New York City, August 18, 2016

★★★ It was surprising, in the gray and tepid morning, to see how clear the air was: the buildings down Broadway flattening inton one another in the hazeless atmosphere. The subway was still hot and foul. Up on Fifth Avenue, young people in shorts with luggage were lined up at outdoor tables to check into their dorm and begin their future. When the time came to get up and go take a walk around the block, it was under more gray, the temperature numbly indeterminate. Some sun came on, indifferently at first and then richly. The light rattled along the top of the Astor, over details drawn and wrought by people now long dead.