New York City, December 4, 2014

★★★ Where dark and damp had wasted the mildness of the previous day, now brightness redeemed the chill. Shadows radiated in different directions; sun flashed off high windows. A turning mail truck sent spots of light dancing up and down the shady cross street. Contrails stretched out sharp and new or old and impossibly wide and cross-striated. A sheet of cloud moved in to the west, and a sunset-like orange glow appeared downriver before three in the afternoon. Then the cloud thinned out to blue again in time for a real sunset, small but luridly pink-shot. A halo surrounded the not-quite-full moon over Cooper Square. The breeze poked at the back of the neck. Helicopters hung in formation a short way downtown.