company spent advertising Coke worldwide. And I know that with each pen, pad, clipboard, mug, tote bag I take from the reps, I'm just turning myself into a drug whore. I'm selling my body to the night. But man, I admit that I do covet all that drug stuff. And no one has yet offered me something as cool as a tote bag. Can't I just tape over the trade name of the drug and any other identifying advertising features, and all will be forgiven? xo Michelle |
Bikini Briefs |
Minutes of Silence and Shafts of Light Recall New York's Dark Day New York Times, March 11, 2002 "Dusk now draped the city. The time had come. A girl named Valerie Webb, 12 years old and an orphan, turned to her left to throw a switch. Gradually they materialized: two soaring towers of light, defiantly piercing the night sky from the wounded western stretch of Lower Manhattan. These luminous ghosts, created by the strategic positioning of 88 high-powered searchlights, were the final tribute in a series of public efforts yesterday to remember what hardly had been forgotten. That exactly six months ago, on Sept. 11, a terrorist attack destroyed the World Trade Center and killed more than 2,800 people, including that young girl's gentlemanly father, Officer Nathaniel Webb of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey." I know there's some difference of opinion on the matter, as there always is, but I find this to be a fitting and incredibly moving tribute. And while it's obviously more about the people who lost their lives than the buildings that fell down, seeing those shafts of light made me realize again how amazing those twin towers once were, and how much I missed seeing them on the skyline. The Tribute in Light will be up through April 13th, at which point it will be shut off forever. I look forward to seeing the memorial from my apartment window when I return to the city this weekend. |
