Early this morning, Amsterdam Avenue and 68th Street, we passed a wall in front of a construction site we’ve passed many times, noticing that a swath of pure white had replaced the battalion of music and movie ads, a screaming invitation to anyone with a magic marker:
Then we saw this:
And felt guilty because—not sure why—we found it funny. Actually, we know why. For years, the easy outpouring of grief and patriotism and sport metaphor that immediately followed the attacks has sickened us (reportedly, fans who didn’t stand for “America the Beautiful” were beaten in Phoenix during a Diamondbacks-Yankees World Series game). The attack was reduced to a holier-than-thou pissing contest (Yes, that’s a mixed metaphor, but we don’t care), and a huge suppression of free speech (Bill Maher was nearly lynched for saying that the September 11 terrorists weren’t cowards). And then the moronic design contest for the Freedom Towers (Unknowns George Pataki and Larry Silverstein won), two wars and more than a hundred-thousand dead.
Tiny cartoon on Amsterdam Avenue, please jerk the jerks.