New York City, September 25, 2012

★★★★ Not exhilarating, but punctuated with subtle loveliness whenever the day seemed about to vanish into its own background. Down on Grand Street, around midday, the sun made it impossible to read a smartphone screen, forcing the gadget back into a pocket and the eyes onto the storefronts and the passing people. On Lafayette, at the end of work, the breeze pulled a vein of grilling smell the length of a block behind a closed and departing food cart. And dusk over 72nd Street was a deep, calm, glass-bottle blue.