New York City, September 23, 2012

★★★★ Squarely over the equinox. The baby needed socks and something other than a summer romper — a whole new set of problems to be solved. The sky was as the sky should be; the glaze on a white-brick apartment building shimmered. Then there were white smudges in a thick band across the blue: skywriting, with the wind pulling the letters into illegibility nearly as soon as they were puffed out. The readable part appeared to say “TWITTER RT.” Later, indoors and out of analog space, the actual Twitter would explain it had been a protest against Mitt Romney and funding cuts for the arts. So here we are, when would-be critics of unchecked philistine plutocracy feel compelled or entitled to scrawl advertising across the clear public skies. On the playground, older boys filled water balloons and poured them down the slides, to slick up the metal for extra speed. Then they went away, leaving chilly puddles all over everything, for someone else to deal with.