New York City, May 20, 2013

★★★ The morning fog was thick and forbidding, but the pavement was merely damp. The mistrustful kindergartener, preparing to go out the door, could be shown that people were down there without umbrellas. Soon enough, the worst had burned away, leaving only a lingering mist on the river and haze in the streets. By late morning, there were only a few scaly patches of cloud in a blue downtown sky. Motorcycles and bicycles came out; greenery twined in a bike’s basket. Below Houston, shorts were out: baggy tourist shorts, short-shorts, culottes, everyone’s own idea of ventilation or liberation. Uptown, in the evening rush, people seemed to be mostly still wearing the pants in which they’d gone off to work.