New York City, March 3, 2016

★★ The sun laid a chilly shine over the pavement to the east. A dog stood in a doggy coat, its bare hind legs trembling. Six blocks to the pre-K and six blocks back was enough to make the cold subcutaneous. In the West 60s it was possible to stay bareheaded but when the wind blew through the treeless stretch of cross street downtown, the hood had to come up. Clouds halfway formed, slowly, to whiten the early afternoon sky. Steadily and uninterestingly the white became gray, then gray streaked with darker gray. A woman in a short fur poncho stepped out into Broadway and raised an arm and with it the hemline, hailing a cab.